Wingtips: Stories by Avery Chenoweth(Johns Hopkins: Poetry and Fiction)

Each of the tales in 'Wingtips', the first collection of short stories by bright new talent Avery Chenoweth, focuses on members of the Goodpasture family and their search for love, a sense of belonging, and, ultimately, spiritual transformation. From the rarified atmosphere of Martha's Vineyard and the near-tropical lushness of the Tennessee mountains to the streets of Washington, D.C., the debutante balls of Jacksonville, and the stark emptiness of Oklahoma, Chenoweth chronicles the dreams and ambitions of characters fumbling their way toward the responsibilities of maturity. Chenoweth has created a colorful cast of characters from across the social and geographic spectrum: Yankee blue bloods summering at the Vineyard, a faith healer who lays hands on fast food restaurants as well as people, a man willing to sacrifice his children's inheritance so that Jesus will lead them to oil, a young adult who discovers his true love only to learn that she is his half-sister, a boy whose game of espionage puts an end to his innocence, and a man who pretends to be his own double at a college reunion. These stories also skirt the fantastic, with scenes of a child hiding in a grave, people attacking their guest at the dinner table, and a party of ghosts arriving for lunch. Comic and yet poignant, 'Wingtips' explores the human heart in conflict with itself.

About the Author :
Avery Chenoweth is a freelance journalist living in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins Writing Programs. This is his first book.

Review :

"Chenoweth is the sort of writer best appreciated by other writers... His subtly nuanced tales are spun from filaments of finely crafted prose that capture and caress every detail of every scene -- the sounds, the smells, the tactile sensations, the colors and shapes that constitute the world through which his characters move... A writer fully in control of his material, Chenoweth allows the undercurrents of dysfunction and despair to surface slowly... Except for the rare reader who happens to have grown up in a 'normal' family, Chenoweth's stories tend to hit too close to home for comfort. Reading him can be unsettling, to say the least. But watching him work will fill you with envy and admiration." -- Ron Carter, Richmond Times-Dispatch

"Expertly chronicles the frailties of one family... Chenoweth tells it all with humor, tenderness and breathtaking accuracy. He builds with each related story, producing a whole that is poignant and powerfully drawn." -- Gina Vivinetto, St. Petersburg Times

"Family spirit, in all its tragic and comic forms, survives, and Tolstoy's shopworn but accurate observation that unhappy families are miserable in their own ways gets its due in Avery Chenoweth's reliable hands." -- David Finkle, Trenton Times

"With earnest lyricism and emotional accuracy, the nine linked stories in Chenoweth's debut collection graph the evolution of the Goodpasture family... The intensity of the language and the grace of the narrative arc should earn this new writer praise." -- Publishers Weekly

"Wonderfully sardonic and incisive." -- Booklist