The Last BookUniv. of Tennessee Press, 2001 - 190 من الصفحات Readers familiar with Sam Pickering's delightful essays will certainly hope that the title of his latest collection is not intended as prophecy. A true original, Pickering offers observation on everyday life that never fail to sparkle with wit, insight, amusement, and wonder. Freely blending fact with fiction-"Writing makes liars of us all," he notes-Pickering ranges easily and amiably from his home base in Storrs, Connecticut, to his roots in middle Tennessee, with numerous side trips to observe the natural world to refelct on the bonds of family and friends. One essay finds him playing auctioneer at a local arts council event, jollying the attendees with "tattered country tales" and fanciful, extravagant claims for items being sold. In another piece, his tongue-in-check remarks about the split infinitive, when quoted in a newspaper, ignite a small controversy that lands him on radio talk shows and provokes a flood of sometimes angry e-mail. Yet, whenever the irritations of the human world become a bit too wearying, Pickering finds ready refreshment in the doings of birds and insects and the splash of sunlight on a tree or flower. Throughout these sixteen essays, Pickering implicitly heeds the advice he offers his son just before the boy much meet the parents of his prom date: :The good storyteller, I instructed Francis, heaps paragraph upon paragraph, just like a waitress serving mashed potatoes in a family-style restaurant." Having dined at the table of a master storyteller, readers will depart this collection feeling fully sated-indeed, well nourished. The Author: A native of Nashville, Sam Pickering is a professor of English at the University of Connecticut and author of eleven previous books of essays. His most recent collections are Living to Prowl, Deprived of Happiness, and A Little Fling. |
المحتوى
Split Infinitive | 12 |
Lies and Consequences | 30 |
Cult | 50 |
Vetted for the Prom | 63 |
Familiar Things | 79 |
August | 98 |
September Rain | 115 |
News | 145 |
Shadow | 166 |
The Last Book | 181 |
عبارات ومصطلحات مألوفة
afternoon alder ambled Ankerrow's Café appeared asked atop auction barn Beaver River began Bill Berry bird bloomed blue bought breakfast brown Carthage caterpillar Chattanooga Christmas coffee Crossville Daddy dinner dollars door drove Edward Eliza essays father Fenton River five flowers four Francis front girl grass gray green hand head inches Josh kitchen later leaves letter lived looked Loppie Malachi maple May's End milk minutes morning moth Nashville night Nova Scotia Ogushwitz meadow orange Pickering Proverbs Red Boiling Springs roamed rolled rose Sam Pickering season Sewanee side slipped Slubey Smith County snake spent split infinitive spring stood Storrs story summer tail talk Tennessee told tour tree trunk Turlow Gutheridge turned University of Tennessee Vicki walked week winter woman wood writing wrote yellow Zevs