A Travel Guide for Reckless Hearts: Stories

by N.M. Kelby and Cleo Qian

Book Overview

Ten sweet and slightly wicked stories by N. M. Kelby, whose work has appeared on National Public Radio's "Selected Shorts," on NP''s CD Travel Tales, and in New Stories from the South: The Year's Best.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0873517679
• ISBN13: 9780873517676
• Release Date: September 2009
• Publisher: Borealis Books
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Strange Estrangements

Stories, mostly set in Florida, with a recurrent theme of loss of ties between children and parents, by death, divorce or estrangement. One of the characters has "a thing for exotic women" and the same might be said of the author. Eccentricities and odd physical characteristics abound. The action is often seen though a child's eye. There's a deadpan satirical touch as the bizarre actions of grownups are described in the voice of innocence. Sometimes the motives of characters are obscured by an overly elliptical narrative style. For example in the story "Relative Victories" the reason for Mason's alienation from her son is conveyed only in one ambiguous sentence.