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Imaginary Men
“The first time I ever heard Enid Shomer's poetry, I was profoundly impressed with her honesty, the clarity of her vision, her eye for detail, and the deceptive simplicity with which she crafts her work. With Imaginary Men she expands her range, using the same clear voice, the same attention to the particular to express the whole. These short stories are like an emotional barometer measuring subtle changes in the world's interior weather.”—Sue Grafton
“Enid Shomer's Imaginary Men, winner of the 1992 John Simmons Short Fiction Award, is a collection of considerable thematic complexity and emotional scope. Alternating strands of past and present weave through many of the narratives, seeming barely related at first, yet at the end the separate strands have fused into a resonant whole. Often a startling insight drops the story open like a trapdoor into another level that feels both surprising and inevitable, revealing unexpected emotional fallout from events as trivial-seeming as a kindly meant remark.”—Studies in Short Fiction
“Eleven elegant stories proving (among other things) that American families are more varied—and more brightly fertile and warmly eccentric—than most liberal or conservative definitions dream of…Good-natured is something all of these stores are—as well as remarkably versatile, seamlessly constructed, and revealing of our common life.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Each story in Imaginary Men is a distinct pleasure. But when planted side by side, these well-told tales yield an even richer harvest.”—New York Times Book Review
Even the tamest characters in Imaginary Men test the rules to see where they can be broken and where they hold true. In Enid Shomer's world, endless misunderstandings sprout from goodwill, women and men burn with a desire that forces them to create themselves as they evolve, people grasp their relatedness to others only fleetingly, goodness is as great a mystery as evil.
For the unappreciated Harry Goldring, tormented by his unshakable label of family mensch, wildness is expressed first in panic attacks, then in daydreams. At the other end of Shomer's highly colored spectrum is killer Elvis Thornberry, a “man you wouldn't notice unless he held a gun to your head or saved your life.” Balancing these more troubled characters are Shomer's many improbable lovers and friends: Lavell, who sees something of herself in the untrainable hunting dog owned by her younger lover; Diane, who takes back her unfaithful husband only after inventing a lie that puts her on an equal footing; Leila Pinkerton and Fontane Walker, who were "as close to friendship as they could get, given that Leila was white, Fontane was black, and they lived in a world full of people who claimed to know what that meant."
In all of Shomer's powerful stories, family is the mold we break out of as well as the lap we seek comfort in; family myths create mysterious emblems of freedom. Listening to her resonant voice, we witness the wild, raw moments when people lose control, when the wildness—submerged or not—that they both avoid and rush toward bleeds through.
“Enid Shomer's Imaginary Men, winner of the 1992 John Simmons Short Fiction Award, is a collection of considerable thematic complexity and emotional scope. Alternating strands of past and present weave through many of the narratives, seeming barely related at first, yet at the end the separate strands have fused into a resonant whole. Often a startling insight drops the story open like a trapdoor into another level that feels both surprising and inevitable, revealing unexpected emotional fallout from events as trivial-seeming as a kindly meant remark.”—Studies in Short Fiction
“Eleven elegant stories proving (among other things) that American families are more varied—and more brightly fertile and warmly eccentric—than most liberal or conservative definitions dream of…Good-natured is something all of these stores are—as well as remarkably versatile, seamlessly constructed, and revealing of our common life.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Each story in Imaginary Men is a distinct pleasure. But when planted side by side, these well-told tales yield an even richer harvest.”—New York Times Book Review
Even the tamest characters in Imaginary Men test the rules to see where they can be broken and where they hold true. In Enid Shomer's world, endless misunderstandings sprout from goodwill, women and men burn with a desire that forces them to create themselves as they evolve, people grasp their relatedness to others only fleetingly, goodness is as great a mystery as evil.
For the unappreciated Harry Goldring, tormented by his unshakable label of family mensch, wildness is expressed first in panic attacks, then in daydreams. At the other end of Shomer's highly colored spectrum is killer Elvis Thornberry, a “man you wouldn't notice unless he held a gun to your head or saved your life.” Balancing these more troubled characters are Shomer's many improbable lovers and friends: Lavell, who sees something of herself in the untrainable hunting dog owned by her younger lover; Diane, who takes back her unfaithful husband only after inventing a lie that puts her on an equal footing; Leila Pinkerton and Fontane Walker, who were "as close to friendship as they could get, given that Leila was white, Fontane was black, and they lived in a world full of people who claimed to know what that meant."
In all of Shomer's powerful stories, family is the mold we break out of as well as the lap we seek comfort in; family myths create mysterious emblems of freedom. Listening to her resonant voice, we witness the wild, raw moments when people lose control, when the wildness—submerged or not—that they both avoid and rush toward bleeds through.
- GenresShort Stories
164 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 1993
19 people want to read
About the author
Enid Shomer
24 books33 followersEnid Shomer is an award-winning American poet and fiction writer. She is author of six poetry collections and two short story collections largely set in, influenced by, and life in the State of Florida.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 8, 2019
I was so pleased to get a copy of this short story collection after reading a more recent collection by the author titled TOURIST SEASON. The stories are set in various locations in Florida, or are connected to the state through the characters portrayed, and as I have lived in southeast Florida for 25 years now, I love the references to different locales. The stories, the characters, the circumstances portrayed feel so real - as though I am reading about a friend, or a neighbor, or a relative. I hope the author publishes another collection.
November 26, 2022
These stories hurt my heart. "The Tropical Aunts" specifically made me sob by the end (though the weird moment about Rroma in that one was very iffy).
June 6, 2016
Incredibly fine, heartfelt and poetic stories. Most of them focus on loners in the context of their families, almost all protagonists significantly Jewish, with the exception of several pieces placed at the end of the collection, where things start to get unsteady. But the collection closes with a gem that made me grateful to U of Iowa Press and Balthus whose combined efforts enticed me to buy this little book. My thanks also go to whoever did not buy it during those several months when I was not sure whether I could judge a book by its cover and a hunch. Thanks to the person who bought this book before me and parted with it by selling it to the bookshop that I visit more often than I should. And finally, thank you very much to the Jewish American writers, who convinced me that a tradition of the Jewish short story in English could be created and upheld without grotesque and sickly national buoyancy. Enid Shomer is an eminent player in the team.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews