Critics' Opinion:
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Published Aug 2016
280 pages
Genre: Short Stories
Publication Information
Through the collection's independent but thematically interlinked narratives, Allio investigates women with sharp and soft edges, and their quest to both embrace and outstrip their domestic dimensions.
Clothed, Female Figure opens a singular investigation on women: mothers, daughters, gardeners, housecleaners, employers, friends, aunts, nannies. These eleven stories illuminate inner lives in the throes of coming-of-age, self-preservation, passing, motherhood, memory, and redemption.
There are dispatches from haloed single-girl apartments in New York; from the house behind the linden tree where the first baby was born; from the horsetail scrubland behind the beach club; an overgrown back garden that becomes the shrouded stage for a reunion. A Russian nanny guards a secret. A new wife subverts housekeeping to keep up with her feminist mother-in-law. An alcoholic daughter is haunted by her mother's disappearance.
Through the collection's independent but thematically interlinked narratives, Allio investigates women with sharp and soft edges, and their quest to both embrace and outstrip their domestic dimensions.
"Starred Review. Marvels of craft and insight." - Kirkus
"These stories are sometimes deceptively slow to reveal their true subjects, as in "Charm Circle," when the perspective shifts from mother to daughter halfway through the story to surprising effect. Taken as a whole, the collection paints a panoramic portrait of the bonds between mothers and daughters, the complicated fierceness of their love, and the anguish and confusion that accompanies loss." - Publishers Weekly
"An impressive first collection from a promising new voice in women's literary fiction. Allio's (Garner) prose is lush with imagery, and the story lines are revealed obliquely, making even domestic dramas profound and mysterious." - Library Journal
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo by Michael K. Allio
Kirstin Allio was born in Maine in 1974. Her novel, Garner, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award for First Fiction. She also received the National Book Foundation's "5 Under 35" Award. Her short stories have appeared in a variety of publications. She lives in Seattle, WA, and has taught creative writing at Brown University and holds degrees from Brown and New York Universities.
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