In the Funny Papers: Stories (Volume 1),Used

Product Description Situated in smalltown North Carolina, Miller's tales, cautionary in tone, usually depict bluecollar family life and yet almost resemble old fairy tales. Her stories center around southern families and the dynamics, both loving and hostile, that move families together, separate them, threaten them, and then finally protect them. The characters in these storieschildren, men and women, often husbands and wivesrecognize these forces and act to salvage those they love in efforts that are often as trivial as they are heroic.Often told from the point of view of an angry or disillusioned child, the stories of this superb collection are comic as well as tragic; others are angry and even critical. In the title story, Quint, a young boy suffering from the effects of a broken home, finds solace in Sparkle Plenty, the baby doll with deep double dimples, big eyes, and long whiteblond hair who lives in the Dick Tracy comic strip and beckons Quint to live forever with her in the funny papers. In "My Spanish Skirt," Laramie envies her friend's skirt because of its magical power to charge her imaginationher only escape from the deadly combat taking place between her parents. But Laramie soon discovers that the skirt only causes more confusion and sorrow and anger.All of the stories manifest a genuine love for southern families and the people who are caught, confused, and eventually encouraged and sustained within them. As Thomas Hardy once observed, "Our personal griefs and triumphs are often absurd to other people." But rather than making fun of her characters, Heather Ross Miller is sympathizing as deeply as she can imagine: "These things are only manageable with a bit of humor, even with a caustic flavor. So, as in the funny papers, things can work out, with humor, with plain sense, and, if we are lucky, a bit of magic." Review "The stories that compose In the Funny Papers are dominated by the author's poetic intensity of detail and her chill dark irony, so that the volume achieves an admirably consistent tone without being repetitive. . . . All the stories are pungent, vivid, acutely observed, and edgy with emotions that simmer along right at the boiling point. In almost every situation there is an undercurrent of barely suppressed rage as the characters take disappointing stock of their lives, see their own deficiencies and those of others in a cool, almost clinical, light, and accept the fate they see before them."Fred Chappell About the Author Heather Ross Miller is the author of numerous books, including Hard Evidence: Poems and Friends and Assassins: Poems. She is Professor of English at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia.