 
|
|
Hardcover
Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover
ISBN13: 9781594488696
Condition: NEW
Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices
Award-winning writer Maile Meloy's return to short stories explores complex lives in an austere landscape with the clear-sightedness that first endeared her to readers.
Meloy's first return to short stories since her critically acclaimed debut, Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It is an extraordinary new work from one of the most promising writers of the last decade.
Eleven unforgettable new stories demonstrate the emotional power and the clean, assured style that have earned Meloy praise from critics and devotion from readers. Propelled by a terrific instinct for storytelling, and concerned with the convolutions of modern love and the importance of place, this collection is about the battlefields-and fields of victory-that exist in seemingly harmless spaces, in kitchens and living rooms and cars. Set mostly in the American West, the stories feature small-town lawyers, ranchers, doctors, parents, and children, and explore the moral quandaries of love, family, and friendship. A ranch hand falls for a recent law school graduate who appears unexpectedly- and reluctantly-in his remote Montana town. A young father opens his door to find his dead grandmother standing on the front step. Two women weigh love and betrayal during an early snow. Throughout the book, Meloy examines the tensions between having and wanting, as her characters try to keep hold of opposing forces in their lives: innocence and experience, risk and stability, fidelity and desire.
Knowing, sly, and bittersweet, Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It confirms Maile Meloy's singular literary talent. Her lean, controlled prose, full of insight and unexpected poignancy, is the perfect complement to her powerfully moving storytelling.
Amazon Best of the Month, July 2009: There is one line in Maile Meloy's newest story collection that completely slayed me. (It's on page 97.) And in fact, there are many moments before and after that line that left me awestruck as I wondered how she was able to capture a feeling--typically one that's very familiar, like the flushing embarrassment of an unexpected advance, or the sudden fury found in a bout of sibling rivalry--and create it anew. The effect is both masterful and ephemeral: all of a sudden, it's as if your own life is reflected back to you. This is what great story writers do, and in the stories that follow--whose characters revel or unravel in their relationships to love and family--Maile Meloy pinpoints the ambivalence running through our most powerful emotions, be it love, jealousy, grief, or loneliness. That she writes with so much truth and wisdom and restraint makes Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It an unexpected pleasure and a worthy outside-the-box pick for your summer reading. --Anne Bartholomew
Amazon Exclusive: Maile Meloy on Arranging Stories
 My most recent book, Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It, is a story collection, as was my first. Lately people have been asking me about how you decide which stories to include in a collection, and what order they go in, which was (and still is) a big question of mine.
When I was writing the stories that became my first book, Half in Love, I read great collections to see how it was done: Philip Roth’s Goodbye, Columbus; J.D. Salinger’s Nine Stories; Merce Rodereda's My Christina; D.H. Lawrence's England, My England; Hemingway's In Our Time. I wanted to know how the arrangement of eight or ten or twelve stories could create a complete experience that the reader could move through, when the stories weren't linked in any way except for the fact that one writer wrote them, but it was hard to see how I could transfer that information to my own book.
I was taking a class from Ann Patchett then, and she said, about the number of stories in a collection, that Salinger's Nine was like eight hours sleep—a little more was okay, a little less was fine, but it was a good general guideline. About variety, she said that a collection was like a mall: it needed a few big stories with broad horizons, like the big anchor stores, to make a space in which the smaller, quirkier stories could survive.
That made sense, so in putting Half in Love together I took some stories out, and left others in, and set aside two linked ones to start a novel with. I made lists of the titles, and annotated them with codes about what was in each story, some of which were so obscure I can't decipher them now. (One was "adbhj." I have no idea what that means.) The easily breakable codes indicated that the story was in 1st person, or 3rd, or 2nd, and whether the protagonist was male or female, and where the story was set. Then I cut the lists apart and moved the titles around on the kitchen table. I spent a long time trying to keep the first-person stories away from each other, before realizing that I didn't need to, that it wasn't difficult to move from one first-person narrator to another. We're used to hearing different voices telling us things about their lives, and I ended up having four in a row.
I did the same thing for Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It, with the annotated titles on cut-up pieces of sticky notes, so they would stay in place—an improvement on the method. Otherwise, the arranging hadn't gotten any easier. I knew which title went first, and had a sense about which one might go last, but I moved the middle around for days, trying different sequences.
I got out Salinger's Nine again, because it struck me as the Platonic ideal of a story collection, and I thought about it as a template, wondering which story was my "DeDaumier Smith's Blue Period," and which was my "Teddy." But that came to seem futile and silly, and I went back to thinking about my own stories.
