The Best Revenge: Short Stories

The Best Revenge: Short Stories - Paperback

$20.68
$20.68
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The Best Revenge: Short Stories
  • The Best Revenge: Short Stories
The Best Revenge: Short Stories - Paperback

The Best Revenge: Short Stories - Paperback

by Rebecca Rule
$20.68
$20.68

Book Overview

In nineteen finely honed, deftly realized short stories, Rebecca Rule crafts with gentle wit and striking clarity a conglomeration of sometimes ragtag but always appealing small-town denizens, each of whom squares off against a nemesis of a singular sort. With an eye for the signature detail, an ear for the rhythms of regional speech, and a strong feel for the nuances of rural culture, Rule maintains a fine balance between humor and pathos that prompted National Book Award winner Thomas Williams to comment, Cold honesty gleams from every careful sentence.

Twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Rule captures the essence of small-town New England life as she paints with a sure hand the fallings-out and friendships, the trials and triumphs of the New England microcosm. In Yankee Curse, elderly Miranda knits placidly at a town meeting, pondering an amazing string of unspoken invective against an enemy but stopping short at a curse she would never levy, not even on Mort Wallace: to live too long. In Minna Runs for Selectman, a middle-aged woman's battlefield is the strange, incestuous politics of this eccentric little town but her real opponent is her own insecurity. In Jim's Boat a young couple wages a silent struggle over priorities in their marriage; in Fishing with George a small girl worries that there's a hole in our family that gets bigger every time her parents argue; and in the title story a mother copes with a hated neighbor through a sculpture that makes her laugh the kind of laugh that doesn't end in a sob. Children and grandmothers, trappers and college professors, lifetime Yankees or transplanted Flatlanders: each finds the truth in Rule's observation that revenge takes many forms -- some of which can heal.
ISBN9781584653738
Author Rebecca Rule
PublisherUniversity of New Hampshire Press
GenreLiterature
FormatPaperback
PublishedApril 2004
LanguageENG- English
Pages208
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

Related Subjects

Fiction Humorous Short Stories

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More by Rebecca Rule

The Best Revenge: Short Stories

The Best Revenge: Short Stories - Paperback

The Best Revenge: Short Stories - Paperback

By Rebecca Rule

About Rebecca Rule

The multi-talented Rebecca "Becky" Rule is an author, humorist, storyteller, and performer as well as a radio and television host. She has been performing and telling stories in New England, especially in her home state of New Hampshire, for more than thirty years. She hosted the NH Authors series for ten years on New Hampshire PBS and now hosts the network's Our Hometown series. While she hasn't yet visited every town in the Granite State, she has found her way to many of them--speaking at libraries, historical societies, church groups, and charitable organizations. In addition to being a speaker, she is also a dedicated listener who loves to collect stories because "they're free and you don't have to dust them."Becky is also an author. Her books include N is for New Hampshire, an ABC book with photographs by Scott Snyder; The Iciest Diciest Scariest Sled Ride Ever!, a picture book illustrated by Jennifer Thermes; Headin' for the Rhubarb, A NH Dictionary (well, kinda); Live Free and Eat Pie, and That Reminds Me of a Funny Story.Becky lives in Northwood with her husband, John Rule, four cats and two dogs, all rescues--except for John Rule and Reggie, the obnoxious wire fox terrier. Arpita Choudhury is a self-taught artist and illustrator who lives in Pittsburgh, PA with her husband, daughter, two cats, one dog, and two hermit crabs. She is a lapsed marine biologist who loves nature, vintage picture books, miniatures, history, chocolate, and a good mystery.

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