In these seventeen stories and monologues, Carol Wobig introduces us to grieving widows and questioning nuns, daughters intent on saving their mothers and mothers unsure how to save their children, each of whom faces the question we all must ultimately ask: how to save ourselves. Wobig writes with unfailing sensitivity and empathy and in language that rings clear and true. Her characters and their experiences will live in the minds and hearts of readers long after the last page is turned.
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Reviews
“Her writing depicts a point of view not abundant in literary fiction: middle-aged and older women in small-town Wisconsin wrestling with the problems life throws at them. Women who wear flowered tops from Walmart…. In ‘The Piano,’ the widowed Marge sews dining room drapes into the dress she plans to be buried in after she kills herself, until the sight of an abandoned keyboard revives something in her. In ‘Learning to Drive,’ a dying twin prepares her sister for life without her in a practical way. In ‘Tying Up to the Pier,/ an elderly widow who feels oppressed by her bossy daughter finds a creative way to unburden herself.”
~ JIM HIGGINS, “Carol Wobig’s stories speak for Wisconsin women from small towns,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
“Carol Wobig is a wonder! Don’t be deceived by her plainspoken, straightforward style. In only a few pages she’s able to locate the emotional depth of her characters and reveal the complexity of their lives. She deserves comparison to Grace Paley and Alice Munro, but Carol Wobig is a true original.”
~ LARRY WATSON, author of Montana 1948 & As Good As Gone, writing & literature teacher at Marquette University
“Kiss goodbye to 5th Avenue. Carol Wobig’s characters live in trailer courts. They didn’t get piano lessons or have their teeth fixed. And now that they’re older, they wish their daughters would quit bossing them around – the tennies with holes cut out to make room for bunions are just fine, thank you! No one cries the blues in Wobig’s writing, people just get on with their fascinating lives. And you can’t help but love them.”
~ JUDY BRIDGES, founder of Redbird Studio, author of Shut Up & Write!
“Carol Wobig has her finger on the pulse of women poised on life’s thresholds. To remain in the safety of the expected or step across to the uncertainty of authenticity? To succumb to the urge to give up or summon the courage to go on? With deceptive simplicity, Wobig’s stories are like individually-wrapped glimpses into the human heart. This collection satisfies at the same time it begs for a second and third reading.”
~ KIM SUHR, author of Maybe I’ll Learn: Snapshots of a Novice Mom & Director of Red Oak Writing