Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Little Labors

Little Labors

Galchen, Rivka

Hardcover

Literary FiguresLetters & EssaysGeneral Poetry

Publisher Price: $16.95

ISBN10: 0811225585
ISBN13: 9780811225588
Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation
Published: May 17 2016
Pages: 136
Weight: 0.50
Height: 0.60 Width: 4.70 Depth: 7.20
Language: English

Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book--a key inspiration for Rivka Galchen's new book--contains a list of Things That Make One Nervous. And wouldn't the blessed event top almost anyone's list?

Little Labors is a slanted, enchanted literary miscellany. Varying in length from just a sentence or paragraph to a several-page story or essay, Galchen's puzzle pieces assemble into a shining, unpredictable, mordant picture of the ordinary-extraordinary nature of babies and literature. Anecdotal or analytic, each part opens up an odd and tender world of wonder. The 47 Ronin; the black magic of maternal love; babies morphing from pumas to chickens; the quasi-repellent concept of women writers; origami-ophilia in Oklahoma as a gateway drug to a lifelong obsession with Japan; discussions of favorite passages from the Heian masterpieces Genji and The Pillow Book; the frightening prevalence of orange as today's new chic color for baby gifts; Frankenstein as a sort of baby; babies gold mines; babies as tiny Godzillas ...

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