info@woodslane.com.au
Contact us on (02) 8445 2300
For all customer service and order enquiries

WOODSLANE

Popular Subjects

Woodslane Online Catalogues

9780801863677 Add to Cart Academic Inspection Copy

Airs of Providence (POD)

  • ISBN-13: 9780801863677
  • Publisher: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS
    Imprint: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS
  • By Jean McGarry
  • Price: AUD $67.99
  • Stock: 0 in stock
  • Availability: This book is temporarily out of stock, order will be despatched as soon as fresh stock is received.
  • Local release date: 14/11/2000
  • Format: Paperback 144 pages Weight: 0g
  • Categories: Poetry [DC]
Description
Table of
Contents
Reviews
Google
Preview
Providence--a city named in the hope that a direct compliment to God might place Him under some sort of obligation to its inhabitants--provides Jean McGarry with the fertile ground of her comic and gritty, harsh and touching cycle of stories. Weaving in and out of Airs of Providence is a novella telling the story of April and Margery Flanaghan, two sisters trying to grow up in this neighborhood and doing only a so-so job of it. And it is a job, in a world not clearly made for anyone, but better suited to an older generation. Surrounded by nuns and priests, uncles and aunts, biddies and oddballs, April and Margery do their best to be normal. They practice their penmanship, babysit, go to a prom, and try to be up to date. But how even to look normal in a world where you are always running up against uncontrollable mood swings, mysterious infirmities, unexplained sorrows? Over a period of thirty-five years, they sniff out neighborhood scandals, get an ''earful'' of what the others are up to, and rest secure behind their sets of double curtains in the knowledge that everything human and frail is on the outside, everything blameless and perfect on the inside. If the Airs of Providence are sometimes rough, they are always funny. They may be sad too, but it is a dry-eyed melancholy that is no relation--or perhaps just a poor relation--to the air of ''Danny Boy.''

Contents:

Providence, 1954: Watch
Penmanship
Providence, 1956: Toy Box
Stayed Back
Providence, 1934: The House at the Beach
They Meet a Boy
Providence, 1970: Behind This Soft Eclipse
The Hospital: Seeing Him There Almost Dead
Providence, 1957: An Accident
The Babysitter
Providence, 1948: The Most Complimentary Thing
Margery's Prom
Providence, 1960: Cavities
One of Them Gets Married
Providence, 1966: Ducks and Lucks

""A gifted observer, records with fidelity the daily minutiae of life and introspection.""

Google Preview content