North and South

	Fiction Non-Fiction Poetry Film Art MEB Authors Events Distribution Booksense Contacts	North & South by Martha King ISBN 1-933132-27-2 $14.00 US \| $17.95 CAN Find the book on Amazon> King attended the fabled Black Mountain College in the mid-1950s: her short stories suggest the spare hardness and amused diffidence of Black Mountain poet Robert Creeley; wrenching plot twists and the instability of narrative itself—King often interrupts to discard or evaluate the proceedings—root her best work in the postmodern contingency forged by Black Mountain teacher John Cage. In "Conversation in Connecticut," the entire arc of a failed novelist's life gets condensed into a single revelation. "Dog Box" moves its focus violently inward from a gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood to a box on an art dealer's mantle. The collection's second half has one foot in the courtly landscape of the Old South (where King grew up), the other itching to escape to an "arts underworld." The narrators, often unnamed and female, reveal King's keen sensitivity to the caste system separating men and women, à la Tillie Olsen. King is more interested in demolishing notions of character in fiction than in character itself (although she's good at repulsive guys, young and old). These stories form the pinned edges of a very broad canvas. Publishers Weekly Together these stories make a sharp intelligent history. I like especially how King can nail down class in the USA--from the South to the New York art world. Her takes are so focused and telling, and her tempo is like friends talking and smoking across a kitchen table--changes, pauses, sighs, quick laughter. Lucia Berlin Praise for Martha King Written with lucidity, vigor, and charm…. Familiar denizens of Manhattan’s Lower East Side…come and go in King’s world. They form the vibrating sympathetic strings out of which King creates, with a few deft touches, the counterpoints and episodes of creative life in New York. John Olson, RAIN TAXI Provocative and accomplished. I was at first engaged by her reflections about narration and memory and then by how all the writing comes alive in its different guises…. The emotional and un-ironic qualities can be measured by the distancing of interruption, as well as by memory and genealogy, also subject to interruptions. David Gilbert, FIRST INTENSITY King is a minimalist with a difference. Where much minimalist prose is dry and detached, King’s is richly detailed. Reading Little Tales is like spending an hour with a cryptic new acquaintance in the attic of her family home. You’re left with more questions than answers, and ready to visit again. Margaret Quamme, AMERICAN BOOK REVIEW

King attended the fabled Black Mountain College in the mid-1950s: her short stories suggest
the spare hardness and amused diffidence of Black Mountain poet Robert Creeley; wrenching
plot twists and the instability of narrative itself—King often interrupts to discard or evaluate the
proceedings—root her best work in the postmodern contingency forged by Black Mountain
teacher John Cage. In "Conversation in Connecticut," the entire arc of a failed novelist's life gets
condensed into a single revelation. "Dog Box" moves its focus violently inward from a gentrifying
Brooklyn neighborhood to a box on an art dealer's mantle. The collection's second half has one
foot in the courtly landscape of the Old South (where King grew up), the other itching to escape
to an "arts underworld." The narrators, often unnamed and female, reveal King's keen sensitivity
to the caste system separating men and women, à la Tillie Olsen. King is more interested in
demolishing notions of character in fiction than in character itself (although she's good at
repulsive guys, young and old). These stories form the pinned edges of a very broad canvas.
Publishers Weekly

Together these stories make a sharp intelligent history. I like especially how King
can nail down class in the USA--from the South to the New York art world. Her
takes are so focused and telling, and her tempo is like friends talking and smoking
across a kitchen table--changes, pauses, sighs, quick laughter.   Lucia Berlin

Praise for Martha King

Written with lucidity, vigor, and charm…. Familiar denizens of Manhattan’s Lower East
Side…come and go in King’s world. They form the vibrating sympathetic strings out of
which King creates, with a few deft touches, the counterpoints and episodes of creative
life in New York.   John Olson, RAIN TAXI

Provocative and accomplished. I was at first engaged by her reflections about narration
and memory and then by how all the writing comes alive in its different guises…. The
emotional and un-ironic qualities can be measured by the distancing of interruption, as
well as by memory and genealogy, also subject to interruptions.
David Gilbert, FIRST INTENSITY

King is a minimalist with a difference. Where much minimalist prose is dry and detached,
King’s is richly detailed. Reading Little Tales is like spending an hour with a cryptic new
acquaintance in the attic of her family home. You’re left with more questions than answers,
and ready to visit again.   Margaret Quamme, AMERICAN BOOK REVIEW