by Norman Sage

Passionate stories about love, loss, community, and the life of elderly Americans

6 x 9, 130 pages
paper, ISBN 1-57003-064-2, $14.95t

ABOUT THE BOOK

Meet Norman Sage—an eloquent, witty octogenarian and one of the few members of his generation writing truly exceptional short fiction. In this collection Sage balances gracefully between intimacy and distance as he evokes the loneliness, fear of death, and sexual yearnings that face a man nearing the end of his life.

Painfully honest in acknowledging his longing for companionship and in assessing the likelihood of his finding it, Sage reflects on the joys and defeats of romantic love in all its myriad incarnations—loves of childhood, love of a wife long dead, love of women real and imagined, love of women met too late in life. These musings portray a spectrum of worthy female characters as well as a progression of male characters who live in the company of such astonishing, intelligent women.

Sage's narratives also celebrate the people and places of the twentieth century's early decades. His stories impart the sense of a more pastoral era, offering readers of all ages the rare opportunity to explore an earlier time and place.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Norman Sage is a writer, publisher, and printer who was born in Iowa in 1910. Upon his retirement he began to write stories about life in the Midwest, some of which have been published in the Iowa Review, New Letters, and the North American Review. Sage lives on the shores of Lake Macbride, near Iowa City.

REVIEWS

"Norman Sage writes about adolescence and sexual awakening with all the poignancy and humor of a man with a passion for life and language."—John Leggett, former director of the Iowa Writers Workshop