Items related to Lost Lake: Stories
In twelve beautifully imagined stories linked by character and setting, Mark Slouka chronicles three generations of men and women under the spell of a landscape with a powerful history.
Set in a tiny Czech community on the shore’s of upstate New York’s Lost Lake, these elegiac stories explore both the quiet, complicated glory of the natural world and the mysterious motions of the human spirit. In “Genesis,” an inspired young war veteran envisions his legacy in a modest pasture. In “The Shape of Water,” a boy’s recollection of a momentous catch occasions a later reflection on the power of invented truths. In “The Exile,” a young woman struggles unsuccessfully against an adulterous passion. Through them all, Lost Lake emerges as a place of both epic significance and enduring simplicity, prompting memories both challenging and bittersweet.
Set in a tiny Czech community on the shore’s of upstate New York’s Lost Lake, these elegiac stories explore both the quiet, complicated glory of the natural world and the mysterious motions of the human spirit. In “Genesis,” an inspired young war veteran envisions his legacy in a modest pasture. In “The Shape of Water,” a boy’s recollection of a momentous catch occasions a later reflection on the power of invented truths. In “The Exile,” a young woman struggles unsuccessfully against an adulterous passion. Through them all, Lost Lake emerges as a place of both epic significance and enduring simplicity, prompting memories both challenging and bittersweet.
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Review:
"Some say the soul tempered by fire--tortured true--is the better for the trial. Perhaps it is so. But I was born between the wars," writes the narrator of this collection's opening story, "The Shape of Water." "My adventures were of the survivable kind, my tragedies ambiguous and undramatic, observed as much as felt. What formed me were anecdotes--often inconclusive, generally unheroic--connected to a particular forty acres of water. An unexceptional place. I did not choose it. And yet, if I could ever open myself, I suspect I'd find its coves there, its sleeping silt, its placental water smooth with algae ... and the faces of those I'd known revealed as clearly as if mine had been that lake of legend said to reflect the human heart."
From the Back Cover:
It's an extraordinary image, and one that aptly sums up the project of this dazzling debut collection. Throughout Lost Lake, Slouka invests everyday events with an almost numinous glow. Catching fish; cleaning them; practicing knots; telling stories: these actions are windows opening onto unimaginable darkness--soldiers hanged along an avenue of cherry trees, decapitated snapping turtles crawling past their own heads, a dead baby wrapped in "the warm cave" of a coat. Ostensibly, these stories take place among a small Czech community settled on the shores of New York's Lost Lake, but they ripple outward to encompass the world. No exalted feat of nature, Lost Lake is a landscape both humble and utterly human, as we discover in "Creation," in which a dreamy farmer looks out over a cow pasture and pictures the fishing hole he will make. Nonetheless, it's still privy to the most elemental of dramas, from death ("Equinox") to adulterous love ("The Exile"). The short story is a miniaturist's art, and its success depends on a writer's ability to compress everything most essential about life--memory, guilt, sorrow, love, fishing--to fit within its brief pages. Slouka is a master. Reading Lost Lake elicits the same wonder as holding water up to a microscope for the first time: there it is, life, teeming, abundant, and true. --Mary Park
“Relentlessly observant, miraculously expressive, these are stories that see through the mirrored surface into a hidden yet strangely intimate world.” –The New York Times Book Review
“Mr. Slouka is an important writer, and [Lost Lake] is, quite simply, wonderful.” –Dallas Morning News
“The range of emotion and experience in Lost Lake is panoramic, the sense of mystery as deep as the lake itself.” –The Commercial Appeal
“So rich and affecting that it incorporates all kinds of influences while remaining singular and quite unforgettable.” –Outside
“Mr. Slouka is an important writer, and [Lost Lake] is, quite simply, wonderful.” –Dallas Morning News
“The range of emotion and experience in Lost Lake is panoramic, the sense of mystery as deep as the lake itself.” –The Commercial Appeal
“So rich and affecting that it incorporates all kinds of influences while remaining singular and quite unforgettable.” –Outside
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- PublisherVintage
- Publication date2002
- ISBN 10 0375702083
- ISBN 13 9780375702082
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages192
- Rating
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Lost Lake: Stories
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(2002)
ISBN 10: 0375702083
ISBN 13: 9780375702082
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Book Description Trade Paperback. Condition: Very Good. 1st Printing. 1st printing. Light edge wear. 2002 Trade Paperback. Set in a tiny Czech community on the shore's of upstate New York's Lost Lake, these elegiac stories explore both the quiet, complicated glory of the natural world and the mysterious motions of the human spirit. In ?Genesis,? an inspired young war veteran envisions his legacy in a modest pasture. In ?The Shape of Water,? a boy's recollection of a momentous catch occasions a later reflection on the power of invented truths. In ?The Exile,? a young woman struggles unsuccessfully against an adulterous passion. Through them all, Lost Lake emerges as a place of both epic significance and enduring simplicity, prompting memories both challenging and bittersweet. Seller Inventory # 2327005
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Lost Lake: Stories
Published by
Vintage Books
(2002)
ISBN 10: 0375702083
ISBN 13: 9780375702082
Used
Paperback
Quantity: 1
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 0.45. Seller Inventory # G0375702083I3N00
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