The Send-Away Girl (Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction)

Rating:
Summary: A Winning Collection
Review: The combination of memorable characters, quirky situations, and beautiful prose makes this book a true winner. I've been recommending it to everyone I know who loves short fiction. These stories of people moving forward through their lives or gripped by inertia are heartfelt, sad, and hilarious. The writing is poetic, very visual, almost cinematic: I'm sure Hollywood is going to pick up some options on a couple of these stories. It's a treat to read such good fiction.

Rating:
Summary: Keep the Send-Away Girl
Review: The first time you read these short stories, you may find yourself missing subway stops or receiving curious glances from fellow commuters as you try to suppress your smiles and outright laughter. On a second reading - and these stories will repay multiple readings - you become aware of the craftsmanship of Sutton's writing. Sutton is not just an excellent stylist , but a stylist whose prose serves her message. The hard clarity of her writing is the perfect vehicle for the tough and unsentimental tone of these stories. Whether in the jaundiced observations of a divinity school employee sent to pump a donation out of a dying woman ("The Rest of Esther"), or the evocation of an emotionally fraught romantic triangle ("Risk Merchants"), Sutton's blend of spare eloquence and "tough guy" pose recalls Martin Amis more than any contemporary American woman.

Rating:
Summary: Funny and Imaginative
Review: This is such a great book! It's a new collection of short stories from the winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for short fiction. And it's funny - I'd be reading along and then come to a passage or sentence that was so funny I'd laugh out loud - and really, how often does that happen? One of the things that's special about the book is that the characters are really different from story to story. They, and the situations they create for themselves, are truly fresh and original. Short stories are the new, hot thing and I'm glad they're being rediscovered. All my friends are getting this book for Christmas!