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Moratorium
From one of America’s acclaimed poet-philosophers comes a stunning short story collection that holds delayed afterimages of people navigating love, loss, desire, and sex.
Gary Percesepe’s new book, MORATORIUM, is a gallery of intimate portraits of people who long for human connection without quite trusting it. In the title story, a war hero lashes his daughter to the banister in the lead-up to a massive anti-Vietnam war protest. A high school boy gives up on love but never Gatsby; another recalls a summer in the Adirondacks when he spurned a classmate whose family later met with tragedy. Beautiful women select men for amusement; parents grieve children they don’t quite get; men dispatch women in order to inventory their loss. In these delicately crafted stories, a drunk speeder bonds with a cop over Uma Thurman’s feet; a grocery clerk engages in revenge sex with someone’s shattered, self-absorbed husband.
These stories are melancholy and wild; they are funny and hopeful, too. Here are people whose lives seem delayed momentarily between mounting losses—stories that reveal the way we live now. Reading this story collection, we see our world again as if for the first time.
“Powerful, deeply engaging stories that live in their history as if the past were the present. Percesepe has the gift of recreating time and place in the way of Philip Roth and Roddy Doyle, replete with telling detail and characters we can all recognize.” ~ T.C. Boyle
“However he did it, these stories are simultaneously crisp and gentle, and, repeatedly, Gary Percesepe seems to have found the right viewing distance. The language and sentence cadences sometimes nod to Hemingway, by way of Carver. The stepping stones thrown down are literary, with a nod to (among others) Irwin Shaw, as well as to Patrick Modiano. These stories are surprisingly, refreshingly direct, involving, and very convincing. Really wonderful.” ~ Ann Beattie
“Gary Percesepe's new collection is a jewel, a marvel, a remarkable find. These stories are tasty, tight, bitter, angry, deeply sad, occasionally relieved, and always about both teaching and learning. Moratorium is a gritty performative work that shakes the bones inside the closets where we hide all of our skeletons.” ~ Frederick Barthelme
Gary Percesepe’s new book, MORATORIUM, is a gallery of intimate portraits of people who long for human connection without quite trusting it. In the title story, a war hero lashes his daughter to the banister in the lead-up to a massive anti-Vietnam war protest. A high school boy gives up on love but never Gatsby; another recalls a summer in the Adirondacks when he spurned a classmate whose family later met with tragedy. Beautiful women select men for amusement; parents grieve children they don’t quite get; men dispatch women in order to inventory their loss. In these delicately crafted stories, a drunk speeder bonds with a cop over Uma Thurman’s feet; a grocery clerk engages in revenge sex with someone’s shattered, self-absorbed husband.
These stories are melancholy and wild; they are funny and hopeful, too. Here are people whose lives seem delayed momentarily between mounting losses—stories that reveal the way we live now. Reading this story collection, we see our world again as if for the first time.
“Powerful, deeply engaging stories that live in their history as if the past were the present. Percesepe has the gift of recreating time and place in the way of Philip Roth and Roddy Doyle, replete with telling detail and characters we can all recognize.” ~ T.C. Boyle
“However he did it, these stories are simultaneously crisp and gentle, and, repeatedly, Gary Percesepe seems to have found the right viewing distance. The language and sentence cadences sometimes nod to Hemingway, by way of Carver. The stepping stones thrown down are literary, with a nod to (among others) Irwin Shaw, as well as to Patrick Modiano. These stories are surprisingly, refreshingly direct, involving, and very convincing. Really wonderful.” ~ Ann Beattie
“Gary Percesepe's new collection is a jewel, a marvel, a remarkable find. These stories are tasty, tight, bitter, angry, deeply sad, occasionally relieved, and always about both teaching and learning. Moratorium is a gritty performative work that shakes the bones inside the closets where we hide all of our skeletons.” ~ Frederick Barthelme
278 pages, Paperback
Published December 7, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 9, 2021
Moratorium by Gary Percesepe is a collection of short stories that will have something for just about anyone. If there is a common element to them it is the sense of feeling, whether of loss, love, confusion, or whatever.
These stories range from about 24 pages to just 6 paragraphs, yet each burrows into the reader's mind as well as heart. I think one of the things I found most appealing was how we were presented with characters who are certainly flawed but they are given to us without either hyperbole or judgement. We can dwell in the situations, ponder what we think about them and their actions. And consider what we think we might do under the same circumstances.
Many of these stories are less traditional in that they almost appear to be snippets from longer stories. But they are fully realized if the reader considers inhabiting someone's thoughts during a time (whether a number of years or just a short time) as one of the goals of a short story. In other words, to use the beginning/middle/end concept, I think many of the ends here take place in the reader's minds rather than on the page. We play a large role in creating the completed story.
I recommend this to readers of short stories, though admittedly those who insist on complete and total closure will find some of the stories less satisfying. If, however, you like reading characters who stay with you after you have finished the story, you will enjoy this tremendously, and might end up with an overpopulated mind.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
These stories range from about 24 pages to just 6 paragraphs, yet each burrows into the reader's mind as well as heart. I think one of the things I found most appealing was how we were presented with characters who are certainly flawed but they are given to us without either hyperbole or judgement. We can dwell in the situations, ponder what we think about them and their actions. And consider what we think we might do under the same circumstances.
