Willful creatures : stories

"Contemporary fairy tales, cushioned by goofy humor and a deep tenderness for her characters, that aren't always as dark or as sinister as they initially appear." -- The New York Times Book Review Aimee Bender s Willful Creatures conjures a fantastical world in which authentic love blooms. This is a place where a boy with keys for fingers is a hero, a woman's children are potatoes, and a little boy with an iron for a head is born to a family of pumpkin heads. With her singular mix of surrealism, musical prose, and keenly felt emotion, Bender once again proves herself to be a masterful chronicler of the human condition.

Aimee Bender’s Willful Creatures conjures a fantastical world in which authentic love blooms. This is a place where a boy with keys for fingers is a hero, a woman’s children are potatoes, and a little boy with an iron for a head is born to a family of pumpkin heads. With her singular mix of surrealism, musical prose, and keenly felt emotion, Bender once again proves herself to be a masterful chronicler of the human condition.

The New York Times - Joy Press

A fabulist in the tradition of Angela Carter, Bender creates contemporary fairy tales, cushioned by goofy humor and a deep tenderness for her characters, that aren't always as dark or as sinister as they initially appear. Her twinkling, chatty prose style carries the reader effortlessly over the road bumps of implausibility. Stories in this collection alternate between absurd scenarios imbued with recognizable human pathos, and apparently ordinary tales pitched at an oblique angle that reveals their true strangeness

Death watch End of the line Off The meeting Debbieland Motherfucker Fruit and words Jinx I will pick out your ribs (from My Teeth) Ironhead Job's jobs Dearth The case of the salt and pepper shakers The leading man Hymn. A new collection of all original stories by the author of An Invisible Sign of My Own and The Girl in the Flammable Skirt presents new tales of love, heartbreak, sex, adversity, and potato babies. Reprint. A collection of all original stories presents tales of love, heartbreak, sex, adversity, and potato babies. --Publisher