中文参考译名：《发现美国》
页数：268
出版社：Random House
ISBN-10：0679424598
ISBN-13：9780679424598
装帧：Hardcover
出版日期：1994-1-13
语言：English
From Publishers Weekly
Bittersweet, intoxicating language infuses Wieland's ( The Names of the Lost ) first collection of short stories. Though at first glance these 10 tales appear to be nearly naive depictions of contemporary life, they are in fact bound together by a dense net of sophisticated wordplay: images, metaphors and allusions recur, giving the narrative the emotional pull of dream logic. A deadpan sense of humor makes its presence known as well. In "Called By Name," a woman recalls driving west in her truck: "I was learning Spanish from Berlitz tapes. Speak Spanish Like a Diplomat! the plastic tape cases said. All I had to do was Speak Spanish Like a Librarian! I wondered what the difference was, and I still do." Wryly romantic, "Aisle Help" stars a matchmaker and marriage specialist on the run from matrimony. "Tommy Wadell" and "Who It Really Was," both set in Atlanta, revolve around teenage girls' doomed relationships with boys their parents are sure to disapprove of. Grief, love and sexuality fairly blaze from the pages of "Lessons and Carols," the wrenching, intricately wrought account of a teenager coming to terms with the aftermath of her father's death. The collection sweeps to a close with the title story, an ambitious, meticulously constructed meditation on such seemingly disparate topics as passion, whales and mapmaking. Playful, challenging and heartfelt, these stories offer many discoveries to savor.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This collection of ten stories--nine short and one long--is seldom convincing, even though indications of the author's creative capacities are seen in several stories, particularly "Tommy Wadell," in which Wieland sensitively presents the innermost feelings/longings of a teenage girl. Other stories lack believability and coherent structure. Throughout almost all the stories one hears a persistent stylistic monotone coupled with a distracting authorial monolog. Characters also think, speak, and act incongruously; "Discovering America" comes abruptly to a preposterous conclusion with the fortuitous beaching of a group of gray whales, "the most primitive of the mysticetes and therefore ones that have the longest necks," as we learn from two characters who suddenly develop whale expertise. Perhaps the generally favorable response to Wieland's novel, The Names of the Lost , precipitated the decision to publish this collection prematurely.
- Glenn O. Carey, Eastern Kentucky Univ., Richmond
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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