Sarahland by Sam Cohen

Sarahland

Stories

Sam Cohen

In Sarahland, Sam Cohen brilliantly and often hilariously explores the ways in which traditional stories have failed us, both demanding and thrillingly providing for its cast of Sarahs new origin stories, new ways to love the planet and those inhabiting it, and new possibilities for life itself. In one story, a Jewish college Sarah passively consents to a form-life in pursuit of an MRS degree and is swept into a culture of normalized sexual violence. Another reveals a version of Sarah finding pleasure–and a new set of problems–by playing dead for a wealthy necrophiliac. A Buffy-loving Sarah uses fan fiction to work through romantic obsession. As the collection progresses, Cohen explodes this search for self, insisting that we have more to resist and repair than our own personal narratives. Readers witness as the ever-evolving ‘Sarah’ gets recast: as a bible-era trans woman, an aging lesbian literally growing roots, a being who transcends the earth as we know it. While Cohen presents a world that will clearly someday end, ‘Sarah’ will continue. In each Sarah’s refusal to adhere to a single narrative, she potentially builds a better home for us all, a place to live that demands no fixity of self, no plague of consumerism, no bodily compromise, a place called Sarahland.

Check for it on:


Details

ISBN 9781538735060
Genre Short Story Collection (Single Author)
Publication Date 09-Mar-21
Publisher Grand Central Publishing
Format Hardcover
No. of Pages 208
Notes Finalist for the Golden Poppy award for fiction.
LoC Classification PS3603.O378 .A6 2021
Rating Good
BookID 15672

Author: LFWBooks