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Fair Augusto: and Other Stories
FAIR AUGUSTO AND OTHER STORIES, Laura Kalpakian’s first collection of short fiction shows remarkable breadth and depth. The settings, moods, themes and characters who inhabit these stories display enviable artistic range. “Hunters in the Fields of August” follows the fates and fortunes of a family of Italian Jews fleeing Mussolini. “Veteran’s Day” (winner of the Stand International Short Fiction Competition) chronicles a disturbed veteran’s return to his hometown. The title piece explores a lost lover whose suicide reverberates across lives and continents. Winner of the Pen West Best Short Fiction, 1987, these are stories to savor.
“This fine collection of short fiction is filled with rich depictions of human frailty and resilience, and characters who must relinquish their passionate attachments–whether it be to a marriage or a memory.” MS MAGAZINE
“Kalpakian’s strength is her ability to write in many different voices. She chooses the side of the downtrodden...Her sympathies lie with deserted wife, the sister of a criminal, a cuckolded husband, the prim and un-adventuresome secretary in an insurance firm...As a whole the collection wonderful, a rich and mature work, marked by signs of a real writer’s gift...a book of highly accomplished stories.” LOS ANGELES TIMES
“These stories exhibit a droll humor and a welcome sense of surprise” NEW YORK TIMES
“This fine collection of short fiction is filled with rich depictions of human frailty and resilience, and characters who must relinquish their passionate attachments–whether it be to a marriage or a memory.” MS MAGAZINE
“Kalpakian’s strength is her ability to write in many different voices. She chooses the side of the downtrodden...Her sympathies lie with deserted wife, the sister of a criminal, a cuckolded husband, the prim and un-adventuresome secretary in an insurance firm...As a whole the collection wonderful, a rich and mature work, marked by signs of a real writer’s gift...a book of highly accomplished stories.” LOS ANGELES TIMES
“These stories exhibit a droll humor and a welcome sense of surprise” NEW YORK TIMES
305 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 13, 2023
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June 29, 2023
I intended to read this collection of stories in one sitting, but Ms. Kalpakian had different ideas. Each of the stories—a broken Vietnam vet, an Armenian immigrant, an aging gardener, and others—takes the reader through such a fully imagined human experience that I simply had to take a break between each one. The narrative experience of each story left me wanting to savor fully before going on to the next. This is a fantastic collection of stories! I highly recommend.
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