Storytown: Stories - Paperback

by Susan Daitch (Author)

The distinctions between art and life are blurred in this unsettling and tantalizing first collection of short fiction by novelist Susan Daitch (The Colorist, ?L.C.). In fifteen stories, all concerning strange displacements of the ordinary, Daitch examines the fringes of the art world in the 20th century. Characters restore or duplicate art objects (legally and otherwise), dub dialogue for foreign films, and look to old movies for guidance.

In the title story (based upon a legendary amusement park in upstate New York), a woman works at a children's theme park, where Alice in Wonderland mourns for the Sheriff of Nottingham, who has joined the marines. Combining downtown aesthetics with a vivid historical imagination, Susan Daitch's stories have the same qualities that have earned her novels wide praise.

Back Jacket

The distinctions between art and life are blurred in this unsettling and tantalizing first collection of short fiction by novelist Susan Daitch (The Colorist, L.C.). In fifteen stories, all concerning "strange displacements of the ordinary", Daitch examines the fringes of the art world in the 20th century. Characters restore or duplicate art objects (legally and otherwise), dub dialogue for foreign films, and look to old movies for guidance. In the title story (based upon a legendary amusement park in upstate New York), a woman works at a children's theme park, where Alice in Wonderland mourns for the Sheriff of Nottingham, who has joined the marines. Combining "downtown aesthetics" with a vivid historical imagination, Susan Daitch's stories have the same qualities that have earned her novels wide praise.

Author Biography

Susan Daitch is the author of four works of fiction. Her short fiction has been included in "The Norton Anthology of Postmodern Fiction," "Tin House," "Guernica," "Bomb," "Conjunctions," "McSweeney's," "The Brooklyn Rail," "The Pushcart Prize Anthology," "Ploughshares," "The Village Voice," and elsewhere. Her work has been the recipient of two Vogelstein awards. Her novel "L.C." won an NEA Heritage Award and was a Lannan Foundation Selection. She teaches at Hunter College.