{"product_id":"tell-me-isbn-9781640090354","title":"Tell Me","description":"\u003cb\u003e“Robison has a poet's eye for the unconscious surrealism of commercial America.” —\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTell Me reflects the early brilliance as well as the fulfilled promise of Mary Robison's literary career. In these stories—most of which appeared in \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e throughout the eighties—we enter her sly world of plotters, absconders, ponderers, and pontificators. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRobison's characters have chips on their shoulders; they talk back to us in language that is edgy and nervy; they say “all right” and “okay” often, not because they consent, but because nothing counts. Still, there are small victories here, small only because, as Robison precisely documents, larger victories are impossible. Here then, among others, is “Pretty Ice,” chosen by Richard Ford for \u003ci\u003eThe Granta Book of American Short Stories\u003c\/i\u003e, “Coach,” chosen for \u003ci\u003eBest American Short Stories\u003c\/i\u003e, “I Get By,” an \u003ci\u003eO. Henry Prize Stories\u003c\/i\u003e selection, and “Happy Boy, Allen,” a \u003ci\u003ePushcart Prize Stories\u003c\/i\u003e selection.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThese stories—sharp, cool, and astringently funny—confirm Mary Robison's place as one of our most original writers and led Richard Yates to comment, “Robison writes like an avenging angel, and I think she may be a genius.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e“Mary Robison's short stories are short, subtle, and substantial... her ironic sense of detail bursts from every sentence.” —\u003ci\u003eVogue\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e“Word for fucking word, her work demands our attention.” —David Leavitt, \u003ci\u003eThe Village Voice\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eTell Me: Thirty Stories\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Robison's talent for observation makes for microscopic wonders of details: the menu items at a cheap diner in Providence, R.I.; the furnishings of a Laundromat, and the text of gift–wrap stickers ('\u003ci\u003eGrin and Ignore It\u003c\/i\u003e,' '\u003ci\u003eThings Are Getting Worse—Send Chocolate!\u003c\/i\u003e'), in small–town Ohio.” —\u003ci\u003eChicago Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Thirty precision–built short stories old and new by a writer who extracts a maximum of meaning and feeling from a minimum of words make for a thrilling collection. Robison's stories... come at the reader from oblique angles, skittering like a leaf in the wind until, suddenly, everything begins to make quirky but gratifying sense. A deft conjurer of place, Robison is most intrigued with the telegraphic dialogue with which annoyed but loving family members communicate with each other and with the oddball configurations the concept of family can yield. Like Ann Beattie, Robison neatly exposes the pathos beneath the placid veneer of middle–class life, the seeds of chaos in seemingly orderly existences, and finds sweet humor and bemused hope in our stubborn quest for security, even happiness.” —Donna Seaman, \u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Thirty brief, sharply delineated short stories written over three decades by Robison chronicle emotional dislocation with witty dispassion... Nothing is superfluous, and in the spare sadness of Robison's prose entire lives are presented.” —\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Mary Robison's stories are infused with a quiet menace. The trick of her writing is the way she uses the reader's own expectations to create that sense of unease. Her stories—published over the years in \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e and now collected in \u003ci\u003eTell Me\u003c\/i\u003e—are made of handfuls of moments, put together without benefit of the usual revelatory short story structure... Robison is the rare minimalist whose bare–bones fiction is actually a pleasure to read.” —Claire Dederer, author of \u003ci\u003ePoser: My Life in Twenty–Three Yoga Poses\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eMary Robison\u003c\/b\u003e was born in Washington, D.C. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, two Pushcart Prizes, an O. Henry Award, the \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e Book Prize for Fiction, and the 2018 Arts and Letters Award in Literature. She is the author of four novels and four story collections. She lives in Gainesville, Florida.","brand":"Counterpoint","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46299970961637,"sku":"NP9781640090354","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781640090354.jpg?v=1767737878","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/tell-me-isbn-9781640090354","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}