Tales of Natural and Unnatural Catastrophes

by PatriciaHighsmith (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2000

  $3.28

  In this eerily up-to-date collection, Highsmith s incisive prose chronicles a world gone slightly mad, its catastrophes precipitated by human folly and excess. From the White House under siege by the homeless to a 190-year-old woman perpetually near death and dimly glowing, each tale unfolds the illogical extremes of humanity in the late twentieth century. Highsmith transmogrifies the face of daily existence to lay bare its manifold dark motives. These stories leave us haunted with afterimages that will tremblebut stayin our minds (The New Yorker).

• Used

  Hardcover
  1987

  $5.47

  A collection of stories, based on natural and unnatural catastrophes and exploring the macabre and its meaning. The stories range from midnight revelling in an East Austrian cemetery to a picnic for crackpots on the White House lawn. They also include the source of the tell-tale smells of Nabuti, the unsporting hiding place chosen by the Nuclear Control Committee for radio-active waste and the crumbling defence tactics of a luxury high-rise against a crawling army that fumigation cannot kill. Other tales tell of how magic and horror stories followed in the wake of a furious whale, how miracle and revolution were launched when a Pope stubbed his toe and how happiness came to a woman who thought she was Cleopatra.