Time With Children

by Elizabeth Tallent

With settings in the American Southwest and in London, the stories in this collection focus on the emotional charges and romantic relationships

Genres: Short Stories

157 pages, Hardcover

First published September 12, 1987

About the author

Elizabeth Tallent's short stories have been published in literary magazines and journals such as The New Yorker, Esquire, Harper's Magazine, The Threepenny Review, and North American Review, and her stories have been reprinted in the O. Henry Prize Stories, Best American Short Stories, and Pushcart Prize collections.

She has taught literature and creative writing at the University of California, Irvine, the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and the University of California, Davis. She has been a faculty member at Stanford University since 1994.

Reviews

[Vincent Scarpa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another reread. I just love Elizabeth Tallent's stories so much. This collection has a few story cycles tracking three different couples, and they're magnificent. Her eye for detail is unmatched, as is her shrewd understanding of relationality.

[Lisa Eckstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this story collection years ago after a writing instructor recommended Tallent's work to me. It was a great recommendation, and I loved the characters, narration, and structures of these stories. Subsequently, I was unable to remember either title or author, so when I came across a reference to Tallent that sparked my memory, I thought I'd better add the book here!

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed “Sweet Disposition,” but none of the other stories did much for me. It’s good writing in a style that I simply don’t enjoy: kinda minimal, intimate moments in complicated romantic relationships alongside lush descriptions of domestic settings. Every story is almost exactly ten pages.

[Michael]

Time With Children, more like Time(less) With Children because just like Tallent's In Constant Flight, this book is timeless.

[Jeff Hobbs]

Read so far:

Grant of easement --3
The fence party --2
Time with children --2
No one's a mystery --2
Two ghosts of us --
Sweet disposition --
The forgiveness trick --2
Hannah's example --
Migrants --2
Faux pas --
Black holes --
*Favor --
Listen to reason--
***
Ciudad Juarez
The evolution of birds of paradise
Honey
Ice
Migrants
Narrator
Never come back
Prowler
The wilderness
Why I love country music