Outside Is the Ocean
by Matthew Lansburgh
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Pub Date Oct 15 2017 | Archive Date Oct 15 2017
University of Iowa Press | Iowa Short Fiction Award
Description
Advance Praise
“Matthew Lansburgh has a keen eye and ear, and he puts them to great use in this lovely, and, frankly, mesmerizing linked collection that explores, among other things, the tenuous tie between mother and son, between the Old World and the New, between what was and what is. Outside Is the Ocean is a gem.”—Andre Dubus III, judge, Iowa Short Fiction Award
“Every so often a work of fiction presents us with the great gift of an entire life. What Matthew Lansburgh has given us here, like the points of a constellation, is the breadth of a family, across the many decades, through all their hardships, unspeakable heartbreaks, and small victories. Outside Is the Ocean is a book full of grace and endurance. It’s an exceptional debut, and we’re lucky to have it in this world, now.”—Paul Yoon, author, Snow Hunters
“Matthew Lansburgh's Outside Is the Ocean is one of the best short story collections I've read in years. It's sharp and funny and it sweeps the reader along through the lives of a cast of difficult and damaged characters. But there are no villains here; the joy of reading Lansburgh's stories is that he keeps spinning his characters around, finding tenderness alongside their abjection, compassion alongside hurt, until finally the people in this book feel as human and real as anyone you've known.”—Paul La Farge, author, The Night Ocean
“Matthew Lansburgh writes with humor and, most of all, deep compassion about loneliness and the disappointments of family. Outside Is the Ocean is that rare collection in which individual stories create a whole that is much more than the sum of those wonderful and deeply satisfying parts. What a lovely, sad, funny new voice this is.”—Lori Ostlund, author, After the Parade
“Matthew Lansburgh is a great writer in the Raymond Carver vein. Deceptively simple, emotionally deep, his work shimmers with sneaky passion. He’s the real deal.”—Darin Strauss, author, Half a Life
“Matthew Lansburgh writes with a remarkable mixture of humor and empathy. These stories are taut with the most meaningful of tensions: the painful complexity of love between two flawed souls trying to find their places in each other’s lives. Outside Is the Ocean is a poignant and perceptive collection of bravely explored stories built into a deeply affecting debut.”—Josh Weil, author, The Great Glass Sea
“Outside Is the Ocean offers the thrilling revelations of masterful short stories and the deep satisfactions of a novel.”—Anna Solomon, author, Leaving Lucy Pear
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781609385279 |
| PRICE | $17.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 192 |
Featured Reviews
Educator 144982
What a thoughtful and original voice we have in Matthew Lansburgh, and how lucky we are to be able to burrow deeply into the lives and minds of his charmingly flawed characters. Bravo!
Kathleen D, Reviewer
'Part of him wanted something terrible to happen to Banjo and to her, to everyone involved. He wanted the guilty to be punished.'
Stewart’s mother Heike, a German immigrant who came to start fresh in America at the age of 21, should be punished for putting her long suffering son through the ringers, but she can’t help her ‘intractable’ nature. A woman who knows no boundaries, exasperated with everyone else’s stinginess, wondering at how anything can be owned really- be it living quarters, swimming pools, and even pets. Heike has done everything she could to make a living for her beloved son, and if her love is suffocating him, well shame on him for not appreciating all the sacrifices she makes. Didn’t she try to be fit and beautiful for Stewart’s father, breaker of promises? If her natural state of being, in revealing clothes or no clothes at all embarrasses her son, well it’s just the fault of him being American born. People outta ease up!
We follow Heike first raising her son, who is struggling with his sexuality and the distance between he and his father. Stewart, pulled in his mother’s never ending dramas, and maddening histrionics must get out if he is to have his own identity. Heike has a way of stealing the air from any room! She is, later, in his love life! Heike is distraught over the strain between her and Stewart, but the reality of having adopted a disabled Russian daughter, whom she was sure would appreciate being saved from that cold country more than her son seemed to appreciate all she did for him, comes crashing down. So much for teaching Stewart a lesson, Galina schools her instead. Galina is violent, acts out, disrupts Heike’s life, makes her more vulnerable, exposes her as a terrible mother, betrays her to neighbors! It’s so unfair! Galina is nothing like calm, quiet Stewart whom often felt as inconsequential as his slight essence. Heike is losing it, and the letters she writes to Stewart are heartbreaking, but sometimes endearingly humorous.
Heike never gives up, unlike other people! She is the type that would say ‘you want to know suffering, I’ll tell you about suffering’. There is no room for any other stories but her own, she is a one woman show, the rest are all just co-stars. Through marriages, relationships, friendship with a cat hoarder, borrowing dogs, and driving her children and partners nuts, Heike is a character you won’t soon forget. She’s exhausting, and it’s a beautifully written story because the reader can’t help but empathize with every character. I shouldn’t, but I loved Heike- would I want her as my mother, that’s another story. I look forward to Lansburgh’s next novel!
Publication Date: October 15, 2017
University of Iowa Press
Kelsi H, Reviewer
Heike is a difficult character, but her story is told well. Outside is the Ocean is filled with humorous yet compassionate stories about family and belonging. While I didn't really connect with the characters, I admire the author's style and talent.
Maren R, Reviewer
this is not a book where most people -myself included- can relate to the actual characters and how and why they are behaving as they are. But in this case that does not matter at all. Its such a wonderfully written and told story that while it is a -in my option at least- completely character based book and more or less a character study of different behaviours, views and standpoints its not really about the actual characters and more about the story itself and what i has to say.
I thoroughly enjoyed the writing style, the messages i took away from it!
Highly recommend!
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