Girls in the Grass - Hardcover

Melanie Rae Thon is also the author of First, Body (Owl Books, 0-8050-5540-1) Iona Moon, and Meteors in August. Her short stories have appeared in The Best American Short Stories, The Paris Review, Story, and Granta. She lives in Columbus, Ohio, and teaches at the Ohio State University.

In these 11 stories, whose settings range from Boston to suburban Arizona to rural Idaho, Thon captures her characters at a moment of sudden revelation. She portrays young men and women edging warily from adolescence to adulthood. Whether they are fearful of or eager for adult reality, they are pushed by circumstances beyond their control into new ways of perceiving themselves. In the title story, a young girl discovers she has outgrown the games of childhood. "Sisters" is a story of the ambivalent love that binds two sisters, one of whom resentfully assumes the burdens her wild and irresponsible sister refuses. Pushed to her limit, she finally realizes that she can never break the bond that binds them. In "Small Crimes," a middle-aged poet fails in the seduction of a young woman, and this failure forces him to confront a painful failure in his past. Thon writes with sympathy and authenticity about recognizable situations that confront us all.
- Marcia Tager, Tenafly, N.J.
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