| Title | : | Angel Lust (Kindle Single) (Electric Literature's Recommended Reading) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 25 |
| Publication | : | First published May 20, 2013 |
“If he had to referee their squabbles and navigate their quicksilver emotions while sifting through his father’s possessions, he hoped the house would not seem so empty, or he hoped at least the emptiness would be neutral.”
'If only," writes Halimah Marcus, Co-Editor of Electric Literature, in her introduction. "Instead, the emptiness proves quite virile. His father’s possessions are souvenirs of his romance with Simon’s mother (who died suddenly of a brain aneurism at forty-eight), further evidence of desire having its own half-life, independent of bodies and their relationships."
But for Simon, a man who "had always perceived a chaos in women about to break loose," "lust for his first wife has out-lived their marriage, while lust for his current wife is lifeless—bored, as he characterizes it, with her eagerness, her nubility," writes Marcus.
About the author:
Maggie Shipstead grew up in Orange County, CA. Maggie is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and is a former Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford. She won the 2012 Dylan Thomas Prize and the 2012 LA Times First Fiction Award for Seating Arrangements. Her short fiction has appeared in The Mississippi Review, The Missouri Review, Glimmer Train, The Virginia Quarterly Review, and Best American Short Stories.
About Recommended Reading:
Great authors inspire us. But what about the stories that inspire them? Recommended Reading, the latest project from Electric Literature, publishes one story every week, each chosen by a great author or editor. In this age of distraction, we uncover writing that's worth slowing down and spending some time with. And in doing so, we help give great writers, literary magazines, and independent presses the recognition (and readership) they deserve.
Angel Lust (Kindle Single) (Electric Literature's Recommended Reading) Reviews
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Simon Orff was a movie producer in Los Angeles. He was living with his 3rd wife, Natalie in Malibu. His 2nd wife returned to New York after their divorce.
His first wife was Holly, lived in the Hollywood Hills, and the mother of his two daughters:
Vanessa, 17, and Monty, 13.
Holly had just dropped off the girls to Simon for the weekend. He wanted his wife Natalie to stay home. He wanted to take his daughters with him alone to the house where he grew up in -and his kids visited. His father - the girls grandfather - had recently died - the last person living in that house.
Simon needed to go through his dad’s belongings and wanted the girls to take what they wanted: old music... whatever.
Oh... some funny things continue once they arrive...
but even ‘before’ they arrive, Simon begins tries for car-chat. Of course the girls had their headphones on... but he managed to get a little conversation going.
Vanessa was studying to take her GED, so he didn’t ask her about school ( but you’ll learn more about her later - having been in one of Simon’s films)...
So Simon asks Monty, his younger daughter ...
“what are you learning in school?”
“Lots of stuff”
“What stuff?”
“I don’t know. Some stuff about fractions. Some stuff about the gold rush.
Oh my god, did you know a corpse can have a boner?”.
“They taught you that in school?, Simon asks Monty”.
“It’s what I learned. I think it’s gross”.
This is a terrific short story by a fabulous author. I’ve loved Maggie Shipstead since her debut novel,
“Seating Arrangements”.
I’ve met Maggie, too...
I’ll read anything by her.
Always - always I can count on enjoying her stories.
This is a short story -
It’s $1.99 on Amazon.
Gotta have a sense of humor!!! -
I love how Maggie Shipstead writes. Anything I read by her intrigues me because she really knows how to develop a story, regardless of how short it may be.
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Enjoyable short story.
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I rate this short story as 4 of 5 — EXCELLENT. Thought provoking but humorous. 😊
