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This Angel on My Chest
(Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read)

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Published:
University of Pittsburgh Press 2015
Status:
Checked Out
Description
WINNER OF THE 2015 DRUE HEINZ LITERATURE PRIZE

Selected by Jill McCorkle



This Angel on My Chest is a collection of unconventionally linked stories, each about a different young woman whose husband dies suddenly and unexpectedly. Ranging from traditional stories to lists, a quiz, a YouTube link, and even a lecture about creative writing, the stories grasp to put into words the ways in which we all cope with unspeakable loss.

Based on the author's own experience of losing her husband at age thirty-seven, this book explores the resulting grief, fury, and bewilderment, mirroring the obsessive nature of grieving. The stories examine the universal issues we face at a time of loss, as well as the specific concerns of a young widow: support groups, in-laws, insurance money, dating, and remarriage. This Angel on My Chest ultimately asks, how is it possible to move forward with life while "till death do you part" rings in your ears—and, how is it possible not to?
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Format:
Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read
Street Date:
11/06/2015
Language:
English
ISBN:
9780822981091
ASIN:
B01676Y67I
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Citations
APA Citation (style guide)

Leslie Pietrzyk. (2015). This Angel on My Chest. University of Pittsburgh Press.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

Leslie Pietrzyk. 2015. This Angel On My Chest. University of Pittsburgh Press.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

Leslie Pietrzyk, This Angel On My Chest. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015.

MLA Citation (style guide)

Leslie Pietrzyk. This Angel On My Chest. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
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Date Added:
Jun 12, 2018 15:09:23
Date Updated:
Jun 12, 2018 15:09:23
Last Metadata Check:
Mar 24, 2024 03:16:22
Last Metadata Change:
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Last Grouped Work Modification Time:
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        Leslie Pietrzyk is the author of two novels, Pears on a Willow Tree and A Year and a Day. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in many journals, including Gettysburg Review, The Sun, Shenandoah, River Styx, Iowa Review, TriQuarterly, New England Review, and the Washington Post Magazine. She has received fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and the Sewanee Writers' Conference. Pietrzyk is a member of the core fiction faculty at the Converse low-residency MFA program and teaches in the MA Program in Writing at Johns Hopkins University. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia.

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title
This Angel on My Chest
fullDescription
WINNER OF THE 2015 DRUE HEINZ LITERATURE PRIZE
Selected by Jill McCorkle

This Angel on My Chest is a collection of unconventionally linked stories, each about a different young woman whose husband dies suddenly and unexpectedly. Ranging from traditional stories to lists, a quiz, a YouTube link, and even a lecture about creative writing, the stories grasp to put into words the ways in which we all cope with unspeakable loss.
Based on the author's own experience of losing her husband at age thirty-seven, this book explores the resulting grief, fury, and bewilderment, mirroring the obsessive nature of grieving. The stories examine the universal issues we face at a time of loss, as well as the specific concerns of a young widow: support groups, in-laws, insurance money, dating, and remarriage. This Angel on My Chest ultimately asks, how is it possible to move forward with life while "till death do you part" rings in your ears—and, how is it possible not to?
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        Starred review from August 1, 2015
        Linked autobiographical fictions explore the loss of a young husband.With a delicate balance of cleverness and emotion, the 16 stories in Pietrzyk's (Pears on a Willow Tree, 2011, etc.) collection explore the event of her husband's sudden death at the breakfast table in 1997. Literal facts ("My husband, Robert K. Rauth, Jr., died of a heart attack when he was only 37") in some stories stand beside slightly altered ones in others (a husband named Roger, a husband who drove off the road, a husband who died in his early 40s). The author's wit, clarity, and literary inventiveness dance circles around the omnipresent sadness, making this book a prime example of the furious creative energy that can explode from the collision of grief with talent and craftsmanship. A few stories are traditionally told; many rely on formal strategies-a list, a quiz, a speech, an annotated index, various narrative voices, and a metafiction about the use of narrative voices. Running through them are recurrent details that add the weight of obsessive memory: a carefully organized library of books, a bowl of cornflakes, the music of Springsteen (a misunderstood line of which gives the collection its name), an extramarital affair. Pietrzyk explores every aspect of the truth, including the parts you have to make up, and never gives in to sentimentality or self-pity. As in Joyce Carol Oates' much less successful book A Widow's Story, one learns that the author is remarried-the last line of the last story is addressed to her second husband by name-but here there is no sense of duplicity or caginess. The relief is what we want, both for her and for ourselves. This book is the winner of the distinguished Drue Heinz Literature Prize, upholding its tradition of excellence in short fiction. Like Magic Rocks in a fishbowl, these stories turn the stones of grief into something bright, crystalline, mesmerizing.

        COPYRIGHT(2015) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

popularity
13
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shortDescription
WINNER OF THE 2015 DRUE HEINZ LITERATURE PRIZE
Selected by Jill McCorkle

This Angel on My Chest is a collection of unconventionally linked stories, each about a different young woman whose husband dies suddenly and unexpectedly. Ranging from traditional stories to lists, a quiz, a YouTube link, and even a lecture about creative writing, the stories grasp to put into words the ways in which we all cope with unspeakable loss.
Based on the author's own experience of losing her husband at age thirty-seven, this book explores the resulting grief, fury, and bewilderment, mirroring the obsessive nature of grieving. The stories examine the universal issues we face at a time of loss, as well as the specific concerns of a young widow: support groups, in-laws, insurance money, dating, and remarriage. This Angel on My Chest ultimately asks, how is it possible to move forward with life while "till death do you part" rings in your ears—and, how is it...
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