Death Is Not an Option (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780393339901)

In these stories, a teacher obsesses over a student who comes to class with scratch marks on his face; a Catholic girl graduating high school finds a warped kind of redemption in her school's contrived class rituals; and a woman looking to rent a house is sucked into a strangely inappropriate correspondence with one of the landlords. These are just a few of the powerful plotlines in Suzanne Rivecca's gorgeously wrought collection. From a college student who adopts a false hippie persona to find love, to a young memoirist who bumps up against a sexually obsessed fan, the characters in these fiercely original tales grapple with what it means to be honest with themselves and the world.

These stories explode "with piercing insight . . . illuminating the dangerous dance between victims and saviors. [They] deliver us to the edge of grief, that precarious place where the moral compass spins--where codes of love and law and religion fail. Mercy here depends on a tiger's sublime grace, our capacity to resist deeper harm, and the right of every broken being to remain silent" (Melanie Rae Thon).

Author: Suzanne Rivecca
ISBN-10: 0393339904
ISBN-13: 9780393339901
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Language: English
Published: 07/01/2011
Pages: 226
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.42lbs
Size: 8.24h x 5.58w x 0.58d

Review Citation(s):
Entertainment Weekly 07/08/2011 pg. 113
New York Times Book Review 08/14/2011 pg. 28