I put a story set in Connecticut third, after two Montana stories, so it was clear that the collection was going to go to other places. And there were two stories that made sense near each other, but needed to be separated, like quarreling siblings. The story about a man whose daughter has been murdered couldn't go early. It had to go somewhere in the middle, at a point when the reader was already in the book. And it seemed good to have a lighter story after it, about a grandmother who comes back from the dead.
Sometimes the arranging felt like lining up the batting order for a baseball game: which story leads off? And sometimes it felt like seating people at a dinner party: boy-girl-boy-girl if possible, and certain stories shouldn't go next to each other, and try to encourage interesting conversation. And sometimes it felt like making a mix tape for someone you love. But mostly it felt like a puzzle with a discoverable solution, and moving the pieces around was part of the pleasure.
| Customer Reviews: |
|
| |
| Desire |
| Customer Rating: 3 out of 5 |
 |
|
There are eleven finely written short stories in Maile Meloy's new collection titled, Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It. One theme through these stories is the desire of an individual for more than he or she seems to have now or is experiencing. Sometimes those desires are realized, often they are not. Meloy presents real people in relationships that most readers will recognize. Her writing presents just the right amount of conflict among her characters to allow her to use the short story form effectively and not waste a single word.
Rating: Three-star (Recommended)
|
| Both Sides Now |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
 |
|
I am a fan of Maile Meloy's, having read and loved both of her novels. I thought I'd try her new book of short stories and I can say that not only was I not disappointed, I was wowed! Each of the stories is excellent with something new and different. The pervasive theme that runs through the book is that of conflicted emotions; impulse vs. rationalism; fear vs. curiosity; pull vs. push; loyalty vs. betrayal.
The book opens with a short poem as a preface:
One can't
have it
both ways
and both
ways is
the only
way I
want it.
- - - A.R. Amons
This pretty well sums up the challenges facing the characters in these tightly tuned stories by Ms. Meloy. The first story, 'Travis, B.", is about a maimed cowhand who inadvertently walks into a school law class and falls for the teacher. He pursues her while realizing she is beyond his attainment. 'Red From Green' is about the complexities and challenges of growing up, becoming an adolescent and the push and pull of desires. 'Spy vs. Spy is about the lifelong conflict between two brothers who try over and over to connect. "Two-step' is about two-timing and adultery told in a marvelously eye-rolling way. A couple uses the two-step as a way to end discord. However, the discord in this story is not likely to be resolved by any dance. 'The Girlfriend' is a tragic tale about the girlfriend of a murderer. The father of the murdered girl tries to get information from this girlfriend and ends up getting much more than he'd ever bargained for. The need to know outweighed his ability to realize how much he'd be able to cope with. These are just a few of the stories in this collection.
All the stories are excellent. There is not one dud in the book. I loved it and give it my highest recommendation.
|
| For lovers of the short story format (3.5 stars) |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
 |
|
This book includes 11 stories and covers a lot of ground: with characters being young, old, American, foreign - - and involved in a number of situations - father/daughter relationships, sibling rivalry, of love and unrequited love, infidelity and of loneliness.
The characters are all flawed in one way or another - they succumb to temptation - knowing full well the impact of the consequences. This excerpt supports the vein of the plot lines for most of the stories - with a middle aged man in a good marriage being attracted to another woman:
"'Both ways is the only way I want it.' The force with which he wanted it both ways made him grit his teeth. What kind of fool wanted it one way?...He held his wife and felt himself anchored to everything that was safe and sure, and kept for himself the knowledge of how quickly he could let go and drift free."
While the story lines can be described as being dark, the author successfully paints the characters as human so you identify with the flaws and the situations they are in. (Good people doing bad things.) It reminded me of a watching a car crash unfold in slow motion - and you can't take your eyes off it.
The stories are smartly written - clear, crisp and concise. The author manages to intelligently "pull-up" without revealing too much which keeps you wondering about the outcome and what you would have done in a similar situation. That being said, while I found these stories engaging, I was left yearning for more and a deeper understanding of the characters and the outcomes - which left me somewhat unsatisfied after concluding the book.
I read 2 other exceptional short story books prior to this work - "Do Not Deny Me" by Jean Thompson and "Olive Kitteridge" (2009 Pullitzer Prize Winner) by Elizabeth Strout. I highly recommend both books.
|
| Brief but Potent |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
|
|
Superior writing and well-crafted stories that touch on contemporary family issues and the "inner lives" of characters grappling with life changing forces and events. Each of these memorable stories is brief but quite potent. Cannot recommend highly enough.
|
| Meloy is a true master... |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
|
|
A wonderful collection of short stories by a writer at the peak of her form. The writing is spare, all the characters are brilliantly observed, and there is hilarious dialogue, too. Each story is odd and startling in its own way. You'll want to whip through this book, but don't. It's best read slowly so you can savor the language and nuance.
|
|
