Fiction, American Fiction, World Literature, Fiction Subjects

Mother Rocket

Name: Mother Rocket
Author: Rita Ciresi
ISBN: 9780385335928

by Rita Ciresi

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Overview

Rita Ciresi earned blockbuster acclaim and legions of new fans with her tender and hilarious novel, Pink Slip, a story of family and career, love and longing. Here she brings us seven award-winning stories, vibrant slices of life that are at once piercing, funny, and heartbreaking. In the title story, Ciresi weaves a tale of a New York City dancer whose spectacular sexuality and antic humor keep a life of tragedy at bay….In “The Silent Partner,” a young woman is caught up in a love affair that is both infantilizing and harrowing.…In the linked stories, “Resurrection” and “Second Coming,” we meet a piano student hopelessly in love with his alluring teacher and at the mercy of his sexually knowledgeable older brother; decades later, the brothers come together again, their relationships with their women utterly changed….And in “Pioneer Woman,” we watch a man’s dream of the ideal wife turn into the blissful nightmare of another woman’s fervent love.

Captivating, beautifully crafted, and full of the poetry and chaos of life itself, the stories in Mother Rocket solidify Rita Ciresi’s place as an exquisite storyteller and an unmatched chronicler of life as we live it today.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Ciresi's psychologically jarring, often darkly amusing debut volume contains seven tales, six of which have been previously published. The sinister ``The Silent Partner,'' which features an edgy Vietnam vet and his mawkish girlfriend, Baby, makes chilling use of the condescending tones some people adopt with children: ``The nice doctor gives Baby a teeny weeny little book that tells her all about her ugly, old disease.'' The title story, similarly outrageous and disturbing, tells how a spoiled, self-pitying dancer turns tragedy into self-promotion. Finally, Ciresi's heretofore unpublished ``Dutch Wife'' concerns a Miami surveyor who moves to wintry South Dakota to meet the ``pioneer woman'' of his fantasies and instead captivates his boss's obnoxious, ridiculously awkward 13-year-old daughter. These three stories establish the author's signature style, while the remaining four follow more common themes, including adolescence, aging, romantic love and the death of a parent. Winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, this unsettling collection balances grimness with an off-kilter humor that fits well in the gothic tradition. (Apr.)

Library Journal

In this collection of seven short stories, winner of the Flannery O'Connor award for short fiction, Ciresi writes convincingly of men and women, mostly in midlife, grappling with momentous life events. Like Ron Carlson's Plan B for the Middle Class ( LJ 8/92) , Ciresi's stories offer characters confronting issues common to us all: unrequited love, boredom in marriage, the anticipated birth of a child, and the death of a parent. Many of the protagonists, although functional, seem to be lacking something in their lives. They have an unfulfilled hunger and a tendency toward fantasy. Zogg, living in Miami, longs for seasons and long johns. Karl, a young piano student, lusts after Madame, his teacher. Janie yearns to feel more passion toward her husband. Avant-garde dancer Jude craves self-knowledge and acceptance. Ciresi has published stories in the South Carolina Review, Colorado Quarterly, Alaska Quarterly, the Connecticut Writer , and Northern Review. Recommended for most libraries.-- Kimberly G. Allen, National Assn. of Home Builders Lib., Washington, D.C.