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Whatever Happened to Interracial Love?: Stories
Azioni libro
Inizia a leggereDescrizione
Now available in Ecco’s Art of the Story series: a never-before-published collection of stories from a brilliant yet little known African American artist and filmmaker—a contemporary of revered writers including Toni Cade Bambara, Laurie Colwin, Ann Beattie, Amy Hempel, and Grace Paley—whose prescient work has recently resurfaced to wide acclaim
Humorous, poignant, perceptive, and full of grace, Kathleen Collins’s stories masterfully blend the quotidian and the profound in a personal, intimate way, exploring deep, far-reaching issues—race, gender, family, and sexuality—that shape the ordinary moments in our lives.
In “The Uncle,” a young girl who idolizes her handsome uncle and his beautiful wife makes a haunting discovery about their lives. In “Only Once,” a woman reminisces about her charming daredevil of a lover and his ultimate—and final—act of foolishness. Collins’s work seamlessly integrates the African-American experience in her characters’ lives, creating rich, devastatingly familiar, full-bodied men, women, and children who transcend the symbolic, penetrating both the reader’s head and heart.
Both contemporary and timeless, Whatever Happened to Interracial Love? is a major addition to the literary canon, and is sure to earn Kathleen Collins the widespread recognition she is long overdue.
Azioni libro
Inizia a leggereInformazioni sul libro
Whatever Happened to Interracial Love?: Stories
Descrizione
Now available in Ecco’s Art of the Story series: a never-before-published collection of stories from a brilliant yet little known African American artist and filmmaker—a contemporary of revered writers including Toni Cade Bambara, Laurie Colwin, Ann Beattie, Amy Hempel, and Grace Paley—whose prescient work has recently resurfaced to wide acclaim
Humorous, poignant, perceptive, and full of grace, Kathleen Collins’s stories masterfully blend the quotidian and the profound in a personal, intimate way, exploring deep, far-reaching issues—race, gender, family, and sexuality—that shape the ordinary moments in our lives.
In “The Uncle,” a young girl who idolizes her handsome uncle and his beautiful wife makes a haunting discovery about their lives. In “Only Once,” a woman reminisces about her charming daredevil of a lover and his ultimate—and final—act of foolishness. Collins’s work seamlessly integrates the African-American experience in her characters’ lives, creating rich, devastatingly familiar, full-bodied men, women, and children who transcend the symbolic, penetrating both the reader’s head and heart.
Both contemporary and timeless, Whatever Happened to Interracial Love? is a major addition to the literary canon, and is sure to earn Kathleen Collins the widespread recognition she is long overdue.
Informazioni sull'autore
KC![]()
Recensioni
This newly published collection of stories is a short read, not breathtaking or beautiful, but important because of the freshness and rawness of her perspective. It seems unfiltered, unedited, but Collins' appreciation of people for being the multi-faceted, unique people that they are is evident.
The stories sometimes read more like journal entries, and even include self-aware stream of consciousness moments. The setting and historical context are important to the stories, but not foundational.
In her own unconventional and sometimes strange ways, Collins normalizes intellectual introspection, not as a woman or as a person of color, but as a human.
Rating: 4The stories sometimes read more like journal entries, and even include self-aware stream of consciousness moments. The setting and historical context are important to the stories, but not foundational.
In her own unconventional and sometimes strange ways, Collins normalizes intellectual introspection, not as a woman or as a person of color, but as a human.
From the jacket cover: "Kathleen Collins was a pioneer African American playwright, filmmaker, civil rights activist, film editor, and educator. Her film Losing Ground is one of the first features made by a black woman in America, and is an extremely rare narrative portrayal of a black female intellectual. Collins died in 1988 at the age of forty-six." This collection of Collins' previously undiscovered stories was published in 2016 and it's a great addition to the genre. Collins doesn't tell a story as much as she allows a story to tell itself. I didn't love every story in this collection but the best ones (the first and last are two among those but I also loved "Lifelines" and a few others) are vivid glimpses of black American life as the civil rights movement of the 1960s gained steam and defined a generation. The author explores themes of family and identity, difficult choices and sacrifice, all through deeply intimate moments set deftly in the context of racial and gender politics in an era of dizzyingly shifting expectations.
Rating: 4I really enjoyed the history and work put into explaining the different motifs. It made it approachable but at the same time well understood. I'll probably buy a copy for myself and recommend it to my artist if he hasn't already seen it, it's very cool!
Rating: 4An interesting collection of stories set in the 1960's. The last one was particularly enjoyable, but they were all very interesting.
Rating: 3