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3.5 

Trajectory

By Richard Russo
Trajectory by Richard Russo digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

This dazzling collection of four stories features characters bound together by their parallel moments of reckoning with their pasts—and proves the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls is also a master of the short story. 

“Beautiful…. Will abruptly break your heart.” —The New York Times

The characters in these four expansive stories are a departure from the blue-collar denizens that populate so many of Richard Russo’s novels. In “Horseman,” a young professor confronts an undergraduate plagiarist—as well as her own regrets. In “Intervention,” a realtor facing a serious medical prognosis finds himself in his late father’s shadow. “Voice” gives us a semiretired academic who is conned by his estranged brother into joining a group tour of the Venice Biennale. And “Milton and Marcus” takes us into a lapsed novelist’s attempt to rekindle his screenwriting career—a career that depends wholly, at a crucial moment, on two Hollywood icons (one living, one dead). 

Look for Richard Russo's new book, Somebody's Fool, coming soon.

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35 Reviews

3.5
“Would have been a 5* for me, but had trouble connecting with the last of the four stories.”
“I would sit on a bar stool all day just to listen to Russo tell me stories. He's just got that sly, self-deprecating voice that makes you feel completely at home coupled with a great blue collar empathy and sensibility. His prose is not pretentious, but rather it has a certain charisma that sucks you into the rhythms of his language. This particular collection is a welcome read since it is only 4 stories long, each varying from about 40-90 pages. This allows Russo to eschew the popular trend to give only a small slice of life or end essentially in media res (I understand the term is usually used for beginnings of stories rather than the end). While I fully comprehend and enjoy the use for this common style popularized by Carver especially, I appreciate that this 4 stories are fully satisfying and stand well enough on their own.”

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