In the Music Library - Hardcover

Winner of this year's Drue Heinz Literature Prize for short fiction, this collection of 10 short stories and one novella presents a variety of introspective characters, most of whom have suffered deep losses. A unifying theme in the stories is the way in which past adversities intrude upon the present. In "All Kinds of Flowers," a hostess entertains a German woman and is disturbed by memories of Nazi soldiers occupying her native Holland. "At St. Theresa's College for Women" introduces a music teacher who, having experienced five miscarriages, sometimes fantasizes about kidnapping her young students. Memories can be ancestral as well as personal: the black cellist who narrates "In the Music Library" tries to summon up rhythm through her residues of racial memory. Hunnicutt, author of the well-received Suite for Calliope, is herself a musician. Her evocations of the sounds and tensions of the rehearsal hall are especially vivid and she has wisely placed many of her characters in a musical milieu, adding strength to this fine collection.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Hunnicutt, winner of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize for this collection, is a provocative writer. These stories show us some remarkable people coping as moments of truth, even crisis, awaken them from their lives-formed-from-habit. In one story, a middle-aged man understands in a flash that his son wants only approval, not money, for his newly launched career as a rock musician. "The thought was incredibly clean, pure, beautiful, ridiculous, hilarious. He began to tremble and could not stop. `It's emotion,' said the young waitress who had started patting his back as if he were choking. `Jesus, that music does the same thing to me, every time. . . .' The young people were satisfied . . . at Rolf's latest success, his father." This is a very good book. Johanna Ezell, Mont Alto Campus Lib., Pennsylvania State Univ.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.