Author: Alison Townsend
Publisher: SIU Press
ISBN: 080938678X
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 130
Book Description
In Persephone in America, Alison Townsend deftly weaves autobiography with myth in this reinvention of the tale of Demeter and Persephone as seen from the modern woman’s perspective. Fraught with emotional honesty, this captivating collection of lyrical and narrative poems chronicles the struggles of the figurative Persephone in three parts—the abduction, descent to the underworld, and return. Townsend turns a shrewd eye to her own experiences, as well as to the lives of other women, to offer an unflinching yet deeply compassionate exploration of such themes as girlhood and the vulnerability of the motherless; the demons of depression, addiction, and abuse; as well as passion, aging, and celebration of the natural world. Although the poems traverse dark emotional territory at times, the picture that emerges ultimately is one of revelation and wisdom. Persephone in America is above all a journey of the soul, following the narrator as she explores what it means to be a woman in America, at times descending into darkness, only to emerge into redemption and realize “time’s sweet and invincible secret—that everything repeats—and we watch it.” Townsend’s candid portrait of female loss and discovery seeks to illuminate the truths inherent in myth, and the awakenings that hide in our darkest moments. Persephone, Pretending (Madison, Wisconsin) When the news says that the girl who had been missing almost four days, only to be found in a marshy area at the edge of our medium-sized city, was faking it all along, I wondered what made her do it. I'd seen her face—bright smile, dark eyes— on a flier masking-taped to a pillar at the airport the week before, felt the involuntary frisson of the curious, then only fear at the thought of a girl abducted in this place once voted "America's most livable city." She must have wanted something she couldn't name, that good girl with good grades who looks like so many girls in my own classes, but who keeps changing her story. It happened here; no, it happened there; no, I really just wanted to be alone. Then she turns her face away, tired of telling her tale, not sure what to make up next or where invention will take her. “Fictitious victimization disorder,” Time magazine claims, but I wonder what else, imagining her in the marsh, cold, unrepentant, powerless, her mind gone muddy with lack of sleep, no way out of this lie she almost believes, or the lies ahead, nothing but memory of the rope, duct tape, cough medicine, and knife she bought at the PDQ with her own cash, wanting to be taken by someone so badly, she takes us, she does it to herself.
Persephone in America
Author: Alison Townsend
Publisher: SIU Press
ISBN: 080938678X
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 130
Book Description
In Persephone in America, Alison Townsend deftly weaves autobiography with myth in this reinvention of the tale of Demeter and Persephone as seen from the modern woman’s perspective. Fraught with emotional honesty, this captivating collection of lyrical and narrative poems chronicles the struggles of the figurative Persephone in three parts—the abduction, descent to the underworld, and return. Townsend turns a shrewd eye to her own experiences, as well as to the lives of other women, to offer an unflinching yet deeply compassionate exploration of such themes as girlhood and the vulnerability of the motherless; the demons of depression, addiction, and abuse; as well as passion, aging, and celebration of the natural world. Although the poems traverse dark emotional territory at times, the picture that emerges ultimately is one of revelation and wisdom. Persephone in America is above all a journey of the soul, following the narrator as she explores what it means to be a woman in America, at times descending into darkness, only to emerge into redemption and realize “time’s sweet and invincible secret—that everything repeats—and we watch it.” Townsend’s candid portrait of female loss and discovery seeks to illuminate the truths inherent in myth, and the awakenings that hide in our darkest moments. Persephone, Pretending (Madison, Wisconsin) When the news says that the girl who had been missing almost four days, only to be found in a marshy area at the edge of our medium-sized city, was faking it all along, I wondered what made her do it. I'd seen her face—bright smile, dark eyes— on a flier masking-taped to a pillar at the airport the week before, felt the involuntary frisson of the curious, then only fear at the thought of a girl abducted in this place once voted "America's most livable city." She must have wanted something she couldn't name, that good girl with good grades who looks like so many girls in my own classes, but who keeps changing her story. It happened here; no, it happened there; no, I really just wanted to be alone. Then she turns her face away, tired of telling her tale, not sure what to make up next or where invention will take her. “Fictitious victimization disorder,” Time magazine claims, but I wonder what else, imagining her in the marsh, cold, unrepentant, powerless, her mind gone muddy with lack of sleep, no way out of this lie she almost believes, or the lies ahead, nothing but memory of the rope, duct tape, cough medicine, and knife she bought at the PDQ with her own cash, wanting to be taken by someone so badly, she takes us, she does it to herself.
