OBSCURE OBJECTS
Caroline Adderson • $0.99
Collected in FPQ Summer 2011
Coming out of an unhappy relationship and a stint at an artist colony, Charlotte, a writer, takes a job teaching at a private ESL college. There she befriends Renata—audacious, sexy, and as changeable as Proteus. “I have a story for you,” Renata says to her one day over lunch. She doesn’t elaborate further, but Charlotte soon discovers that she has found in Renata an unexpectedly passionate and compelling subject.
Collected in FPQ Summer 2011
Coming out of an unhappy relationship and a stint at an artist colony, Charlotte, a writer, takes a job teaching at a private ESL college. There she befriends Renata—audacious, sexy, and as changeable as Proteus. “I have a story for you,” Renata says to her one day over lunch. She doesn’t elaborate further, but Charlotte soon discovers that she has found in Renata an unexpectedly passionate and compelling subject.
Praise for Obscure Objects
“Caroline Adderson is such a graceful and intelligent writer that the work that must surely go into creating her hilarious, prismatic stories is never betrayed in the language. There is no strain on the page, not a bead of sweat. I think of her as a writer’s writer. I envy her talent and learn from her sentences. The short story, Obscure Objects, is, I’m happy to report, Adderson at her glorious best.”
— Barbara Gowdy, author of Helpless and The White Bone
“Obscure Objects, Caroline Adderson’s fierce and affecting workplace comedy, is a deadpan gem: droll, moving, snapping-smart.”
— Meg Wolitzer, author of The Uncoupling, The Ten-Year Nap, and The Position
“Caroline Adderson is such a graceful and intelligent writer that the work that must surely go into creating her hilarious, prismatic stories is never betrayed in the language. There is no strain on the page, not a bead of sweat. I think of her as a writer’s writer. I envy her talent and learn from her sentences. The short story, Obscure Objects, is, I’m happy to report, Adderson at her glorious best.”
— Barbara Gowdy, author of Helpless and The White Bone
“Obscure Objects, Caroline Adderson’s fierce and affecting workplace comedy, is a deadpan gem: droll, moving, snapping-smart.”
— Meg Wolitzer, author of The Uncoupling, The Ten-Year Nap, and The Position
Preview
Sterling took a pull of his root beer. “Inexorable, doppelganger, solipsistic. Who uses words like that anyway?”
“Janine used inexorable a while ago,” I said.
“I taught it to her,” Sterling said.
“You did not.” She’d been quoting our creative writing professor who used to urge us to discover the inexorable endings to our stories.
“Janine,” snorted Renata, who harboured some unarticulated grievance against my old classmate, probably involving the photocopier. “She’s not a writer. Charlotte’s the writer. You should read that story of hers where the wife sews her husband’s clothes to the bed.”
I turned to Renata. “Where did you read that?”
“I went to the library. They have back issues of all those magazines. I read another one too, but that was my favourite. I loved the sexual tension.”
Sterling’s face, pale from all his hours in the unfenestrated staff room, pinkened with interest. “Are you sexually tense, Charlotte?”
Sterling took a pull of his root beer. “Inexorable, doppelganger, solipsistic. Who uses words like that anyway?”
“Janine used inexorable a while ago,” I said.
“I taught it to her,” Sterling said.
“You did not.” She’d been quoting our creative writing professor who used to urge us to discover the inexorable endings to our stories.
“Janine,” snorted Renata, who harboured some unarticulated grievance against my old classmate, probably involving the photocopier. “She’s not a writer. Charlotte’s the writer. You should read that story of hers where the wife sews her husband’s clothes to the bed.”
I turned to Renata. “Where did you read that?”
“I went to the library. They have back issues of all those magazines. I read another one too, but that was my favourite. I loved the sexual tension.”
Sterling’s face, pale from all his hours in the unfenestrated staff room, pinkened with interest. “Are you sexually tense, Charlotte?”
Collected in
FPQ 2011
The Complete Collection
Featuring stories by Caroline Adderson, Meghan Rose Allen, Jack Bootle, Julie Dupuis, Cynthia Flood, Andrew Forbes, Danny Goodman, Pauline Holdstock, Lee Kvern, Kirsty Logan, Dave Margoshes, Don McLellan, Maria Meindl, Grace O'Connell, Richard Rosenbaum, and Lana Storey.
Click on cover for more info
FPQ 2011
The Complete
Collection
$12.99
The Complete Collection
Featuring stories by Caroline Adderson, Meghan Rose Allen, Jack Bootle, Julie Dupuis, Cynthia Flood, Andrew Forbes, Danny Goodman, Pauline Holdstock, Lee Kvern, Kirsty Logan, Dave Margoshes, Don McLellan, Maria Meindl, Grace O'Connell, Richard Rosenbaum, and Lana Storey.
Click on cover for more info
FPQ 2011
The Complete
Collection
$12.99
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Featuring Obscure Objects by Caroline Adderson, The Oughts by Richard Rosenbaum, The Last Judgement by Maria Meindl, and Bright Lights on Broadway by Dave Margoshes.
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FPQ Summer 2011
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$3.75
Featuring Obscure Objects by Caroline Adderson, The Oughts by Richard Rosenbaum, The Last Judgement by Maria Meindl, and Bright Lights on Broadway by Dave Margoshes.
Click on cover for more info
FPQ Summer 2011
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$3.75
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Click on cover for more info
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