UMass Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press

Stories

Book Jacket: A Private State by C. Bacon

Charlotte Bacon

Winner of the Ernest Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award

Winner of the Associated Writing Programs Award for Short Fiction

Here is a finely crafted collection of stories about women who have arrived at awkward edges in their lives. Some are adolescents, some at the brink of old age, and some find themselves suddenly ill or pregnant. Others come to the abrupt discovery that their marriages are not as whole as they had believed, while a few tumble onto startling secrets. But despite their range in age and situation, they all try to use their new knowledge to stitch together a fresh pattern by which to live.

While most of the action unfolds along the East Coast—in Maryland, Maine, Boston, Philadelphia, New York—several of the women travel to Arizona, California, and Jamaica. Often the light is too bright in these glittery places and they wonder why they have come. Many seem to be searching for a sense of home, which one girl describes as a place that is "complete and full of longing all at once."

Yet this desire for a personal territory, a point of constancy, is not necessarily rewarded: in this book, separations lead to divorce, sisters continue to misread each other, cancers kill. Still, the women refuse to turn their gaze away from what the world has thrown in their path. Often as not, they pick it up, wonder at it, test its relevance, and continue on, not happier perhaps, but certainly more knowing.

With humor and insight, Charlotte Bacon illuminates the unexpected ambiguities of women's lives. A Private State marks the arrival of an extremely talented writer.

"Bacon writes with grace and wit, and an appreciation for the magic of language. She also possesses the accomplished writer's remarkable blend of control and daring, and isn't afraid to surprise her reader. . . . A Private State is impressive in every way, a splendid debut and a rare achievement."

George Cuomo

Charlotte Bacon teaches at Miss Porter's School. Her story "Live Free or Die," featured in this collection, won the Pirate's Alley/Faulkner Society Award for Best Short Story of 1996.

Fiction
192 pp.
LC 97-14672
$27.50s cloth, ISBN 1-55849-114-7
1997

about placing orders on our secure server
ADD TO CART | VIEW CART | CHECKOUT