It's Beginning to Hurt

✍ Scribed by Lasdun, James

• Publisher: Vintage Digital
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 140 KB
• Edition: First
• Category: Fiction
• ISBN: 1429923334

✦ Synopsis

In sharply evoked settings that range from the wilds of Northern Greece to the beaches of Cape Cod, these intensely dramatic tales chart the metamorphoses of their characters as they fall prey to the gamut of human passions. The lives in them seethe with love, hate, desire, fear, tender corruption and cruel idealism. They rise to unexpected heights of decency, stumble into comic or tragic folly, they throw themselves open to lust, longing, paranoia - but they are always recognisably, illuminatingly, our lives.
Winner of the BBC National Short Story Award.
**

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. This accomplished poet, novelist, and story writer's collection packs a devastating punch. Lasdun peels back the facades of middle-aged, middle-class types through their run-ins with cancer, infidelity and loss that lead them to deal with unexpectedly large and often ugly recognitions. The title story is less than three full pages, but generates near-boundless futility and regret as a businessman, having just attended the funeral of a long forgotten former lover, can't help falling back into the old habit of lying to his wife about how he's spent the day. The Incalculable Life Gesture builds to a climax of relief as an elementary school principal, feuding with his sister, follows through a series of tests that indicate he has lymphomauntil a specialist reveals the truth of his ailment. In Peter Kahn's Third Wife, a sales assistant in a jewelry boutique models necklaces for a wealthy wine importer who brings in a series of successive wives-to-be over the years. Jewels of resignation and transformative personal disaster, these stories are written so simply and cleanly that the formidable craft looks effortless. (Aug.)

Review

"This collection of short stories illuminates the everyday agonies of the mind, its anxieties, obsessions, doubts, and yearnings. Lasdun pins each observation to the page with grace and exactitude." --The Atlantic, Top 5 Books of 2009

"James Lasdun proved himself to be a master of the form with the enthralling psychological subtleties of It's Beginning to Hurt." --Geoff Dyer, The Guardian

[A] marvelous, masterful collection. Lizzie Skurnick, *Los Angeles Times

Every story is heart-poundingly vivid. Mr. Lasdun's characters live in the here and now. . .. He instinctively understands human psychology, and it seems as though he can turn anything into a story. The Wall Street Journal*

Spellbinding . . . James Lasdun may single-handedly save British short fiction from an untimely demise. Taylor Antrim, *The Daily Beast

This exquisite collection of short stories illuminates the everyday agonies of the mind, its anxieties, obsessions, doubts, and yearnings. .. . Lasdun pins each observation to the page with grace and exactitude. Benjamin Schwartz, The Atlantic Lasduns novels succeed as efficient entertainments, narrowly focused, linguistically dextrous, coolly presenting their characters foibles . . . His short stories relinquish none of this gamesmanship, yet they seem to expand where the novels contract . . . Their characters have a complexity and confusion that override the unfolding plot. And the narratives seem opened up to the entire history of ?ction . . . Touching and revelatory . . . Devastating. Mark Kamine, The Times Literary Supplement Reading Lasdun is like reading a sly collaboration between Kafka and Updike: elegant, acutely observed and utterly unflinching . . . This is a collection that examines the most inward mechanisms of rage, fear and desire with astonishing skill and strangely lyric power. John Burnside, The Times (London)
Lasdun has a Nabokovian eye. Few exponents of the short form offer such tempting, disturbing pleasures . . . Its Beginning to Hurt is . . . a superlative collection, exhibiting all of Lasduns familiar talents and a few new ones into the bargain. Richard T. Kelly, Financial Times A gem . . . James Lasdun writes the best sort of English prose. Colin Greenland, The Guardian A story master. Tim Adams, The Observer (London)
[Lasdun] create[s] a world of objects and feelings that are rich, recognisable and yet elusive . . . His prose [here] is marked by a thoughtful, humane exactness . . . Lasdun uses his dramatic skill to show the most subtle and delicate movements between poles of feeling. Tom Deveson, The Sunday Times (London)
Like such masters of dark literature as Edgar Allan Poe and Franz Kafka, Lasdun limns the deep cracks in the soul even as his tales are enlivened by his gift for insight and ear for language. His stories are a fury of elements: skilled dramatic monologues; sketches of fraught emotional states . . . [which] are shot through with crafted verse . . . Masterful. Susan Comninos, The Miami Herald There is much to admire in Lasdun's stories, not least the astonishing beauty and precision of his imagery. In a few perfectly chosen words, Lasdun can distill a character's essence and bring him to life. David Bezmozgis, author of Natasha [This] stellar collection combines a sharp eye for detail, subtle character development and virtuosic command of narrative voice . . . [ Its Beginning to Hurt] merits comparison with the understated artistry of William Trevor or Graham Swift. Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
As he proved with Seven Lies , Lasdun is an elegant and incisive student of the human mindan author who can register exactly when, for a character, its beginning to hurt. This remarkable collection shows what happens when we break through the gauze of everydayness and existential panic hits . . .Affecting, yes; sentimental, no. Hard-edged truths about our predicament poke through this work, which is highly recommended. Barbara Hoffert , Library Journal * (starred review)
This accomplished poet, novelist, and story writers collection packs a devastating punch. Lasdun peels back the facades of middle-aged, middle-class types through their run-ins with cancer, infidelity and loss that lead them to deal with unexpectedly large and often ugly recognitions . . . Jewels of resignation and transformative personal disaster, these stories are written so simply and cleanly that the formidable craft looks effortless. *Publishers Weekly *** (starred review)

Has Cover : Yes
Number of Words in Auth: 2
Formats : EPUB
Number of Formats : 1
All Identifiers : amazon:B004D4Y1OU, isbn:9781429923330
Single Author : James Lasdun
Original Source : New_Files_Oatmeal_05_17_A
Sorted Author by LN, FN: Lasdun, James
Title Length : 022
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Record ID : 111892
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