My Body to You

by Elizabeth Searle

These finely wrought stories unfold in the Dakotas during the struggling pioneer days and bone-dry landscape of the thirties as well as the verdant years that followed, where the nighttime plains are bathed by softly radiant harvest moons shining down from dazzling northern skies. Young's absorbing narratives begin with the pleasant sense of "Once upon a time..." anticipation, but the firmly sketched details, warm humor, and vivid characterizations reveal an unanticipated and satisfying realism. The haunting title story is about a beautiful and tragic pioneer woman and her wedding dress; her gown takes on a life of its own and turns into an enduring symbol for the grace and compassion of homesteading women on the plains. In "Bank Night," a hired hand working during the midst of the Depression wins $250 at the movies, careening him into a single night of notoriety that becomes a legend in its time. "The Nights of Ragna Rundhaug" tells the tale of a woman who wants only to be left alone with her white dog Vittehund and her crocheting but instead is propelled into a life of midwifery "because there was no one else to do it." The babies have a predilection for arriving during blizzards and always at night, when she must be transported across the dark plains by frantic husbands who have fortified themselves with strong drink and headstrong horses. All the stories in The Wedding Dress are linked by the enigmatic Nordic characters who people them and by the skill with which Young draws them. Emotions run so deep that they are seldom able to surface; when they do the interaction is extraordinarily luminous, both for the characters themselves and for the fortunate reader. The Wedding Dress is for all readers, young and old.

196 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1993

About the author

Elizabeth Searle is the author of two works of theater and four books of fiction: Celebrities In Disgrace, a novella and stories; A Four-Sided Bed, a novel nominated for an American Library Association Book Award; My Body To You, a story collection that won the Iowa Short Fiction Prize; and a forthcoming novel, Girl Held In Home (2011). The New York Times Book Review called her novella Celebrities In Disgrace "a miniature masterpiece."

Elizabeth Searle's and Michael Teoli's Rock Opera, Tonya & Nancy: The Rock Opera - as well as her and Abigail Al-Doory Cross' original opera, Tonya & Nancy: The Opera have drawn worldwide media attention. In May, 2006, at the American Reperatory Theater's "new space for new works," Tufts Music premiered the opera, which is based on the infamous Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan ice scandal. The opera drew coverage from - among other media outlets - the Associated Press, ESPN Hollywood, Sports Illustrated, The New York Times, The London Times, The Daily Show and National Public Radio.

Searle won the 2010 Boston Literary Death Match and the 2000 Lawrence Foundation Fiction Prize. She received her MFA from Brown University, and has taught fiction writing at Brown, Emerson College, Bennington MFA, Stonecoast MFA, and the University of Massachusetts (Visiting Writer, 2007-08). Searle has also served for over a decade on the Executive Board of PEN/New England and founded the Erotic PEN readings.

Searle lives with her husband and son in Arlington, MA.

Reviews

[Sybil · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to write like this!