Fireworks

Fireworks

by ElizabethWinthrop (Author)

Synopsis

Hollis Clayton is in trouble. Still haunted by his son's death, stalled in his writing career and over fond of the bottle, he finds himself abandoned by his wife for the summer -- or, if he doesn't shape up, for good. But without his emotional anchor, Hollis continues to unravel. Besides, he's busy spying on the neighbours and sharing his meals with a stray dog. When is he going to find the time to get his life back on track? Here, in the daily rhythms of Hollis's disintegrating life, lies an evisceratingly comic portrait of suburban despair. With this deeply affecting tale of grief and renewal, Elizabeth H. Winthrop makes a striking debut.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 304
Publisher: Sceptre
Published: 29 Jun 2006

ISBN 10: 034083952X
ISBN 13: 9780340839522

Media Reviews
* 'Hollis keeps me on the edge of my seat. He's not like any character I've known, which is why fiction matters. He navigates the narrowest channel between delusion and self-awareness; Elizabeth Winthrop has made him just able to function in a world that bewilders him and is bewildered by him, and she does this always along the boundary between the quotidian and extraordinary, between an ordinariness of perception that any reader should be able to connect with and the most exotic nuttiness. He breaks my heart.' - Geoffrey Wolff * 'Fireworks is a lovely, touching novel: intelligent, wry, at once lush and spare, perfectly modulated, with a sense of humor so dry you could scrape yourself on it. It is written with uncanny self- assurance, and the author's evident affection for the book's cranky hero makes for a narrative that is both kind and wise. A debut novel such as this renews one's hopes for modern fiction.' - Andrew Solomon
Author Bio
Elizabeth Winthrop was born and raised in New York City. She graduated from Harvard University in 2001 with a BA in English and American Literature and Language, and in 2004 she received her Master of Fine Arts in fiction from the University of California at Irvine, where she was also awarded the Schaeffer Writing Fellowship for the 2004-5 academic year. Her stories have appeared in a variety of publications including the Missouri Review and the Indiana Review, but FIREWORKS is her first novel. She lives in Savannah, Georgia.