![]() ![]() Often, Pearlman leads us into a plot that suddenly takes a turn we never saw coming and yet feels entirely right. In their country a man of his age should already be dead.” The boys there “were respectful of his gray hairs, too. Sometimes Pearlman gives an ordinary phrase the most subtle twist and cracks open a window into another world, as in “Day of Awe,” a story in which a retiree from Boston visits an orphanage in Central America. Set around the globe - New England, Latin America, Europe, Israel, Russia – the stories range widely but are always both surprising and exquisitely controlled. ![]() This collection of Pearlman’s short stories, 21 drawn from across her career, 13 new, makes a convincing case that she is among the very finest writers of short fiction alive. It is a mystery, but perhaps “Binocular Vision” will solve it. In her introduction to Edith Pearlman's “Binocular Vision,” Ann Patchett writes, “To that great list of human mysteries which includes the construction of pyramids and the persistent use of Styrofoam as a packing material let me add this one: why isn’t Edith Pearlman famous?” Today, in #14 of our series, fiction finalist Edith Pearlman's “Binocular Vision: New and Selected Stories” (Lookout Press). Each day leading up to the March 8 announcement of the 2011 NBCC award winners, Critical Mass highlights one of the thirty finalists. ![]()
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