“Patricia’s gray hair was like wire mesh; when she pushed it back it stuck brittley in place. Joe called her eyes little blue birds. Silence was all around her mind. Her years were not quiet because he talked and talked, but his words had slowly become unspecific like a hum in a field. He pulled gin into himself the way ground takes rain. When he fell flat dead asleep, she dragged him to bed, removed his shoes. He was a trapped man and cried because of it. In the mornings, he held her tightly and rubbed his callused hand through her hair. He called her ‘urchin.’
“You’re my only honey,” he’d say. “I still love you.”
Their home was small and dark. There were two chairs and one window to look out of. He said he needed her to be there. She had become distracted, did not wash the dishes, sweep or move much. Her heart had shrunk into a tiny pebble and lay small and still. She thought: he’s eating himself. But there was never a time to say this.”
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“Calcagno has the clean voice and sharp unblinking eye of a true storyteller.”
—Larry Heinemann
“Anne Calcagno is emerging as a first-string talent. We should thank her for the stories in Pray For Yourself. They are luminous and invaluable.”
—William Kittredge
“Nine stories, each unforgettably clear, magnetic and alive. Language as maddeningly fascinating as a fifty car locomotive, perfectly carved, from a single piece of wood.”
—Lynda Barry
“These are chancy, exhilarating and often disturbing stories. Calcagno’s high-voltage images remind us that nothing is mundane, that our many small disturbances are darkly miraculous.”
—Rick DeMarinis
“Kinetic, perceptive, intensely visual. This is energetic and intelligent writing - a delight to follow.”
—Susan Engberg
“These moving tales speak about America today. Solitary people confront life’s most extreme situations without the hope of epiphany, and yet the author’s concern for them has the power to exhilarate the reader.”
—Olga Andreyev Carlisle
TriQuarterly Books/Northwestern University Press
ISBN: 0-8101-5003-4
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