Gryphon - New and Selected Stories

Zusatztext 73556235 Informationen zum Autor Charles Baxter is the author of the novels The Feast of Love (nominated for the National Book Award), The Soul Thief , Saul and Patsy , Shadow Play , and First Light , and the collections Believers , A Relative Stranger , Through the Safety Net , and Harmony of the World . He has won the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story. Baxter lives in Minneapolis and teaches at the University of Minnesota and in the M.F.A. Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. Klappentext A New York Times Notable Book"A warmly disposed yet unsentimental chronicler of American lives.... Some [stories are] poignant and disturbing, and all of them highly readable." --The New York Times Book Review"One of our best storytellers." --San Francisco Chronicle"Baxter lovingly teases anguish, humor, and heart-rending beauty out of clear, unaffected sentences." --The Washington PostSince the publication of his first story collection in 1984, Charles Baxter has slowly gained a reputation as one of America's finest short story writers. Gryphon brings together sixteen classics with seven new stories, giving us the most complete portrait of his achievement. From the bestselling author of The Feast of Love. The Next Building I Plan to Bomb   In the parking lot next to the bank, Harry Edmonds saw a piece of gray scrap paper the size of a greeting card. It had blown up next to his leg and attached itself to him there. Across the top margin was some scrabby writing in purple ink. He picked it up and examined it. On the upper left-hand corner someone had scrawled the phrase THE NEXT BUILDING I PLAN TO BOMB. Harry unfolded the paper and saw an inked drawing of what appeared to be a sizable train station or some other public structure, perhaps an airport terminal. In the drawing were arched windows and front pillars but very little other supporting detail. The building looked solid, monumental, and dif?cult to destroy.   He glanced around the parking lot. There he was in Five Oaks, Michi­gan, where there were no such buildings. In the light wind other pieces of paper ?oated by in an agitated manner. One yellow ?yer was stuck to a ?re hydrant. On the street was the daily crowd of bankers, lawyers, shoppers, and students. As usual, no one was watching him or paying much attention to him. He put the piece of paper into his coat pocket.   All afternoon, while he sat at his desk, his hand traveled down to his pocket to touch the drawing. Late in the day, half as a joke, he showed the paper to the of?ce receptionist.   “You’ve got to take it to the police,” she told him. “This is dangerous. This is the work of a maniac. That’s LaGuardia there, the airport? In the picture? I was there last month. I’m sure it’s LaGuardia, Mr. Edmonds. No kidding. De?nitely LaGuardia.”   So at the end of the day, before going home, he drove to the main police station on the ?rst ?oor of City Hall. Driving into the sun, he felt his eyes squinting against the burrowing glare. He had stepped inside the front door when the waxy bureaucratic smell of the building hit him and gave him an immediate headache. A cop in uniform, wearing an impa­tient expression, sat behind a desk, shuf?ing through some papers, and at that moment it occurred to Harry Edmonds that if he showed what was in his pocket to the police he himself would become a prime suspect and an object of intense scrutiny, all privacy gone. He turned on his heel and went home.   *** At dinner, he said to his girlfriend, “Look what I found in a parking lot today.” He handed her the drawing.   Lucia examined the soiled paper, her thumb and ?nger at its corner, and said, “ ‘The next building I plan to bomb.’ ” Her tone was light and urbane. She sold computer software and was sensitive to gestures. Then she ...

Dettagli sul prodotto

• Autori: Charles Baxter
• Editore: Vintage USA
• Lingue: Inglese
• Formato: Tascabile
• Pubblicazione: 14.02.2012
• EAN: 9780307739520
• ISBN: 978-0-307-73952-0
• Pagine: 416
• Dimensioni: 132 mm x 204 mm x 22 mm
• Serie: Vintage Contemporaries; Vintage Contemporaries
• Categoria: Narrativa > Romanzi