Prayers of an Accidental Nature
DEBRA DI BLASI

Whether urban or rural, rich or poor, young or old, the characters in <Prayers of an Accidental Nature> are driven by perpetual yearning: for love, sex, healing, even for death. This virtuoso collection of cutting-edge short stories with a subversive undercurrent is marked by dazzling versatility.

Di Blasi tells the stories of a teacher who converses with God, a pair of mythic (and meta-) lovers, and a scotch-soaked schizophrenic. In the title story, the plural narrator of a doomed upper class masterminds the demise of a favored son's romance with a woman from "Peru or Bolivia (we can't remember which)." In "An Interview with My Husband," an artificial exercise forces a couple to face up to the dissolution of their marriage. In "An Obscure Geography" a beloved teacher meets her match in the form of the evil son of wealthy newcomers, and yet manages to triumph, even in death. Di Blasi's fierce artistry tugs her readers into the psyches and beds of her characters, and leaves us there to wonder if a greater truth, or a greater lie, is being laid bare.

Intellectual and funny, erotic and contemplative, the stories in <Prayers of an Accidental Nature> scrutinize the tensions and divisions that arise in human relations-divisions of culture, class, age, and sex. Di Blasi's narratives probe the intricacies of human love, lust, and loneliness, and the darkest areas where these overlap.

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