Ideas of Heaven: A Ring of Stories

Author - Joan Silber ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Hardcover Book item from W. W. Norton & Company was reviewed on 29-Jul-2008.

Search ISBN:0393059081 offer from Abebooks or used books from Alibris. Ideas of Heaven: A Ring of Stories Reference Book. Classifications : General Classics Literature & Fiction Subjects Books Contemporary Literature & Fiction Subjects Books General Criticism & Theory History & Criticism Literature & Fiction Subjects Books United States S . Click the following link to view the cover of Ideas of Heaven: A Ring of Stories.

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1) Hardcover Book Ideas of Heaven: A Ring of Stories by W. W. Norton & Company. I have just ordered Joan Silber´s new volume of short stories, "The Size of the World," and, thinking back on
how much I enjoyed this book, I decided to take the time out of my life to be a bit generous, to take the time
to tell others--you, who happen to be reading this review just now--how very, very good the book is.

This book of inter-connected stories is one of the best reading experiences I´ve had in the last ten years.
Oh, yes, there are one or two or three novels which outpace this book, but right behind those three giants
comes this smallish book. The stories are enormously varied, and yet each one is imbued with the very
essence of truth. A story about a would-be dancer who simply doesn´t have the stuff? Oh, I believed every word. A story about a family of people who pull up stakes in America and go off to save souls for Christianity
in China? Unforgettable.

Again, you will think back and say, "Oh, yeah, that guy who wrote that review on e-bay helped me make up
my mind to buy that Silber book. He was right. I do thank him."¤

2) Hardcover Book Ideas of Heaven: A Ring of Stories by W. W. Norton & Company. So many voices, so many styles--and she *gets* them all. A year later, I´m still awestruck by the story of the missionary in China. Not the most eloquent of praises but: Wow. (Read Household Words after; it was good, but she´d already shown me Wow, so I was disappointed.)¤

3) Hardcover Book Ideas of Heaven: A Ring of Stories by W. W. Norton & Company. This short story collection really struck a chord with me--although on the surface I wouldn´t seem to have anything whatsoever in common with any of the characters. That´s what makes it so special: Silber captures an indefiniable element of humanity--or maybe human spirituality--that we can all recognize, if not name. I didn´t want this book to end. It´s a keeper.¤

4) Hardcover Book Ideas of Heaven: A Ring of Stories by W. W. Norton & Company. I really enjoyed this book. I liked how the stories entertwined, and a character from one would pop up in another, and I would get a completely different take on the character´s behavior or motives. Sometimes it was just a glimpse, but it would explain something said by another character in another story. The stories were well written, and I liked how they weren´t all contemporary. I don´t think her writing style was as effective for the stories in Italy and China, but still quite enjoyable. The stories aren´t "fluff," but they read quickly because they flow so well. I recommend this novel for those who enjoy short stories, but also for people who like really well written fiction.¤

5) Hardcover Book Ideas of Heaven: A Ring of Stories by W. W. Norton & Company. I usually read only novels, but this is what the author calls a ring of six first-person stories, linked by the device of having a person or idea mentioned in a minor way in one story becoming the main subject of the next. Far more important than these surface links, however, is the commonality of theme that ties these first-person narratives together, even though their narrators alternate between male and female and their locales range from Renaissance Venice and 19th-century China to more-or-less-contemporary New York and Paris. Few of these life-stories (for each typically spans several decades) deal with great figures, and many are humdrum or downright uneventful. Most of the tales are about love found and lost again, through stupidity, tragedy, or the mere passage of time. Yet each ends in a state of acceptance, compromise perhaps, but increasingly verging on religious grace; the book-jacket comparison with William Trevor is not inapt. And the book´s power is cumulative, enfolding the reader in a moral universe that is more consistent and consoling than in many a novel.

In short, excellently conceived and executed; the missing star is simply due to the fact that the book keeps a relatively low profile, without the emotional range of many of the books to which I have awarded five stars.¤

6) Hardcover Book Ideas of Heaven: A Ring of Stories by W. W. Norton & Company. "Joan Silber writes with wisdom, humor, grace, and wry intelligence. Her characters bear welcome news of how we will survive."—Andrea Barrett

Supple and precise, these stories cover lifetimes, much in the manner of Alice Munro and William Trevor. Set in France, Italy, New York, and China, in the past and present, they are about longings—about how sex and religion become parallel forms of dedication and comfort.

Though the stories stand alone, a minor element in one becomes major in the next. In "My Shape," a woman is taunted by her dance coach, who later suffers his own heartache. A Venetian poet of the 1500s, another storyteller, is introduced to a modern traveler reading Rilke. His story precedes a mesmerizing narrative of missionaries in China. In the final story, Giles, born to a priesthood family, leans toward Buddhism after a grievous loss, and in time falls in love with the dancer of the first story.

So deft and subtle is Joan Silber with these various perspectives that we come full circle surprised and enchanted by her myriad worlds.¤

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 26-Aug-2008, 03930590819780393059083, 810-9X0-360-640-261-6OB-F2B-8

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