Publisher: SIU Press
ISBN: 080938678X
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 130
Book Description
In Persephone in America, Alison Townsend deftly weaves autobiography with myth in this reinvention of the tale of Demeter and Persephone as seen from the modern woman’s perspective. Fraught with emotional honesty, this captivating collection of lyrical and narrative poems chronicles the struggles of the figurative Persephone in three parts—the abduction, descent to the underworld, and return. Townsend turns a shrewd eye to her own experiences, as well as to the lives of other women, to offer an unflinching yet deeply compassionate exploration of such themes as girlhood and the vulnerability of the motherless; the demons of depression, addiction, and abuse; as well as passion, aging, and celebration of the natural world. Although the poems traverse dark emotional territory at times, the picture that emerges ultimately is one of revelation and wisdom. Persephone in America is above all a journey of the soul, following the narrator as she explores what it means to be a woman in America, at times descending into darkness, only to emerge into redemption and realize “time’s sweet and invincible secret—that everything repeats—and we watch it.” Townsend’s candid portrait of female loss and discovery seeks to illuminate the truths inherent in myth, and the awakenings that hide in our darkest moments. Persephone, Pretending (Madison, Wisconsin) When the news says that the girl who had been missing almost four days, only to be found in a marshy area at the edge of our medium-sized city, was faking it all along, I wondered what made her do it. I'd seen her face—bright smile, dark eyes— on a flier masking-taped to a pillar at the airport the week before, felt the involuntary frisson of the curious, then only fear at the thought of a girl abducted in this place once voted "America's most livable city." She must have wanted something she couldn't name, that good girl with good grades who looks like so many girls in my own classes, but who keeps changing her story. It happened here; no, it happened there; no, I really just wanted to be alone. Then she turns her face away, tired of telling her tale, not sure what to make up next or where invention will take her. “Fictitious victimization disorder,” Time magazine claims, but I wonder what else, imagining her in the marsh, cold, unrepentant, powerless, her mind gone muddy with lack of sleep, no way out of this lie she almost believes, or the lies ahead, nothing but memory of the rope, duct tape, cough medicine, and knife she bought at the PDQ with her own cash, wanting to be taken by someone so badly, she takes us, she does it to herself.
Persephone in America
Author: Alison Townsend
Publisher: SIU Press
ISBN: 9780809328963
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 132
Book Description
In Persephone in America, Alison Townsend deftly weaves autobiography with myth in this reinvention of the tale of Demeter and Persephone as seen from the modern woman’s perspective. Fraught with emotional honesty, this captivating collection of lyrical and narrative poems chronicles the struggles of the figurative Persephone in three parts—the abduction, descent to the underworld, and return. Townsend turns a shrewd eye to her own experiences, as well as to the lives of other women, to offer an unflinching yet deeply compassionate exploration of such themes as girlhood and the vulnerability of the motherless; the demons of depression, addiction, and abuse; as well as passion, aging, and celebration of the natural world. Although the poems traverse dark emotional territory at times, the picture that emerges ultimately is one of revelation and wisdom. Persephone in America is above all a journey of the soul, following the narrator as she explores what it means to be a woman in America, at times descending into darkness, only to emerge into redemption and realize “time’s sweet and invincible secret—that everything repeats—and we watch it.” Townsend’s candid portrait of female loss and discovery seeks to illuminate the truths inherent in myth, and the awakenings that hide in our darkest moments. Persephone, Pretending (Madison, Wisconsin) When the news says that the girl who had been missing almost four days, only to be found in a marshy area at the edge of our medium-sized city, was faking it all along, I wondered what made her do it. I'd seen her face—bright smile, dark eyes— on a flier masking-taped to a pillar at the airport the week before, felt the involuntary frisson of the curious, then only fear at the thought of a girl abducted in this place once voted "America's most livable city." She must have wanted something she couldn't name, that good girl with good grades who looks like so many girls in my own classes, but who keeps changing her story. It happened here; no, it happened there; no, I really just wanted to be alone. Then she turns her face away, tired of telling her tale, not sure what to make up next or where invention will take her. “Fictitious victimization disorder,” Time magazine claims, but I wonder what else, imagining her in the marsh, cold, unrepentant, powerless, her mind gone muddy with lack of sleep, no way out of this lie she almost believes, or the lies ahead, nothing but memory of the rope, duct tape, cough medicine, and knife she bought at the PDQ with her own cash, wanting to be taken by someone so badly, she takes us, she does it to herself.
