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Bending Heaven
Set in the United States and London, this debut collection introduces us to a cast of characters, some anguished in their pursuit of impractical dreams, others struggling to make sense of their failures. A mathematician who has forsaken everything in order to prove a theory; an older woman author achieving fame late in life; a guilt-ridden mother struggling to impress her teenage daughter; an unhappy lawyer attempting to survive a corporate retreat with dignity--all are ambitious and passionate, but to their dismay find themselves at odds with the pattern of their lives. Attempting to make a new beginning or heal a hurt, they are thwarted by embarrassing impulsiveness or a sudden lack of faith.
- GenresShort Stories
202 pages, Hardcover
First published June 26, 2002
143 people want to read
About the author
Jessica Francis Kane
16 books388 followersJessica Francis Kane’s new novel, FONSECA, will be published by Penguin Press on August 12, 2025. It is based on the mysterious trip to northern Mexico made by English writer Penelope Fitzgerald in 1952 and took Kane eight years to write. It has been named a most-anticipated book of 2025 by the Los Angeles Times, LitHub, Publisher's Weekly and others.
Her previous novel, RULES FOR VISITING, was a 2019 Indie Next Pick and became a national bestseller. It was named one of the best books of the year by Oprah Magazine, Good Housekeeping, Vulture, The Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, Wall Street Journal, Southern Living, Real Simple, The Today Show, and Good Morning America. In the UK it was published by Granta Books and was a finalist for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize.
Her first novel, THE REPORT, was published by Graywolf Press in the US (2010) and Granta Books in the UK (2011). It was a finalist for the First Novel Prize from the Center for Fiction and a Barnes & Noble Discover pick. In 2015 it was adapted and staged as a play in New York City.
Her story collection, THIS CLOSE, was published by Graywolf Press in 2013. It was long-listed for The Story Prize, the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize, and named a best book of the year by NPR.
Jessica’s stories and essays have appeared many places including, the New York Times, Slate, Virginia Quarterly Review, Zyzzyva, The Yale Review, A Public Space, and Granta. She is the recipient of fellowships from The MacDowell Colony and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
She lives in New York City and Connecticut.
Her previous novel, RULES FOR VISITING, was a 2019 Indie Next Pick and became a national bestseller. It was named one of the best books of the year by Oprah Magazine, Good Housekeeping, Vulture, The Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, Wall Street Journal, Southern Living, Real Simple, The Today Show, and Good Morning America. In the UK it was published by Granta Books and was a finalist for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize.
Her first novel, THE REPORT, was published by Graywolf Press in the US (2010) and Granta Books in the UK (2011). It was a finalist for the First Novel Prize from the Center for Fiction and a Barnes & Noble Discover pick. In 2015 it was adapted and staged as a play in New York City.
Her story collection, THIS CLOSE, was published by Graywolf Press in 2013. It was long-listed for The Story Prize, the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize, and named a best book of the year by NPR.
Jessica’s stories and essays have appeared many places including, the New York Times, Slate, Virginia Quarterly Review, Zyzzyva, The Yale Review, A Public Space, and Granta. She is the recipient of fellowships from The MacDowell Colony and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
She lives in New York City and Connecticut.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 6, 2021
These short stories are so filled with images along with the peccadilloes of mere mortals that they make me want to swoon. In “Wreckers” the image of a peaceful vacation home bedroom with its windows open so as to catch a breeze is paired with the violence toward a small brown creature by both the husband and the family cat. In “Refuge” a mid level corporate cog realizes her own lack of importance but succeeds in lighting up the retreat before she slinks off to find refuge.
September 24, 2023
A great short story collection. It always amazes me when an author can’t paint such a picture with just a few pages- I felt so connected to some of these characters. As is the case with most collections, some were better than others, but overall great.
October 18, 2024
I enjoyed this book so much. It was as if she was having a conversation with you, an intimate friend of hers. She shared all her idiosyncrasies and foibles in such an honest self-effacing way. Made me want to be her friend.
August 1, 2018
Thus far, there aren't many other commentaries posted about this short story collection, but the dominant theme is already evident: Readers say, "her characters are sad, but it's not the sadness she focuses on, it's the way they keep trying to find their way" or, more succinctly, these are "stories about people going through a bad patch." Well, yes, pretty much by definition a story involves grappling with a problem, a problem unresolved can mean sadness, and in lots of realistic fiction problems are not resolved (i.e., it may be more than an isolated "bad patch").