Many of these stories are less traditional in that they almost appear to be snippets from longer stories. But they are fully realized if the reader considers inhabiting someone's thoughts during a time (whether a number of years or just a short time) as one of the goals of a short story. In other words, to use the beginning/middle/end concept, I think many of the ends here take place in the reader's minds rather than on the page. We play a large role in creating the completed story.
I recommend this to readers of short stories, though admittedly those who insist on complete and total closure will find some of the stories less satisfying. If, however, you like reading characters who stay with you after you have finished the story, you will enjoy this tremendously, and might end up with an overpopulated mind.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
April 23, 2022
I received this from a Goodreads Giveaway.
Normally, when I come up with a rating for a short story collection, I add up all the stars I have given, divide them by the number of stories, and then I round down to the closest star. In this case, I rounded up. The stories I gave two stars did not necessarily work for me as individual stories. They were more like vignettes or windows into a larger story, but the themes present in each story all worked together within the larger collection, giving the book the little bump up in stars.
“Moratorium” ****
“Summer: 1972” ****
“Lulu in the Year of Gatsby” ****
“You Look Different” ****
“Chase” **
“Missionary” *****
“Gail” ***
“Christmas: 1972” **
“That’s Grace, Too” ***
“Itch” **
“The Wonder Seat” **
“The Grocery Girl” **
“He Wasn’t You” ***
“Scripts” ***
“What You Do Best” **
“The Prince of Arthur Avenue” ***
“Beautiful Girls” **
“Quiver” ***
“Echo Park” **
“Styoppa” **
“With Mary” **
“Funeral” ***
“In Venice” **
“Girl, Interrupted” ***
“Of Course We’re Good” ****
“Giacometti” **
“Why I Write Such Good Songs, Coyote” ***
“Close” ****
“Hazard” ****
“Perfect Eight” ***
“One More Thing” ***
“What Is It?” ***
“Shot” ***
“Lulu” ****
“Wing Man” **
“In Telluride” ***
“Mireille” ***
“Youth” **
Normally, when I come up with a rating for a short story collection, I add up all the stars I have given, divide them by the number of stories, and then I round down to the closest star. In this case, I rounded up. The stories I gave two stars did not necessarily work for me as individual stories. They were more like vignettes or windows into a larger story, but the themes present in each story all worked together within the larger collection, giving the book the little bump up in stars.
“Moratorium” ****
“Summer: 1972” ****
“Lulu in the Year of Gatsby” ****
“You Look Different” ****
“Chase” **
“Missionary” *****
“Gail” ***
“Christmas: 1972” **
“That’s Grace, Too” ***
“Itch” **
“The Wonder Seat” **
“The Grocery Girl” **
“He Wasn’t You” ***
“Scripts” ***
“What You Do Best” **
“The Prince of Arthur Avenue” ***
“Beautiful Girls” **
“Quiver” ***
“Echo Park” **
“Styoppa” **
“With Mary” **
“Funeral” ***
“In Venice” **
“Girl, Interrupted” ***
“Of Course We’re Good” ****
“Giacometti” **
“Why I Write Such Good Songs, Coyote” ***
“Close” ****
“Hazard” ****
“Perfect Eight” ***
“One More Thing” ***
“What Is It?” ***
“Shot” ***
“Lulu” ****
“Wing Man” **
“In Telluride” ***
“Mireille” ***
“Youth” **
December 28, 2021
Moratorium is a short story collection written by the author Gary Percesepe. There are 35+ short stories in this book.
Christmas: 1972 is a story around Christmas time. The narrator's girlfriend had blue Christmas lights strung on trees in front of her house. It was snowing and the narrator parked in her driveway. But Snowflakes stuck to the windshield of his father's Ford.
Beautiful Girls is about a cop giving a ticket to the driver and discussing the movie Beautiful girl.
One More Thing features Annie Riser whose husband died twenty years before. She has put her house up for sale and booked a flight to Colorado. Annie has lost her youngest child Rose to the same Ovarian cancer.
These short fiction stories involve sudden losses or deaths. Stories are full of different emotions. Narration is so strong that these stories are gonna stay in my head for a longer time. The stories are unique, refreshing, etc. I like the writing style of Gary.
I enjoyed reading a couple of stories in a single sitting. Stories are witty and I am glad to get my hands on this amazing collection.
Christmas: 1972 is a story around Christmas time. The narrator's girlfriend had blue Christmas lights strung on trees in front of her house. It was snowing and the narrator parked in her driveway. But Snowflakes stuck to the windshield of his father's Ford.
Beautiful Girls is about a cop giving a ticket to the driver and discussing the movie Beautiful girl.
One More Thing features Annie Riser whose husband died twenty years before. She has put her house up for sale and booked a flight to Colorado. Annie has lost her youngest child Rose to the same Ovarian cancer.
These short fiction stories involve sudden losses or deaths. Stories are full of different emotions. Narration is so strong that these stories are gonna stay in my head for a longer time. The stories are unique, refreshing, etc. I like the writing style of Gary.
I enjoyed reading a couple of stories in a single sitting. Stories are witty and I am glad to get my hands on this amazing collection.
January 10, 2022
A powerhouse of faith, sex, and loss. The stories in Moratorium show all the things that can happen between two people. Percesepe reveals these many wounds with profound perception.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews