Contemporary Literary Criticism | Russo, Richard - Kristen Case (review date July-August 2002)

Kristen Case (review date July-August 2002)

SOURCE: Case, Kristen. “Pulsating with Real Life.” New Leader 85, no. 4 (July-August 2002): 30-1.

[In the following review, Case praises the life and vitality of the stories in The Whore's Child and Other Stories.]

The short story's rise to prominence in American letters must be at least partly a consequence of its usefulness to English teachers. Not only is it easier than the novel to “workshop” (to use a questionable term in its most dubious form), it is easier to teach. I remember peering over my freshman English professor's shoulder at the contents page of his copy of the anthology we were using and seeing his handwritten notes alongside each title. “Voice” was scrawled next to Raymond Carver's “Where I'm Calling From,” “Irony” next to Albert Camus' “The Guest.”

The pieces in Richard Russo's first short fiction collection [The Whore's Child and Other...

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