There are a million ways to screw up at mothering. One character in Ann Bronston's hilarious, heartbreaking debut collection, Bad Mothers and Other Miscreants, silently inserts fuck into conversations with her young children. Another secretly wishes her troubled son dead. A third, fueled by religious mania, visits violence upon her own child. lf these maternal crimes sound grim, be assured that Bad Mothers and Other Miscreants is a joy to read.
The thirteen stories in Bad Mothers and Other Miscreants range in length from six to thirty-eight pages. Protagonists include a barmaid, professor, housewife, nun, murderer-two, actually-and a WWII vet. There is a street kid with a taste for rough sex and an aging actress. Divorcees and drunks abound, and children and dogs often steal the show.
Suzanne Warren, reviewer, Pembroke Magazine
A collection of little gems!
With stories that are both funny and heart-breaking, Bronston draws us into the skins of her characters.
Maia DanzigerWriter and developer of Relax and Write workshops
Whether writing in the first person or third, present tense or past, about the vagaries of childhood or the ordeal from an addiction, she exhibits unparalleled authority, grace, elegance, and rigor.
David Leavitt, Novelist, Short Story Writer Author of
The Secret Life of Cranes
and the short story
, Gravity, among many other works
Eskimo Nights
is a story about familial betrayal merely twenty pages long yet with the density and convolutions of a short novel.
Thom JonesNational Book Award nominee Author of
The Pugilist at Rest