But the dominant mood of all realistic fiction is not necessarily sadness.
What makes sadness dominant in these stories is the way they show recognizable characters being broken by life, and accommodating themselves to the process with a strange passivity or fatalism. The second story, in which the hopeful young gal is in the impossible situation of trying to promote unknown authors, while pretending to live out her absent mother's fantasy, could not be more explicit. I closed the book after reading it with the thought life breaks every one of us.
Notwithstanding my admiration for the way that case is presented, and my inability to argue with it, this is not the kind of literature I prefer to see. I want to see characters at least trying to push back, or authors trying to redefine the problem. In the third story a woman is torn between her roles as a mother and a lawyer. She is not succeeding in either, and if anything is helplessly digging herself deeper into a hole. It's hard to watch a character behave self-destructively.
These days I'm more drawn to fiction that is speculative as well as realistic. As an example, here are my thoughts on a story collection I read prior to this one. And fwiw here's a novel that affected me in the same way. This is to say: What if something were altered about a given human problem? What if it were seen as a metaphor, or if there were some way of looking at it differently? There's something liberating, maybe even empowering, about finding a less obvious or more poetic rendering.
Or even in the absence of such alterations, can't the depictions be a bit less destructive? I think so. In parallel with this book I was enjoying Nocturnes, by Ishiguro Kazuo, and it's a case in point.
I also realized years ago (when commenting on this novel) that I prefer it when an author is able to exercise a little benevolence toward the characters, assuming it's at all plausible to do so. I'm already acquainted with enough tragedy.
Writers can hardly be asked to write stories that aren't in them. I'm not saying Jessica Frances Kane should change her style. But to my way of thinking this preference for sadness seems limiting and self-indulgent. We have here well-drawn characters who are consumed with regret and thwarted good intentions. They're interesting because everybody recognizes having been in the same situation. But I'm looking for more than a portrait of disappointment.
But the dominant mood of all realistic fiction is not necessarily sadness.
What makes sadness dominant in these stories is the way they show recognizable characters being broken by life, and accommodating themselves to the process with a strange passivity or fatalism. The second story, in which the hopeful young gal is in the impossible situation of trying to promote unknown authors, while pretending to live out her absent mother's fantasy, could not be more explicit. I closed the book after reading it with the thought life breaks every one of us.
Notwithstanding my admiration for the way that case is presented, and my inability to argue with it, this is not the kind of literature I prefer to see. I want to see characters at least trying to push back, or authors trying to redefine the problem. In the third story a woman is torn between her roles as a mother and a lawyer. She is not succeeding in either, and if anything is helplessly digging herself deeper into a hole. It's hard to watch a character behave self-destructively.
These days I'm more drawn to fiction that is speculative as well as realistic. As an example, here are my thoughts on a story collection I read prior to this one. And fwiw here's a novel that affected me in the same way. This is to say: What if something were altered about a given human problem? What if it were seen as a metaphor, or if there were some way of looking at it differently? There's something liberating, maybe even empowering, about finding a less obvious or more poetic rendering.
Or even in the absence of such alterations, can't the depictions be a bit less destructive? I think so. In parallel with this book I was enjoying Nocturnes, by Ishiguro Kazuo, and it's a case in point.
I also realized years ago (when commenting on this novel) that I prefer it when an author is able to exercise a little benevolence toward the characters, assuming it's at all plausible to do so. I'm already acquainted with enough tragedy.
Writers can hardly be asked to write stories that aren't in them. I'm not saying Jessica Frances Kane should change her style. But to my way of thinking this preference for sadness seems limiting and self-indulgent. We have here well-drawn characters who are consumed with regret and thwarted good intentions. They're interesting because everybody recognizes having been in the same situation. But I'm looking for more than a portrait of disappointment.
October 21, 2009
Stories about people going through a bad patch.
July 17, 2013
I went to find her earlier book of short stories. They are good but I was disappointed to find that a couple of them were republished in her second collection.
April 21, 2016
I am not usually a fan of the short story but I enjoyed these.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews