O Street
Encyclopedia
O Street is a 2007
short story
collection written by Corrina Wycoff
. It is the second book published by OV Books, and was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award
for Lesbian Debut Fiction in 2007.
Three of the stories have been published previously: "Afterbirth" (in New Letters
), "The Shell Game" (in Coal City Review
), and "O Street" (in Other Voices magazine).
but still suffers its effects in adulthood. Each story, told from the perspective of Elizabeth herself or one of the people around her, explores a different period of her troubled life.
"The Wrong Place in the World"
"September 1981"
"Visiting Mrs. Ferullo"
"Where We're Going This Time"
"O Street"
"Leaving"
"Afterbirth"
"The Shell Game"
"The Cat"
"Read Me Through the Bardo, Won't You?"
2007 in literature
The year 2007 in literature involves some significant new books.-Events:*November 19 - First Kindle e-book reader released.*December 11 - Terry Pratchett informs fans on-line that he has been diagnosed with a rare form of Alzheimer's disease.-Literature:...
short story
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
collection written by Corrina Wycoff
Corrina Wycoff
Corrina Wycoff is an American writer, best known for her 2007 short story collection, O Street. The book was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Debut Fiction in 2007.-Profile:The following appears in O Street:...
. It is the second book published by OV Books, and was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award
Lambda Literary Award
Lambda Literary Awards are awarded yearly by the US-based Lambda Literary Foundation to published works which celebrate or explore LGBT themes. Categories include Humor, Romance and Biography. To qualify, a book must have been published in the United States in the year current to the award...
for Lesbian Debut Fiction in 2007.
Publication
The book's title was initially announced as The Wrong Place in the World, the title of the first story. O Street is also the title of a story in the collection.Three of the stories have been published previously: "Afterbirth" (in New Letters
New Letters (magazine)
New Letters, the name it has been published under since 1970, is one of the oldest literary magazines in the United States and continues to publish award-winning poems and fiction.-History & Editors:...
), "The Shell Game" (in Coal City Review
Coal City Review
The Coal City Review is an annual literary journal of prose, poetry, reviews and illustrations published by the University of Kansas and edited by since 1989....
), and "O Street" (in Other Voices magazine).
Overview
The ten stories collected in O Street revolve around the life of young professional Elizabeth Dinard, who has escaped an impoverished and abusive childhood in New JerseyNew Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
but still suffers its effects in adulthood. Each story, told from the perspective of Elizabeth herself or one of the people around her, explores a different period of her troubled life.
Stories
"The Wrong Place in the World"
"September 1981"
"Visiting Mrs. Ferullo"
"Where We're Going This Time"
"O Street"
"Leaving"
"Afterbirth"
"The Shell Game"
"The Cat"
"Read Me Through the Bardo, Won't You?"
Reviews
Wycoff works over an idée fixeFixation (psychology)Fixation: 'concept originated by Sigmund Freud to denote the persistence of anachronistic sexual traits'. Subsequently '"Fixation" acquired a broader connotation...
in her debut collection, 10 stories about a young woman's difficult transition to adulthood after an abusive childhood. Most of the stories catch fragile protagonist Beth at a precarious moment in her unlucky life: from the fatherless childhood spent in Jersey CityJersey City, New JerseyJersey City is the seat of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States.Part of the New York metropolitan area, Jersey City lies between the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay across from Lower Manhattan and the Hackensack River and Newark Bay...
tenementTenementA tenement is, in most English-speaking areas, a substandard multi-family dwelling, usually old, occupied by the poor.-History:Originally the term tenement referred to tenancy and therefore to any rented accommodation...
s and ramshackle motels ("Where We're Going This Time") to graduating from high school and fleeing at 17 to ChicagoChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. She returns five years later, in "The Wrong Place in the World," upon receiving (bogus, she later learns) news of her mother's terminal illness. Beth is poised in each story for monstrous disappointment orchestrated by her manipulative and mentally ill mother, Angela, who blames Beth for ruining her life. "September 1981" chronicles Angela's downward trajectory, and the eerily parallel "Afterbirth" delineates Beth's own struggle with single motherhood after having gotten pregnant while prostituting herself at a Days InnDays InnDays Inn is a motel chain headquartered in the United States. Founded in 1970, it is now a part of the Wyndham Hotel Group, based in Parsippany, New Jersey, which was formerly a part of Cendant...
