Type

Text

Type

Thesis

Advisor

Scarf Merrell, Susan | Rosenblatt, Roger | Devers, A.N..

Date

2015-05-01

Keywords

essays, humor, short stories | Literature

Department

Department of Creative Writing and Literature.

Language

en_US

Source

This work is sponsored by the Stony Brook University Graduate School in compliance with the requirements for completion of degree.

Identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/11401/77345

Publisher

The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY.

Format

application/pdf

Abstract

This story and essay collection is a mostly humorous look at what Roger Rosenblatt calls the “extraordinary-ordinary†moments of life, of relationships, and of the maddening everyday frustrations of a woman still trying to get it together after four kids and two marriages. The essays form an accidental autobiography while the stories explore silver linings and life’s more unfortunate circumstances. This excerpt from “Tuna is a Four Letter Word†is representative of the overall tone of the collection: " When I workshopped a snack food essay at a summer writing conference, one of my fellow writers, the son of a prominent Hollywood actor, proceeded to give me a lecture on food—something about his body being a temple that he filled with only wholesome healthy foods. Well, my body is a cluttered living room with an overstuffed sofa covered in dog hair, and bare feet on the coffee table next to an open bottle of Corona and a half-eaten bag of potato chips. NO tuna." My intention was to reflect on life honestly and without pretention, and it seems to have succeeded, based on Professor Rosenblatt’s observation: “she’s never cute and self-satisfied about any of her conclusions or opinions. They simply are parts of who she is -- tough, funny, tender-hearted, smart as hell.â€,81 pages

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