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It's an extraordinary image, and one that aptly sums up the project of this dazzling debut collection. Throughout Lost Lake, Slouka invests everyday events with an almost numinous glow. Catching fish; cleaning them; practicing knots; telling stories: these actions are windows opening onto unimaginable darkness--soldiers hanged along an avenue of cherry trees, decapitated snapping turtles crawling past their own heads, a dead baby wrapped in "the warm cave" of a coat. Ostensibly, these stories take place among a small Czech community settled on the shores of New York's Lost Lake, but they ripple outward to encompass the world. No exalted feat of nature, Lost Lake is a landscape both humble and utterly human, as we discover in "Creation," in which a dreamy farmer looks out over a cow pasture and pictures the fishing hole he will make. Nonetheless, it's still privy to the most elemental of dramas, from death ("Equinox") to adulterous love ("The Exile"). The short story is a miniaturist's art, and its success depends on a writer's ability to compress everything most essential about life--memory, guilt, sorrow, love, fishing--to fit within its brief pages. Slouka is a master. Reading Lost Lake elicits the same wonder as holding water up to a microscope for the first time: there it is, life, teeming, abundant, and true. --Mary Park
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Book Description Trade Paperback. Condition: Very Good. 1st Printing. 1st printing. Light edge wear. 2002 Trade Paperback. Set in a tiny Czech community on the shore's of upstate New York's Lost Lake, these elegiac stories explore both the quiet, complicated glory of the natural world and the mysterious motions of the human spirit. In ?Genesis,? an inspired young war veteran envisions his legacy in a modest pasture. In ?The Shape of Water,? a boy's recollection of a momentous catch occasions a later reflection on the power of invented truths. In ?The Exile,? a young woman struggles unsuccessfully against an adulterous passion. Through them all, Lost Lake emerges as a place of both epic significance and enduring simplicity, prompting memories both challenging and bittersweet. Seller Inventory # 2327005
Book Description Paperback. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 0.45. Seller Inventory # G0375702083I3N00