Trash_ Stories - Dorothy Allison [0]
Title Page
Copyright Page
Introduction
Deciding to Live - Preface to the First Edition
River of Names
Meanest Woman Ever Left Tennessee
Mama
Gospel Song
I’m Working on My Charm
Steal Away
Monkeybites
Don’t Tell Me You Don’t Know
Demon Lover
Her Thighs
Muscles of the Mind
Violence Against Women Begins at Home
A Lesbian Appetite
Lupus
Compassion
Critical acclaim for Dorothy Allison
“Simply stunning . . . The special qualities of her style include a perfect ear for speech and its natural rhythms; an unassertive cumulative lyricism; an intensely imagined and presented sensory world; and above all, a language for the direct articulation of deep and complex feelings.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“Allison uses strong, direct language to explore the fragile and tangled emotions between love and hate. It is what makes her characters live on the page and beyond.”
—Los Angeles Times
“Compulsively readable . . . Allison can make an ordinary moment transcendent with her sensuous mix of kitchen-sink realism and down-home drawl.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“Allison is abundantly gifted . . . She has a superb ear for the specific dialogue of her characters.”
—The Washington Post
“A hell of a writer—tough and loose, clear and compassionate.”
—The Village Voice
“Dorothy Allison writes straight from the gut, the brain, and the heart.”
—Associated Press
“Spectacular . . . sensual . . . Allison has a spare gospel-tinged lyricism that few can match.”
—Newsday
“Sensational.”
—Esquire
“Powerful.”
—People
DOROTHY ALLISON is the bestselling author of Bastard Out of Carolina, Cavedweller, and a memoir, Two or Three Things I Know for Sure (all available from Plume). Born in Greenville, South Carolina, she currently lives with her partner and her son in Northern California.
Also by Dorothy Allison
The Women Who Hate Me
Skin: Talking About Sex, Class & Literature
Bastard Out of Carolina
Two or Three Things I Know for Sure
Cavedweller
PLUME
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Putnam Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia
Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2
Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, 182-190 Wairau Road, Auckland 10, New Zealand
Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England
Published by Plume, a member of Penguin Putnam Inc. Original edition published by Firebrand Books.
First Plume Printing, October 2002
Copyright © Dorothy Allison, 1988, 2002
All rights reserved
Versions of some of these stories have appeared in Conditions, The Lesbian Fiction Anthology edited by Elly Bulkin (Gay Presses of New York), Off Our Backs, On Our Backs, and Out/Look. Page 221 constitutes an extension of the copyright page.
REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Allison, Dorothy.
Trash : stories / by Dorothy Allison.
p. cm.
eISBN : 978-1-101-11781-1
1. Southern states—Social life and customs—Fiction. 2. Working-class women—Fiction. 3. Women, poor—Fiction. 4. Lesbians—Fiction. I. Title. PS3551.L453 T7 2002
813’.54—dc21 2002066243
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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