3.5
Ideas of Heaven: A Ring of Stories
ByPublisher Description
Shortlisted for the National Book Award: "Joan Silber writes with wisdom, humor, grace, and wry intelligence. Her characters bear welcome news of how we will survive."—Andrea Barrett
Intense in subject yet restrained in tone, these stories are about longings—often held for years—and the ways in which sex and religion can become parallel forms of dedication and comfort. Though the stories stand alone, a minor element in one becomes major in the next. In "My Shape", a woman is taunted by her dance coach, who later suffers his own heartache. A Venetian poet of the 1500s, another storyteller, is introduced to a modern traveler reading Rilke. His story precedes a mesmerizing narrative of missionaries in China. In the final story, Giles, born to a priesthood family, leans toward Buddhism after a grievous loss, and in time falls in love with the dancer of the first story. So deft and subtle is Joan Silber with these various perspectives that we come full circle surprised and enchanted by her myriad worlds. National Book Award finalist. Reading group guide included.Download the free Fable app
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities14 Reviews
3.5
iceberg
Created 7 months agoShare
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“I didn't expect to be charmed by these collections of short stories because I've never been quite a fan of short stories to begin with. It is for that reason, and not for any reason related to the stories that it took me quite a while to read this.
The thing that absolutely drew me in with every story were the distinct voices of our narrators. It truly felt like the narrators were their own being and so uniquely whole within their own tales (which seems like such an obvious thing to say but so many books with multiple narrators do not feel like this) that I found it easy to delve into this little portion of their lives. The writing itself flowed nicely, and this book has some of the most beautiful lines I've ever read in a book.
My first favourite was probably "Gaspara Stampa", because it was so poetically written and I empathized with Gaspara so much within those pages. Her heartache was my heartache. The second, which surprised even myself was "Ideas of Heaven". Coming from an evangelist background and a lot of religious trauma, I saw the lines that had been parroted to me from a young age, and I saw the unbridled passions from the characters that I'd come to loathe as an adult. To me, "Ideas of Heaven" was visceral and disturbing in equal measures, and captured the very earnest (and terrifying) way evangelists communicate.
I could honestly recommend this to most anyone, but especially to those to enjoy short stories.”
aoibhe
Created over 1 year agoShare
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amanda
Created over 1 year agoShare
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Bianca
Created over 1 year agoShare
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Cyrelle Bautista
Created over 3 years agoShare
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About Joan Silber
Joan Silber is the author of eight works of fiction. Among many awards and honors, she has won the PEN/Faulkner Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction and has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. She teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and lives in New York City.
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