**The first collection of short fiction from Jeffrey Eugenides, the
Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Virgin Suicides and
Middlesex.
**
Jeffrey Eugenides's bestselling novels have shown him to be an astute
observer of the crises of adolescence, self-discovery, family love, and
what it means to be American. The stories in Fresh Complaint explore
equally rich----and intriguing----territory.
Ranging from the bitingly reproductive antics of "Baster" to the dreamy,
moving account of a young traveler's search for enlightenment in "Air
Mail" (selected by Annie Proulx for Best American Short Stories), this
collection presents characters in the midst of personal and national
emergencies. We meet a failed poet who, envious of other people's wealth
during the real-estate bubble, becomes an embezzler; a clavichordist
whose dreams of art flounder under the obligations of marriage and
fatherhood; and, in Fresh Complaint, a high school student whose wish
to escape the strictures of her immigrant family lead her to a drastic
decision that upends the life of a middle-aged British physicist.
Narratively compelling, beautifully written, and packed with a density
of ideas despite their fluid grace, these stories chart the development
and maturation of a major American writer.
