Old crimes : and other stories

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Title:

Old crimes : and other stories

Added Title:

Lineman.

Low tones.

Commandments.

Swinger.

Simple question.

Baby in the pan.

Filling station.

Confessional.

Last station.

Act III.

Sparrow.

Author:

McCorkle, Jill, 1958- author.

Summary:

Old Crimes delves into the lives of characters who hold their secrets and misdeeds close, even as the past continues to reverberate across generations. And despite the characters’ yearnings for connection, they can’t seem to tell the whole truth: A woman uses her hearing impairment as a way to guard herself from her husband’s commentary. A telephone lineman strains to communicate with his family even as he feels pushed aside in a digital world. A young couple buys a confessional booth for fun, only to discover the cost of honesty. A family reunion, ripe with treasured memories, takes place amid a secret that will alter all of their futures. Throughout, McCorkle takes us deep into these conflicted and sympathetic characters, puzzling to figure out the meaning of their own lives. -- Amazon.

Edition:

First edition.

Contents:

Old crimes -- The lineman -- Low tones -- Commandments -- Swinger -- A simple question -- Baby in the pan -- Filling station -- Confessional -- The last station -- Act III -- Sparrow.

Physical Description:

241 pages ; 22 cm

Genre:

Psychological fiction.

Short stories.

Subject Term:

Life change events -- Fiction.

Change (Psychology) -- Fiction.

Interpersonal relations -- Fiction.

Publisher:

Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill,

Publication Date:

2024

ISBN:

9781616209735

Publication Information:

Chapel Hill, North Carolina : Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2024.

Call Number:

MCCORKLE

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003691634	New Adult Fiction	MCCORKLE Jill	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

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Summary

Beloved author Jill McCorkle delivers a collection of masterful stories that are as complex as novels--deeply perceptive, funny, and tragic in equal measure--about crimes large and small.

McCorkle, author of the New York Times bestselling Life After Life and the widely acclaimed Hieroglyphics ("One of our wryest, warmest, wisest storytellers" --Rebecca Makkai), brings us a breathtaking collection of stories that offers an intimate look at the moments when a person's life changes forever.

Old Crimes delves into the lives of characters who hold their secrets and misdeeds close, even as the past continues to reverberate across generations. And despite the characters' yearnings for connection, they can't seem to tell the whole truth: A woman uses her hearing impairment as a way to guard herself from her husband's commentary. A telephone lineman strains to communicate with his family even as he feels pushed aside in a digital world. A young couple buys a confessional booth for fun, only to discover the cost of honesty. A family reunion, ripe with treasured memories, takes place amid a secret that will alter all of their futures. Throughout, McCorkle takes us deep into these conflicted and sympathetic characters, puzzling to figure out the meaning of their own lives.

Moving and unforgettable, the stories in Old Crimes capture miniworlds full of great intensity, longing, affection, and the daily small crimes people hold close.

Author Notes

Jill McCorkle has the distinction of having published her first two novels on the same day in 1984. Of these novels, the New York Times Book Review said: "one suspects the author of The Cheer Leader is a born novelist. With July 7th , she is also a full grown one." Since then she has published five other novels--most recently, Hieroglyphics --and four collections of short stories. Five of her books have been named New York Times notable books and four of her stories have appeared in Best American Short Stories . McCorkle has received the New England Booksellers Award, the John Dos Passos Prize for Excellence in Literature, the North Carolina Award for Literature and the Thomas Wolfe Prize; she was recently inducted into the NC Literary Hall of Fame. McCorkle has taught at Harvard, Brandeis, and NC State where she remains affiliated with the MFA Program in creative writing and she is core faculty in the Bennington Writing Seminars.

Reviews (1)

Publisher's Weekly Review

In this satisfying collection from McCorkle (Hieroglyphics), characters attempt to bridge gender, political, and generational divides in hopes of coming to terms with a world where "evil and violent things had been happening since the beginning of time." In "Commandments," a group of women who were dumped by the same man get together regularly at a café and trade stories about their former beau. When their free-spirited younger server, Candy, hears them dishing about the unnamed man (whom they claim had "perfected the art of ruining women"), Candy offers unexpected wisdom. In "The Last Station," a recently widowed woman lugs a cross from one end of her yard to the other, simulating Jesus's plight while airing grievances big and small--the rise of white nationalists, drama at her book club--to a shocked audience of neighbors. The standout "Sparrow" finds a newly divorced mother befriending an older woman at her child's little league games who provides the validation the mother needs regarding her children's well-being. Though the collection feels somewhat repetitive, McCorkle serves up plenty of humor and heartache each time she weaves a tale of interconnected relationships, and often pushes her stories toward empathetic and surprising climaxes. McCorkle fans will gobble this up. Agent: Henry Dunow, Dunow, Carlson, and Lerner. (Jan.)