鈥淭o that great list of human mysteries which includes the construction of the pyramids and the persistent use of Styrofoam as a packing material, let me add this one: why isn't Edith Pearlman famous?鈥� novelist Ann Patchett writes in her foreword to Binocular Vision, three-time O. Henry Award-winner Pearlman's new collection.
After reading four or five of her stories, I came up for air long enough to second Patchett's bafflement, before eagerly diving back in. Pearlman writes with a kind of serene precision that would astonish any writer. The stories' settings range from fictional Godolphin, Mass., to Jerusalem, Latin America, and tsarist Russia, but the note-perfect word choices and resolute compassion remain.
In 鈥淪elf-Reliance,鈥� a retired surgeon applies that Yankee virtue to her own life. In 鈥淭he Noncombatant,鈥� a doctor diagnosed with cancer rides out the last days of World War II on Cape Cod, while in 鈥淒ay of Awe,鈥� a Jewish grandfather travels to Central America to meet his new grandson. In her foreword, Patchett predicts that 鈥淏inocular Vision鈥� will be the book that elevates Pearlman's stories alongside Alice Munro's and John Updike's. Boy, I hope she's right.
