From Publishers Weekly
For Graywolf's second short story annual, Walker has collected work by some of the most talented women writing fiction today: Alice Adams, Bobbie Ann Mason, Louise Erdrich et al. Except for an unpublished Jane Bowles fragment and an early story by Alice Munro, the selections were written in the last year or two; the constants running through them are the primacy of money and the uncertainty of everything else in life. Among the many notable entries, Laurie Colwin's "Old Flames" stands out for its sharply etched images, like a memorable scene from an otherwise forgotten film. Ann Beattie's "Cards" is effective in suggesting the future of the lives the story only glimpses and Elizabeth Tallent's sad and funny "Black Holes" lovingly limns the gaps between a parent's caution and care and a child's unlimited imagination of disaster. JanuaryCopyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Book Description
The Graywolf Annual Two: Short Stories by Women

Thirteen stories by some of today's finest writers are presented in this second Graywolf Annual, which evokes the wide and varied range of contemporary women's experience. In Susan Minot's story, "The Navigator," a young girl tells of her family's painful struggle against her father's alcoholism. Louise Erdrich portrays a woman's plight as a single parent, her sudden abandonment of her children for a stunt flyer, and the children's subsequent journey toward separate homes. "Blue Country" by Bobbie Ann Mason presents a woman who, while attending the wedding of an old friend, receives news of her grandmother's long-awaited death. Stories by Anne Beattie, Laurie Colwin, Elizabeth Tallent, Alice Adams, and others explore the rich complexity and the frequent contradictions of contemporary life.


From the Back Cover
The Graywolf Annual Two: Short Stories by Women

"Among the literary presses, the Graywolf Annual has developed a reputation for quality."--Seattle Times/Seattle Post-Intelligence

Thirteen stories by some of today's finest writers are presented in this second Graywolf Annual, which evokes the wide and varied range of contemporary women's experience. In Susan Minot's story, "The Navigator," a young girl tells of her family's painful struggle against her father's alcoholism. Louise Erdrich portrays a woman's plight as a single parent, her sudden abandonment of her children for a stunt flyer, and the children's subsequent journey toward separate homes. "Blue Country" by Bobbie Ann Mason presents a woman who, while attending the wedding of an old friend, receives news of her grandmother's long-awaited death. Stories by Anne Beattie, Laurie Colwin, Elizabeth Tallent, Alice Adams, and others explore the rich complexity and the frequent contradictions of contemporary life.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Thirteen stories by some of today's finest writers are presented in this second Graywolf Annual, which evokes the wide and varied range of contemporary women's experience. In Susan Minot's story, "The Navigator," a young girl tells of her family's painful struggle against her father's alcoholism. Louise Erdrich portrays a woman's plight as a single parent, her sudden abandonment of her children for a stunt flyer, and the children's subsequent journey toward separate homes. "Blue Country" by Bobbie Ann Mason presents a woman who, while attending the wedding of an old friend, receives news of her grandmother's long-awaited death. Stories by Anne Beattie, Laurie Colwin, Elizabeth Tallent, Alice Adams, and others explore the rich complexity and the frequent contradictions of contemporary life.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly