Masters Theses

Date of Award

8-1998

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

English

Major Professor

Allen Wier

Committee Members

Allen Dunn, Marilyn Kallet

Abstract

Tell Me a Story, But Tell It True is a collection of short stories. There are stories that are primarily about isolation, stories about relationships, and then there are the Midway stories, which examine the interplay between individuals and community. If it seems that those divisions are tenuous at points, perhaps that is because those three concepts - isolation, relationship, and community - are very intertwined in the author's experience and imagination.

In "Portraits," a woman rediscovers her ability to take action after a long period of emotionless existence. "The Business Trip" is a very short stoiy that looks at obsession and lost love. "Still Life in the Rain Forest" examines the letting go that its protagonist must do after she takes a new job and has to move away from family and friends. "The Soda Can Man" gives the reader a brief glimpse inside the mind and heart of a homeless man. While each of these stories is on many levels about isolation, each is also about a deep yearning for human contact.

In the same way, the stories in the next section represent a blend of disconnection and affinity. "Dear Jack ... You Are Here," while ostensibly a reflection of the relationship between the narrator and her husband, is also about the isolation that drove them apart. So too, we find "Pearlie" balancing between being a glimpse at the relationship between a man and his daughter as well as recounting the rift that exists between them. "The Knife Thrower's Wife" is a depiction of tragedy in a loving marriage and "The Sacrificial Man" deals with a man's attempt to renew his relationship with his son, but both also are portraits of people who are fundamentally alone. The stories in each section are points along a continuum rather than members of rigidly defined sets.

The final four stories - "Safe In Moon Villa," "Five Rubber Chickens," "Beyond Quicksand," and "Offerings at the Boston Public Library" - explore pivotal moments in the lives of a group of people who frequent a small, obscure Boston coffee shop. In these stories solitude and connection are both factors in the characters' lives, just as both are present in our own lives at one time or another. The ebb and flow between those factors, and the strength of friendship, love, and the human spirit are what the Midway stories offer a reader.

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