To Be a Man - Stories
Nicole Krauss
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“Superb. . . . Krauss’sdepictions of the nuances of sex and love, intimacy and dependence, call tomind the work of Natalia Ginzburg in their psychological profundity, theirintellectual rigor. . . . Krauss’s stories capture characters at moments in theirlives when they’re hungry for experience and open to possibilities, and thatopenness extends to the stories themselves: narratives too urgent and alive forneat plotlines, simplistic resolutions or easyanswers.” —Molly Antopol, New York Times Book Review
“Froma contemporary master, an astounding collection of ten globetrotting stories,each one a powerful dissection of the thorny connections between men andwomen. . . . Each story is masterfully crafted and deeply contemplative, barrelingtoward a shimmering, inevitable conclusion, proving once again that Krauss isone of our most formidable talents in fiction.” —Esquire
In one of her strongest works of fiction yet, Nicole Krauss plunges fearlessly into the struggle to understand what it is to be a man and what it is to be a woman, and the arising tensions that have existed from the very beginning of time. Set in our contemporary moment, and moving across the globe from Switzerland, Japan, and New York City to Tel Aviv, Los Angeles, and South America, the stories in To Be a Man feature male characters as fathers, lovers, friends, children, seducers, and even a lost husband who may never have been a husband at all.
The way these stories mirror one other and resonate is beautiful, with a balance so finely tuned that the book almost feels like a novel. Echoes ring through stages of life: aging parents and new-born babies; young women’s coming of age and the newfound, somewhat bewildering sexual power that accompanies it; generational gaps and unexpected deliveries of strange new leases on life; mystery and wonder at a life lived or a future waiting to unfold. To Be a Man illuminates with a fierce, unwavering light the forces driving human existence: sex, power, violence, passion, self-discovery, growing older. Profound, poignant, and brilliant, Krauss’s stories are at once startling and deeply moving, but always revealing of all-too-human weakness and strength.
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