Synopses & Reviews
Baxter dives into the undercurrents of middle-class American life in these eleven arresting, often mesmerizing stories. Whether they know it or not, Baxter's characters are floating above an abyss of unruly desire, inexplicable dread, unforeseen tragedy, and sudden moments of grace.
A drunken graduate student hurtles cheerfully through a snowstorm to rescue a fiancee who no longer wants him. A hospital maintenance worker makes a perverse bid for his place in the sunlight of celebrity. A man and a woman who have lost their only child cling fiercely to the one thing they have left of her their grief. Lit by the quiet lightning of Baxter's prose, Through the Safety Net is filled with rare artistry and feeling.
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"An exemplary writer....His every story [is] a lesson in observation, feeling and wit." Los Angeles Times Book Review
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"Mr. Baxter's stories are intelligent, original, gracefully written, always moving, frequently funny and that rarest of compliments wise." The New York Times Book Review
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"A remarkable storyteller....His narratives can be as plausible as they are utterly amazing." The Nation
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"Charles Baxter's stories have reminded me of how broad and deep and shining a story can be, and I am grateful." Alice Munro
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"Baxter is a master of deceptive simplicity....His fiction makes the American universal in ways that are fresh and unforced." Boston Globe
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"A writer in whom reading is believing." Elle
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"He is a master of what's actual....Only the great chefs know how to combine, as Baxter combines the effects of the senses, the sweet with the sour, the fierce with the cool, the visual with the auditory." Los Angeles Times Book Review
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"A quiet passion ignites Charles Baxter's best work, making his stories glow." Detroit Free Press
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"Like Raymond Carver, Baxter has become a master at articulating the quiet confusion of despair, and of suggesting that despair may, at times, be redemptive, but he's entirely his own writer: precise in setting forth his characters' preoccupations." Ann Beattie
Synopsis
In these eleven mesmerizing stories, Charles Baxter plunges into the undertow of middle-class American life as he explores the unruly desires, inexplicable dread, unforeseen tragedy, and sudden moments of grace that mark those lives.
About the Author
Charles Baxter lives in Ann Arbor and teaches at the University of Michigan. He is the author of three previous collections of stories, Harmony of the World, Believers, and A Relative Stranger, and two novels, First Light and Shadow Play.
Exclusive Essay
Read an exclusive essay by Charles Baxter