Publisher: SIU Press
ISBN: 9780809328963
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 132
Book Description
In Persephone in America, Alison Townsend deftly weaves autobiography with myth in this reinvention of the tale of Demeter and Persephone as seen from the modern woman’s perspective. Fraught with emotional honesty, this captivating collection of lyrical and narrative poems chronicles the struggles of the figurative Persephone in three parts—the abduction, descent to the underworld, and return. Townsend turns a shrewd eye to her own experiences, as well as to the lives of other women, to offer an unflinching yet deeply compassionate exploration of such themes as girlhood and the vulnerability of the motherless; the demons of depression, addiction, and abuse; as well as passion, aging, and celebration of the natural world. Although the poems traverse dark emotional territory at times, the picture that emerges ultimately is one of revelation and wisdom. Persephone in America is above all a journey of the soul, following the narrator as she explores what it means to be a woman in America, at times descending into darkness, only to emerge into redemption and realize “time’s sweet and invincible secret—that everything repeats—and we watch it.” Townsend’s candid portrait of female loss and discovery seeks to illuminate the truths inherent in myth, and the awakenings that hide in our darkest moments. Persephone, Pretending (Madison, Wisconsin) When the news says that the girl who had been missing almost four days, only to be found in a marshy area at the edge of our medium-sized city, was faking it all along, I wondered what made her do it. I'd seen her face—bright smile, dark eyes— on a flier masking-taped to a pillar at the airport the week before, felt the involuntary frisson of the curious, then only fear at the thought of a girl abducted in this place once voted "America's most livable city." She must have wanted something she couldn't name, that good girl with good grades who looks like so many girls in my own classes, but who keeps changing her story. It happened here; no, it happened there; no, I really just wanted to be alone. Then she turns her face away, tired of telling her tale, not sure what to make up next or where invention will take her. “Fictitious victimization disorder,” Time magazine claims, but I wonder what else, imagining her in the marsh, cold, unrepentant, powerless, her mind gone muddy with lack of sleep, no way out of this lie she almost believes, or the lies ahead, nothing but memory of the rope, duct tape, cough medicine, and knife she bought at the PDQ with her own cash, wanting to be taken by someone so badly, she takes us, she does it to herself.
Princes in the Land
Author: Joanna Cannan
Publisher: Persephone Books
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 234
Book Description
'Princes in the Land' is about a woman bringing up a family who is left at the end, when the children are on the verge of adulthood, asking herself not only what it was all for but what was her own life for? Yet the questions are asked subtly and readably.
Publisher: Persephone Books
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 234
Book Description
'Princes in the Land' is about a woman bringing up a family who is left at the end, when the children are on the verge of adulthood, asking herself not only what it was all for but what was her own life for? Yet the questions are asked subtly and readably.
Dimanche and Other Stories
Author: Irene Nemirovsky
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307739317
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 306
Book Description
A never-before-translated collection by the bestselling author of Suite Française Written between 1934 and 1942, these ten gem-like stories mine the same terrain of Némirovsky's bestselling novel Suite Française: a keen eye for the details of social class; the tensions between mothers and daughters, husbands and wives; the manners and mannerisms of the French bourgeoisie; questions of religion and personal identity. Moving from the drawing rooms of pre-war Paris to the lives of men and women in wartime France, here we find the beautiful work of a writer at the height of her tragically short career.
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307739317
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 306
Book Description
A never-before-translated collection by the bestselling author of Suite Française Written between 1934 and 1942, these ten gem-like stories mine the same terrain of Némirovsky's bestselling novel Suite Française: a keen eye for the details of social class; the tensions between mothers and daughters, husbands and wives; the manners and mannerisms of the French bourgeoisie; questions of religion and personal identity. Moving from the drawing rooms of pre-war Paris to the lives of men and women in wartime France, here we find the beautiful work of a writer at the height of her tragically short career.
The Shuttle
Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett
Publisher: DigiCat
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 561
Book Description
"The Shuttle" deals with themes of intermarriages between wealthy American heiresses and impoverished British nobles. It is about wealthy American heiresses who could not make the best societal marriages because their family fortune came from new rather than old money. To solve this issue, they travelled to England. They married poor but Aristocratic husbands who needed money to finance their neglected estates.
