Catch, Release

Fiction & Literature, Poetry
Cover of the book Catch, Release by Adrianne Harun, Johns Hopkins University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Adrianne Harun ISBN: 9781421426709
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press Publication: November 1, 2018
Imprint: Language: English
Author: Adrianne Harun
ISBN: 9781421426709
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication: November 1, 2018
Imprint:
Language: English

It’s all about loss. Don’t kid yourself. Even a simple game of catch is hinged on the moment the ball leaves the glove, the moment it returns. Don’t even try to think this story or any other story is about something else.

In Catch, Release, Adrianne Harun’s second story collection, loss is the driver. But it’s less the usual somber shadow-figure of grieving than an erratically interesting cousin, unmoored, even exhilarated, by the sudden flight into emptiness, the freedom of being neither here nor there. In this suspended state, anything might happen—and it does. Harun’s most realistic stories are suffused with mystery, while her more fantastic tales reveal startling truths within the commonplace. In diverse settings that include, among other places, a British Columbian island, a haunted Midwestern farmhouse, a London townhome, and a dementia care facility overpopulated with dangerously idle guardian angels, characters reconfigure whole worlds as they navigate states defined by absence.

In "The Farmhouse Wife," a young couple, struggling financially, takes up residence in a near-abandoned farmhouse, only to be joined by an inconvenient roommate, a woman whose own bereft state proves perilously seductive. A kleptomaniac father gets caught in one of his petty thefts in "Pearl Diving," propelling his two sons out of one life into another, perhaps more appropriate, one. In "Madame Ida," a family of little girls steadily invades a woman’s life as she puzzles out the mysteries of a missing sheriff-turned-cult-leader and the absence of her own son. And in the title story, two teenagers face off against the hurtful lies of an ancient con woman who is mining a widow’s grief for her own ends.

Adrianne Harun has been described as an exacting and attentive stylist whose stories are rendered in vivid language. The Los Angeles Review of Books wrote of her work: "Harun finds beauty in pitch black; she makes poetry out of brutality and grace out of terror. She is an alchemist, turning the worst aspects of life into gold." With Catch, Release, Harun upends the world once more.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

It’s all about loss. Don’t kid yourself. Even a simple game of catch is hinged on the moment the ball leaves the glove, the moment it returns. Don’t even try to think this story or any other story is about something else.

In Catch, Release, Adrianne Harun’s second story collection, loss is the driver. But it’s less the usual somber shadow-figure of grieving than an erratically interesting cousin, unmoored, even exhilarated, by the sudden flight into emptiness, the freedom of being neither here nor there. In this suspended state, anything might happen—and it does. Harun’s most realistic stories are suffused with mystery, while her more fantastic tales reveal startling truths within the commonplace. In diverse settings that include, among other places, a British Columbian island, a haunted Midwestern farmhouse, a London townhome, and a dementia care facility overpopulated with dangerously idle guardian angels, characters reconfigure whole worlds as they navigate states defined by absence.

In "The Farmhouse Wife," a young couple, struggling financially, takes up residence in a near-abandoned farmhouse, only to be joined by an inconvenient roommate, a woman whose own bereft state proves perilously seductive. A kleptomaniac father gets caught in one of his petty thefts in "Pearl Diving," propelling his two sons out of one life into another, perhaps more appropriate, one. In "Madame Ida," a family of little girls steadily invades a woman’s life as she puzzles out the mysteries of a missing sheriff-turned-cult-leader and the absence of her own son. And in the title story, two teenagers face off against the hurtful lies of an ancient con woman who is mining a widow’s grief for her own ends.

Adrianne Harun has been described as an exacting and attentive stylist whose stories are rendered in vivid language. The Los Angeles Review of Books wrote of her work: "Harun finds beauty in pitch black; she makes poetry out of brutality and grace out of terror. She is an alchemist, turning the worst aspects of life into gold." With Catch, Release, Harun upends the world once more.

More books from Johns Hopkins University Press

Cover of the book Bloody Murder by Adrianne Harun
Cover of the book Nature's Path by Adrianne Harun
Cover of the book From Playgrounds to PlayStation by Adrianne Harun
Cover of the book Just One of the Kids by Adrianne Harun
Cover of the book On the Other Hand by Adrianne Harun
Cover of the book Ten Lessons in Public Health by Adrianne Harun
Cover of the book Zones of Instability by Adrianne Harun
Cover of the book The Site of Petrarchism by Adrianne Harun
Cover of the book Fish Sticks, Sports Bras, and Aluminum Cans by Adrianne Harun
Cover of the book William Henry Harrison and the Conquest of the Ohio Country by Adrianne Harun
Cover of the book Epic in American Culture by Adrianne Harun
Cover of the book Still Down by Adrianne Harun
Cover of the book Wolf by the Ears by Adrianne Harun
Cover of the book Bipolar Disorder by Adrianne Harun
Cover of the book Transatlantic Aliens by Adrianne Harun
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy