ISBN: 030740191X 9780307401915

Category: Fiction / Short Stories (single author)

Page count: 352

<b>Proudly presenting the widely anticipated new work of fiction from the multi-award winning bestselling author of <i>Middlesex</i>--a #1 major bestseller in Canada--and <i>The Marriage Plot</i>--also an acclaimed national bestseller--and the beloved <i>The Virgin Suicides</i>.</b><br><br>Featuring unseen stories from one of the most eclectic, dynamic fiction writers working today, <i>Fresh Complaint</i> brings together works both new and previously published--including the crème de la crème of Eugenides's beloved <i>New Yorker</i> stories, never before collected between two covers.<br>     Jeffrey Eugenides's bestselling novels have shown that he is an astute observer of the crises of adolescence, sexual identity, self-discovery, family love and what it means to be an American in our times. The stories in <i>Fresh Complaint</i> continue that tradition. Ranging from the reproductive antics of "Baster" to the wry, moving account of a young traveller's search for enlightenment in "Air Mail" (selected by Annie Proulx for <i>The Best American Short Stories 1997</i>), this collection presents characters in the midst of personal and national crises. We meet a failed poet who, envious of other people's wealth during the real-estate bubble, becomes an embezzler; a clavichordist whose dreams of art collapse under the obligations of marriage and fatherhood; and, in "Bronze," a sexually confused college freshman whose encounter with a stranger on a train leads to a revelation about his past and his future. Narratively compelling, beautifully written and packed with a density of ideas that belie their fluid grace, <i>Fresh Complaint</i> proves Eugenides to be a master of the short form as well as the long.<br>     Showcasing stories from as far back as the 1980s and as recently as 2017, <i>Fresh Complaint</i> is the career-spanning collection from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author.