Publisher: DigiCat
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 561
Book Description
"The Shuttle" deals with themes of intermarriages between wealthy American heiresses and impoverished British nobles. It is about wealthy American heiresses who could not make the best societal marriages because their family fortune came from new rather than old money. To solve this issue, they travelled to England. They married poor but Aristocratic husbands who needed money to finance their neglected estates.
The Persephone Book of Short Stories
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781903155905
Category : Short stories
Languages : en
Pages : 477
Book Description
To celebrate having reached their one hundredth volume, here is Persephone's marvelous collection of short stories by women. They are very well chosen: some are by first-rank authors, including Katherine Mansfield, Edith Wharton, Dorothy Parker, Irène Némirovsky and Penelope Fitzgerald; others from well-known writers who have been championed by the imprint and deservedly gained fresh recognition, such as Dorothy Whipple and Mollie Panter-Downes. There are 30 stories in all, and all remarkably unhampered by their time. The first, Susan Glaspell's story of love and lexicography from 1909, seems as bold as the last, by Georgina Hammick (from 1986), though you might not have found such an unflinching description of a gynaecological procedure 103 years ago. Put-upon mothers, exasperated wives, discarded mistresses - shared tropes bind these disparate stories into a coherent whole. A stand-out is Norah Hoult's 1938 story of a wife whose husband is grateful for the money her gentleman friend pays her for sex.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781903155905
Category : Short stories
Languages : en
Pages : 477
Book Description
To celebrate having reached their one hundredth volume, here is Persephone's marvelous collection of short stories by women. They are very well chosen: some are by first-rank authors, including Katherine Mansfield, Edith Wharton, Dorothy Parker, Irène Némirovsky and Penelope Fitzgerald; others from well-known writers who have been championed by the imprint and deservedly gained fresh recognition, such as Dorothy Whipple and Mollie Panter-Downes. There are 30 stories in all, and all remarkably unhampered by their time. The first, Susan Glaspell's story of love and lexicography from 1909, seems as bold as the last, by Georgina Hammick (from 1986), though you might not have found such an unflinching description of a gynaecological procedure 103 years ago. Put-upon mothers, exasperated wives, discarded mistresses - shared tropes bind these disparate stories into a coherent whole. A stand-out is Norah Hoult's 1938 story of a wife whose husband is grateful for the money her gentleman friend pays her for sex.
The Second Persephone Book of Short Stories
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781910263228
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 416
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781910263228
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 416
Book Description
Expiation
Author: Elizabeth Von Arnim
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781910263235
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 362
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781910263235
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 362
Book Description
Emmeline
Author: Judith Rossner
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1476774846
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 332
Book Description
From the New York Times bestselling author of Looking for Mr. Goodbar—a haunting tale of forbidden love set against the backdrop of the American industrial revolution. This is the story of Emmeline Mosher, who, before her fourteenth birthday, was sent from her home on a farm in Maine to support her family by working in a cotton mill in Massachusetts. So begins the sixth novel by the author of Looking for Mr. Goodbar. But nothing Judith Rossner has written can prepare the reader for this haunting love story of a young girl thrust into one of America’s early industrial towns, then drawn into a love affair for which she is far from ready. In Emmeline, Rossner brings us the intensity, grasp of character, and storytelling ability that have distinguished her novels of modern women.
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1476774846
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 332
Book Description
From the New York Times bestselling author of Looking for Mr. Goodbar—a haunting tale of forbidden love set against the backdrop of the American industrial revolution. This is the story of Emmeline Mosher, who, before her fourteenth birthday, was sent from her home on a farm in Maine to support her family by working in a cotton mill in Massachusetts. So begins the sixth novel by the author of Looking for Mr. Goodbar. But nothing Judith Rossner has written can prepare the reader for this haunting love story of a young girl thrust into one of America’s early industrial towns, then drawn into a love affair for which she is far from ready. In Emmeline, Rossner brings us the intensity, grasp of character, and storytelling ability that have distinguished her novels of modern women.
The Woman Novelist and Other Stories
Author: Diana Gardner
Publisher: Persephone Books
ISBN: 9781903155547
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 148
Book Description
Publisher: Persephone Books
ISBN: 9781903155547
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 148
Book Description