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This short story collection
chronicles artist Samantha Mallory’s battle with weight, family, molestation,
love, marriage, sexuality, the Catholic church, traumatic cultural events, and
death.
A family reunion
awakens the voices of Samantha’s relatives, dead and alive.
“Time, An Other,”
the opening story, describes Samantha’s first memory; other stories move
forward and backward and forward in time. “In the Name of God” places
Samantha’s daughter and granddaughter in New York City during 9/11;
“Psychedelic Bingo” moves forward to 2035; “Time, Suspended,” the last story
(set in 1990), reveals a family secret.
“Are You EVER Going to be Thin?,” the title
story, interweaves childhood letters from an aunt with a grandmother’s dire
warnings.
“Cut,” a bonus
story added to the Kindle version, delves into Samantha’s fascination and fear
of fire and her willingness to court danger as she befriends a prisoner via
mail.
Also included:
“Are You Thin Yet?” the essay that inspired the title story and this
collection.
FOR EDUCATORS AND BOOK CLUBS:
The Kindle
edition includes questions for discussion and 25+ creative writing exercises.
SAMPLES:
Sample Questions: In the title story
“Are You EVER Going to be Thin?,”
Samantha is a silent presence as two alternating voices address her in various
ways. Who are they, and how do their own attitudes toward Samantha’s weight
inform her own self awareness and body image? In what literary form does each
voice address Samantha, and why are both forms important to Samantha’s
understanding of her familial relationships? The author has said that she was
influenced by Jamaica Kincaid’s classic short short story “Girl.” How are the
two stories similar? How are they different?
Sample Writing Exercise (about 250 words):
Based on a “voice” from your own past (or made up), write a short fictional
passage in which an adult is addressing a child (who remains silent).
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What do a packet of letters, a
felon, a pair of red bikini panties, a box of matches, auburn hair, a
controlling husband, and a restless wife have in common?
All are pieces of
a puzzle that make up this 6,000 word story of longing, smoldering anger, and
secret obsession.
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Christmas Eve, 1968: history is
made as Apollo 8 astronauts deliver their Christmas message from orbit around
the moon.
On earth, at The
Crystal Ship, a rock and head shop near Hollywood, California, Jennifer Semple
listens to the iconic broadcast and, through the fog of drugs, ponders the
future.
In the ensuing
days, the 18-year-old girl experiments with LSD and other drugs; juggles a
crumbling relationship with a notorious drug dealer; and tries to make sense of
life at 2001 Ivar Street, a Hollywood, California, apartment complex where
hippies, drug dealers, freaks, strippers, groupies, college students, Jesus
Freaks, counterculture gurus, drag queens, rock stars and wannabe rocksters,
svengalis, and con artists converge during one of the most volatile periods in
history.
Then her
grandfather finds the girl and coaxes her into returning to her Iowa hometown,
where, unknown to her, she is still considered a minor.
After a series of
events and blowups with her grandparents, she is dragged into the Iowa court
system and involuntarily committed to the Cherokee Mental Institute in
Cherokee, Iowa.
While
incarcerated, she corresponds with Jeff, a new boyfriend, and also interacts
with other patients: Wolfie, a psychopath who preys on other patients; Penny, a
17-year-old unwed mother; Carrie, a teen cutter with strange obsessions about
rats; Joyce, a young married mother enthralled with "10 ways of
suicide"; Drew, a young man facing a stiff prison sentence for possession
of marijuana; and D.J., a 42-year-old mentally challenged man and 25-year
resident of Cherokee, among others.
Finally released
from the institution, Jennifer flees Iowa and settles in Pennsylvania, where
she still lives today.
As young Jennifer
narrates her late 1960's memoir, how will the older and wiser Jennifer, now
voluntarily returning to Cherokee as a visitor, reconcile that painful time in
her history with her current ordinary life as a wife, mother, grandmother, and
teacher?
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Summary: In this tragicomedy, a homeless woman and an ambitious
producer of a reality-based TV show clash when their interpretations of reality
differ. The woman, hired to portray her own life, translates reality literally,
while the producer insists on a script—no matter the actual truth. Despite his
own conflicts, a washed-up screenwriter attempts to mediate between the feuding
woman and producer.
* *
* * *
About This Play: TILLY ZEACE, a homeless woman, has been approached
by OSCAR FISHBEIN, a washed-up screenwriter, to participate in the first
segment of TONY THORNTON’s new “reality-based” TV show.
STREET SHOCK, a Unicorn Studio
Production, would feature each week a different segment of the underclass. For
the first episode, TONY wishes to feature TILLY and other street people in a
segment about the homeless; he and a videographer, armed with a hand-held
camera, would follow TILLY around as she does what homeless people supposedly
do.
TILLY is drawn to
this project because she believes that the American public has a skewed view of
street life, and she wishes to present another point of view. However, while
TONY wants the final product to “feel real” to his audience, he also wants the
segment to have a plot, so the studio has hired OSCAR to write up a script, one
filled with stereotypes about street people and depicting TILLY as a shabby
alcoholic and drug addict who has no choice about her circumstances. However,
as OSCAR gets to know TILLY better, he slowly sheds these preconceived notions.
For a time, it
seems as though TILLY will be able to present the “real Tilly as street person”
to the American public, but a complication presents itself: the DIVINE MS. ALTA
UNIVERSE, a “New-Age” guru and the new owner of Unicorn Studios, adds her own agenda
to the script; she insists on adding a scene in which TILLY converts to a
new-age Christianity and abandons her “evil” life. Adding to this mix, TILLY,
in a monologue, reveals that she is not exactly what she appears to be.
In the middle of
this muddle, GINGER, a shallow young woman harboring her own secret, shows up
on the set and complicates everyone’s life even more, especially TONY’s.
TILLY soon
discovers that reality-based TV has its own set of rules, so she must decide
whether she wants to play by those rules or retain her unfettered way of life.
But then a
dramatic change occurs, affecting each major character in some significant way;
even so, this STREET SHOCK episode
has limped along through production and is now ready for its debut.
What happens when
STREET SHOCK is finally shown to a
live audience? Will theatre goers get a genuine glimpse into the life of a
homeless woman? What overall commentary does this play impart about American
culture and entertainment?
Throughout the
play, these questions are addressed, some implicitly and some answered in the
“The Wrap.”
For the overall
societal implications for our culture, each reader/playgoer must arrive at his
or her own conclusions.
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Jennifer
Semple Siegel’s Amazon Page:
For
more info, please email:
Jennifer
[at] BanMyBook [dot] com
