Legacies Author:Starling Lawrence Starling Lawrence's evocative and subtle stories are about illuminations that alter the course of ordinary lives, about moments where the known world is dissolved in fierce recognition. Whether the characters are young or old, or caught in the middle passages of life, the binding energy in Lawrence's fiction is love, which manifests itself in su... more »rprising ways and invests the details of place and time with an eerie significance: the light falling at a certain angle on a pattern of wood, the smell of a hay barn or a burning pencil, the puzzle of a torn photograph. There are no bizarre twists of plot here, no trick endings. Instead, there is a sense of unfinished business, evocative intimations of what lies beyond and around the narrative: other rooms, corridors, doorways, points of access to the reader's imagination.
Publishers Weekly
It is always interesting when a publishing figure turns author, and in the case of Norton editor-in-chief Lawrence, it is good to report that a considerable talent is at work. The title of this story collection is appropriate, for many of Lawrence's finely crafted tales are reminiscences, of vital moments in mostly quiet lives. He has a real knack for the telling physical detail, and for the kind of obsessions, sometimes sexual, sometimes memories of childhood betrayals, that can help define a life. The lead story, "The Crown of Light," is a beautifully written piece about an elderly farmer who achieves a mystical apotheosis. "The Gift" and "Reunion" are both concerned with erotic yearnings that distort apparently normal lives, and "Desire Lines" is a haunting tale of birdwatchers in New York's Central Park that moves into decidedly eerie territory. The stories do not so much end as pause on the brink of change or discovery, and in their subtle way they are all the more rewarding for that restraint. They are unfashionable in their observant, old-fashioned attention to atmosphere and setting, but for connoisseurs of elegant style and quiet penetration they should prove highly rewarding.« less