Introduction

Winner of the AWP Grace Paley Prize in Short Fiction The stories in this first collection deliver the reader into a world in which men, women, and children are on the cusp of some deeper consciousness. The writing gives lie to orderly images of Midwesterners and instead evokes with unnerving clarity an interior landscape that is primitive and quietly chaotic. This is life in the balance-"whole worlds at the moment of rupture." The children and adolescent characters search for a moral compass or center, while the adults tangle with their own desires. And yet in these unprotected places people thrive in unexpected ways. Published in association with the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP)

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Excerpt

Country Girls


The picture on the cover of the dairy magazine was of a middle-aged farm woman, about forty, smiling directly, yet shyly, into the camera. She wore five blue ribbons around her neck. Her skin was clear, almost translucent, and her eyes were lovely and innocent, not the innocence of the religious devout or a child -- she was a grown woman -- but the sure-footed innocence of a herdswoman. The woman in the picture was once my friend -- that is why my father sent the magazine -- and for a moment I felt transported against my will back to my parents’ home, the air too thin, the rooms too small, me pacing the short hallway from my bedroom to the living room window, and I felt a wave of the deepest longing I had ever known, a longing too large for the body, almost cartoonish unless you are the one living it, and you are fourteen, and then it is deathly serious. ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

I’ve put together a few questions that might trigger some discussion of the book—the best thing about questions—no right or wrong answers if they spark conversation!

1. Nora from “Country Girls” straddles the cusp of love and obsession—is there a difference? What do you think the difference is between love, passion and obsession? Is she foolish or heroic?

2. Are the adults in these stories, such as Nora’s parents and aunt or Theresa’s sister and parents, foolish and neglectful? Or do you see them as just overwhelmed and courageously following their desires?

3. Girls like Nora and Theresa and Ruthie Hinnencamp run a bit wild behind the scenes of the adults’ foggy fatigue, living secret lives. Why do you think these girls make the choices they make? What do they want more than anything? What do they think they want?

4. Ruthie Hinnencamp chooses to marry John—is this a tragedy or do you think she’s just choosing the life she wants, and yes, it’s not perfect, but she’ll survive and have a good enough life?

5. Do you think girls and women now make better choices for themselves than girls and women growing up in the 1960s and 70s? How is it different for a girl to grow up in rural versus urban America today?—is this changing?

6. A lot of people toss the whole Midwest into stereotype—do the characters in Heavier Than Air, some still living in small towns and some now in cities, offer something new? What surprises you about them, if anything?

7. Mr. Hellerman discovers something that seems to keep him alive—as many of the other people in Heavier Than Air thrive in unexpected ways. What’s keeping them alive despite setbacks and disappointments? What keeps you alive?

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