For Sale By Owner
For Sale By Owner
WINNER 2011 Next Generation Indie Book Award, Short Fiction
In Kelcey Parker’s tales of twisted domesticity, a woman gives her family up
for Lent; a mother finds redemption at Chuck E. Cheese; a former
best-friend-forever wreaks baby shower havoc; a bride swallows a housefly at
the altar; and a suburbanite’s obsession with memory books puts her
family in jeopardy. These stories offer a contemporary and dryly funny view of
marriage, parenting and loss.
Fans of Lorrie Moore and Aimee Bender will find kinship in Parker’s wit, her
generosity of spirit and the confidence of her voice. This debut collection
marks the appearance of a writer with a blunt and beautiful perspective on
family, home, and an evolving American subculture.
Praise
If there's a book that can cure what ails us, then it's Kelcey Parker's amazing
story collection, For Sale by Owner. These are fantastical, ingenious, deeply
imagined and felt stories about the homes, families, jobs, lives that we dream
about, that we disappoint and are disappointed by in equal measure. In Parker's
hands, our dead ends become something other than dead ends, something
hopeful and beautiful and mysterious. Art, in other words. What a first book!
- Brock Clarke, author of Exley and An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England
The
stories in Kelcey Parker’s For Sale By Owner are gorgeous, sinister dreams that
sweep us into the unsettled lives of women – wives, mothers, lovers, friends –
straining against the bonds of expectation. Parker’s vivid characters are
drawn with language that is bold, loving, and mesmerizing. A truly
exceptional collection.
- Darrin Doyle, author of The Girl Who Ate Kalamazoo and Revenge of the Teacher's Pet, A Love Story
In these sharply funny, acutely smart, and sometimes heartbreaking stories, Kelcey Parker gets the pains and comforts of family life—and particularly of motherhood—so right that I both laughed and caught my breath as I read. Like mother-love, these stories are deep, and cutting, and true.
– Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum, author of Swimming With Strangers and This Life She’s Chosen
4/12/12 Small Presses, Big Pleasures Donna Miscolta blogs about FSBO along with books by Caitlin Horrocks and Anne Germanacos. "These story collections, like so much other work by women, are anything but minor when it comes to illuminating the complexities of women’s lives and minds not just in the stories themselves, but in the forms and language the authors use to construct them."
3/28/12 New Review of FSBO at CultureMob - "If you tend to consider short stories to be literary snacks, then the stories in...For Sale By Owner...are more like tapas. They may look like hors d’oeuvres from the world of stay-at-home moms and their domestic difficulties, but when you bite into them you discover rich, savory morsels that stay with you long after you’ve moved on to the next bar."
3/5/12 Review of FSBO at Literary Mama - "the stories are utterly distinct, each distinguished from the others not just by specific characters and details, but through the voice, form, and style."
12/5/11 Pushcart Nomination: Kore Press nominated my story "Lent" for a Pushcart!
10/16/11 Shout Outs: FSBO on Dan Cafaro's nightstand at Atticus Books; Caitlin Horrocks reads FSBO at Writers Read
7/1/11 Review - New Pages
" . . . distinctly well-developed characters who are crafted with beautiful depth . . . an edge of suspense in every story that keeps the pages turning . . . "
5/31/11 Longlisted for Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award
5/12/11 WINNER 2011 Next Generation Indie Book Award / Short Fiction
5/5/11 Review - Bookgeeks/UK
"Kelcey Parker . . . does more than just scratch the surface to explore suburbia further; she drills a well to dig down towards the core."
4/15/11 Review - CaribousMom
4.5 stars / "Wry, biting, and skillfully constructed, these are stories that evoke the darker side of domestic life and ask the question: What is a women’s identity apart from the labels which define her?"
4/4/11 Review - R.Smith, White Walls, Black Ink / 4 stars / "Are these stories hopeful? Nihilistic? Heartbreaking? Heart-affirming? Every sentence seems to turn where you think they’re going, which is the real key to this kind of reality, the one we genuinely recognize as our own."
3/1/11 Review - IUSB Preface
"Parker . . . uses the rules of language and writing like advanced calculus."
