The award-winning short-story writer’s latest collection is suffused with a biblical duality
Honeydew, it’s explained in this collection’s title story, is a name for what’s described in Exodus as manna: “a fine frost on the ground with a taste like honey”, thought to be a miracle from God to the starving Israelites, but now understood to be the sugary excrement of beetles. The story’s two characters are an anorexic schoolgirl who considers insects her kin and her middle-aged headmistress who is having an affair with the girl’s father. Like the Israelites, they’re getting by on moments of sweetness that are banal or divine, depending on one’s viewpoint.
Pearlman, who is from New England, is approaching 80 and her mastery of the short story form continues to deepen. She’s been working for three decades, but has received recognition as a top-tier writer only recently: a “best-of” collection, culled from her previous three, won the National Book Critics Circle award in 2011.
Continue reading... Reported by guardian.co.uk 5 hours ago.
Honeydew, it’s explained in this collection’s title story, is a name for what’s described in Exodus as manna: “a fine frost on the ground with a taste like honey”, thought to be a miracle from God to the starving Israelites, but now understood to be the sugary excrement of beetles. The story’s two characters are an anorexic schoolgirl who considers insects her kin and her middle-aged headmistress who is having an affair with the girl’s father. Like the Israelites, they’re getting by on moments of sweetness that are banal or divine, depending on one’s viewpoint.
Pearlman, who is from New England, is approaching 80 and her mastery of the short story form continues to deepen. She’s been working for three decades, but has received recognition as a top-tier writer only recently: a “best-of” collection, culled from her previous three, won the National Book Critics Circle award in 2011.
Continue reading... Reported by guardian.co.uk 5 hours ago.