MARRY OR BURN
Book ID/图书代码： 06814011B46656
English Summary/英文概要： From the author of Seven Loves comes this austere, passionately shaped collection of stories that courageously explores the dynamic nature of modern marriage, the life-shattering heartbreak that often accompanies its collapse, and the fickle way in which the boundaries between us can be broken, erased, and newly defined.
At her daughter’s wedding, an alcoholic widow finds a new beginning when she is swept off her feet by the bride’s former secret lover. A man finds himself in a position of terrible power when he discovers his ex-wife’s boyfriend with another woman. A woman who killed her policeman husband in a rage struggles to reconcile feelings of emotional worthlessness and a longing for human affection after two decades in prison. A widower of twenty-three years introduces his wary daughters to his new love, a woman whom he has decided to marry one week after meeting, and who once took an axe to a bear to save her husband.
Trueblood unites past and present through her characters’ complex personalities as she skillfully unravels their tumultuous relationships, giving readers a glimpse into marital circumstances that, though often tragic, will surely ring familiar.
Chinese Summary/中文概要： 有人說婚姻是愛情的墳墓，你踏進去的那一刻，幸福就戛然而止。
凡事皆有自己親自試過才會有最可靠的感觸，婚姻亦是如此。這本樸素無華，以熱情傾注而成的短篇故事集出自Seven Loves的作者Valerie Trueblood。該選集大膽地探索了現代婚姻的動態特性，其破碎所帶來的痛徹心扉以及其變化無常特點。我們之間的關係可以破裂，可以塗改，當然也可以重新定義。
在女兒的婚禮上，酒鬼寡婦被新娘子的秘密前男友絆倒，進而看到了新希望。一個男人在發現前妻的男朋友另尋新歡後，覺得自己陷入一個可怕的境地。有一位婦女在盛怒之下，殺死了自己的員警丈夫。二十年的監獄生活令她十分渴望人間親情。一位獨身二十三年的鰥夫終於向謹慎小心的女兒們介紹自己一見傾心的未來老伴。這位准老伴曾用斧頭對抗過一隻熊以拯救自己的前夫。
Trueblood通過筆下人物的複雜個性，嫺熟地解析他們之間紛亂的關係，很好地將未來和過去結合在一起。讀者可能覺得這些關係有些悲傷，但最終能在心中產生共鳴。(from XMM)
Awards/获奖情况：Praise for Marry or Burn
"Marry or Burn resolutely probes the idea and range of marriage, letting us gaze at a variety of couplings from differing angles, forming a dangerous, sharp-edged mosaic."---The Seattle Times The many facets of marriage lie at the heart of this unique and thought-provoking short story collection—marriages past and present, enduring or fractured. An apparently happy couple mourns the death of a friend, the wife secretly in love with him, even knowing his death was imminent. A young woman feels compelled to tell her soldier husband she has fallen in love with someone else with disastrous consequences. Later she marries a third man, and one of their daughters always refers to her mother’s first husband as her “phantom father.” In “Beloved,” a widower marries a widow who “took an ax to a bear” that was attacking her first husband—the first fact his grown daughters learn about their stepmother-to-be. And in “Amends,” a young woman who has killed her abusive husband and is imprisoned for 20 years continues to communicate with her mother-in-law. She becomes the old woman’s only visitor in her depressing nursing home, only to be confronted with her crime once again. Trueblood’s well-drawn characters may seem incomprehensible, but she succeeds in bringing them vividly to life. ---Deborah Donovan, From Booklist
Starred Review. Trueblood’s title sets the stage for a collection concerned with relationships and their perils, but these 12 startling tales of love and loss come as a welcome surprise. Trueblood (Seven Loves) catches the reader off guard from the start by opening with a story about a woman serving time in prison for murdering her husband. The stories that follow address relationships from refreshingly oblique angles: a teenage boy deals with his mother’s infant son born out of wedlock in "Luck"; in the formally daring "Invisible River," a mother has an intimate dance with her daughter’s ex-lover at the daughter’s wedding. Secondary characters and narrative tangents envelope the larger plot and reveal hidden layers, resulting in a panoramic view of contemporary romantic rituals. Bracing honesty and elegant turns of phrase ("She put a lament into the name") mask the few moments when narrative details get lost. Trueblood’s saturated prose imparts each story with a unique atmosphere and infuses the collection with an understanding that to love is to live, for better or for worse. (Nov.) (c)---From Publishers Weekly
About the Author/作者介绍： Valerie Trueblood在佛吉尼亞出生並長大，畢業于布朗大學。在那裡，她的故事得到了John Hawkes 和John Berryman的高度讚揚。Valerie憑藉作品Seven Loves獲得了Barnes & Noble“新星作家”稱號，以及佛吉尼亞圖書獎第二名。Marry or Burn是作者的最新作品。作者目前住在西雅圖。Valerie Trueblood was born and raised in Virginia and graduated from Brown University, where John Hawkes and John Berryman both gave her stories prizes. Her novel in stories, Seven Loves, was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick and a runner-up for the Library of Virginia Prize for Fiction. Trueblood’s newest novel is Marry or Burn (Counterpoint Press, November 2010). She lives in Seattle, Washington.
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Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE
Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE
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