The Expendables: Stories [Paperback]

Winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award, Antonya Nelson's debut collection of stories displays the off-beat perceptions, the humor, and the sensibility that have won the author not only critical acclaim but a host of devoted readers.
Most of the stories inThe Expendablesare about marriage -- marriage in process, about to be, about not to be anymore, possibly transgressed, and decidedly not transgressed. In the title story, a teenage boy participates in the spectacle of his sister's second marriage. In Dog Problems, a husband muses about his wife's attachment to her dog, a bond that predates their marriage and will -- he fears -- outlast it. There is the woman in Affair Life, happily encircled by her husband and child, who still must choose between her marriage and what is not quite yet an infidelity. Ranging in setting from Atlanta to Chicago and Kansas City, from the arid Southwest to the course of a river running through Colorado canyon walls, the stories inThe Expendablesshow our relationship with destiny, whether resisted, invented, obeyed, or forced.Antonya Nelsonteaches creative writing at the University of Houston, and is the award-winning author of three novels and four short story collections. Her stories have appeared inThe New Yorker,Harper's, andThe Best American Short Stories. She divides her time among Texas, Colorado, and New Mexico.Contents
Listener
Substitute
Maggie's Baby
The Expendables
Helen in Hollywood
You Boys Be Good
Dog Problems
Cold Places
Affair Lite
Mud Season
Looking for Tower Hall
Slickrock to BedrockSan Francisco ChronicleNelson pries at the tight and awkward knots of relationships, getting into places where tenderness and need are buried. Her eye is unflinching and her narrative touch subtle and precise.Los Angeles TimesA fine collection...compassionate and excruciatingly realistic.Melissa PritchardChicago TribuneWith edgy wilSo