. Other stories develop Beth's failed lesbian relationships, and the title story exposes Beth's damage: a gang rape as a teenager at the hands of her mother's stoned boyfriends. Over and over these degradations and disappointments are sounded like elements in therapy, and the result is a straightforward look at pain and renewal. — Publishers WeeklyPublishers WeeklyPublishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...
O Street makes you think of great writers in strange combinations: DreiserTheodore DreiserTheodore Herman Albert Dreiser was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm moral code, and literary situations that more closely resemble studies of nature than tales of...
and WeltyEudora WeltyEudora Alice Welty was an American author of short stories and novels about the American South. Her novel The Optimist's Daughter won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. Welty was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among numerous awards. She was the first living author to have her works published...
; WrightWrightWright is an occupational surname originating in England. The term Wright comes from the circa 700 AD Old English word "wryhta" or "wyrhta", meaning worker or shaper of wood. Later it became any occupational worker , and is used as a British family name...
and McCullersCarson McCullersCarson McCullers was an American writer. She wrote novels, short stories, and two plays, as well as essays and some poetry. Her first novel The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter explores the spiritual isolation of misfits and outcasts of the South...
; Joan DidionJoan DidionJoan Didion is an American author best known for her novels and her literary journalism. Her novels and essays explore the disintegration of American morals and cultural chaos, where the overriding theme is individual and social fragmentation...
and Stephen CraneStephen CraneStephen Crane was an American novelist, short story writer, poet and journalist. Prolific throughout his short life, he wrote notable works in the Realist tradition as well as early examples of American Naturalism and Impressionism...
. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen naturalismNaturalism (literature)Naturalism was a literary movement taking place from the 1880s to 1940s that used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character...
this honest, accurate and unapologetic ... None of this "emerging writer" stuff — this writer is here. — David BradleyDavid Bradley (novelist)David Henry Bradley, Jr. is an associate professor of creative writing at the University of Oregon and author of South Street and the The Chaneysville Incident, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1982....
, author of The Chaneysville IncidentThe Chaneysville IncidentThe Chaneysville Incident is a 1981 novel by David Bradley. It concerns a black historian who investigates an incident involving the death of his father and a prior incident involving the death of some 12 slaves. John, the historian, struggles to solve the mystery of his father, Moses Washington, a...
A deeply moving, deftly told, and keenly insightful tale of a daughter's love, by turns helpless and heroic, for a mother who has forgotten how to love. — Alex ShakarAlex ShakarAlex Shakar is an American novelist and short story author. His novel The Savage Girl was chosen as a New York Times Notable Book., was a Book Sense 76 Pick, and has been translated into six foreign languages.-Biography:...
, author of The Savage Girl
In O Street, Corrina Wycoff paints a harrowing portrait of familial pain, mental illness, and the sometimes cruel tenacity of love. Hers is a world, undone, through which mothers and daughters falter and fall, yet Wycoff never lets us forget the redemptive power these women hold for each other. — Aimee Liu, author of Cloud Mountain and Flash House
When love and anger live together in a bottomless hole, the only way to escape one is to also give up the other. Stripped of sentimentality and sanguinity, Corrina Wycoff ’s O Street is a relentless stare into the dark yawn of brutality. From her birth through early adulthood, Elizabeth Dinard follows her mentally-ill mother into the dark extremities of an at-best confusing, often tortured, always indissoluable relationship. This is White OleanderWhite OleanderWhite Oleander is a 1999 novel by American author Janet Fitch. It is a coming-of-age story about a child who is separated from her mother and placed in a series of foster homes. The book was a selection by Oprah's Book Club in May 1999 and became a 2002 film.-Plot summary:Astrid Magnussen is a...
blown into A Million Little PiecesA Million Little PiecesA Million Little Pieces is a semi-fictional memoir by James Frey. It tells the story of a 23-year-old alcoholic and drug abuser and how he copes with rehabilitation in a Twelve steps-oriented treatment center...
. — Cris MazzaCris MazzaCris Mazza is an American novelist, short story and non-fiction writer.-Biography:A native of Southern California, she earned her BA and MA at San Diego State University and her MFA in writing at Brooklyn College. She has published nine novels, four collections of short stories, and a collection...
, author of Disability and Many Ways To Get It, Many Ways To Say It