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\npaper \u2022 134 pages \u2022 19.95\nISBN-13: 978-1-945588-55-6<\/p>\nAdd to Cart<\/a>\n\n[\/column]\n[column col=”3\/4″]\n [column col=”1\/4″] paper \u2022 134 pages \u2022 19.95 ISBN-13: 978-1-945588-55-6 Add to Cart [\/column] [column col=”3\/4″] We Were Lucky with the Rain Susan Buttenwieser Reviewed in Kirkus Reviews Featured in Poets & Writers’ “5 Over 50: 2020” Finalist for the 2021 Foreword Reviews INDIES The characters inhabiting Susan Buttenwieser\u2019s debut story collection We Were Lucky […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-14776","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14776"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20526,"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14776\/revisions\/20526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}We Were Lucky with the Rain<\/em><\/h1>\n
Susan Buttenwieser<\/h2>\n
Reviewed in Kirkus Reviews<\/em><\/a><\/h5>\n
Featured in Poets & Writers’<\/em> “5 Over 50: 2020”<\/a><\/h5>\n
Finalist for the 2021 Foreword Reviews INDIES<\/a><\/h5>\nThe characters inhabiting Susan Buttenwieser\u2019s debut story collection We Were Lucky with the Rain<\/em> stand at the margin of society, often perched on the knife\u2019s edge of economic disaster. Her characters cope with emotional and physical isolation as they try to build, keep, or renew family structures. An older brother drops out of college and tries to keep his youngest sister from ending up like the rest of the family. A father shields his daughters from their mother\u2019s erratic behavior, while his daughters struggle to understand their anxiety and anger. An uncle copes with his helplessness to protect his nephew. No quick fixes, no miracle cures await the people within these stories. This is fiction devoted to realism. And Buttenwieser\u2019s compassionate narrator refuses to look away during their most vulnerable trials. A remarkable debut collection.\n\nExcerpt from “We Were Lucky with the Rain”<\/strong>\n\nLacey can\u2019t resist spying on her parents when they fight. Which happens whenever her mother has disappeared for a few hours or, occasionally, the entire evening. She lies flat on the wooden floor of their upstairs hallway, peering through the banister at her parents yelling at each other in the living room below.\nHer father wants to know where her mother has been and why she didn\u2019t pick up Lacey from her piano lesson this afternoon, or her younger sister, Eileen, after school.\n\u201cI told you this morning that I was going to this Mom lunch thing at Hoolihan\u2019s. So I was late, okay?\u201d Lacey\u2019s mother throws her purse onto the floor. Only her legs are visible, jutting out from underneath a red dress, roaming around the living room. She bumps into the coffee table, left ankle buckling.\n\u201cYou weren\u2019t late, you didn\u2019t show up. You didn\u2019t answer your phone. We had no idea where you were. And now you\u2019re a complete mess.\u201d Her father\u2019s voice goes up an octave. \u201cYou could have killed someone, you know.\u201d\nHer mother starts laughing. \u201cJesus, relax. I took a cab.\u201d\n\u201cThen where is the car, goddamn it?\u201d\nIf Lacey tilts her head a certain way, she can see her father\u2019s slippers pacing back and forth. She strokes her fraying rope bracelet that she got at her school\u2019s Fall Festival. Her fingers always work their way to its soft underside whenever she\u2019s waiting for her turn to bat for her softball team or perform in a piano recital.\n\u201cThe car is fine, alright?\u201d her mother says. \u201cI left it in the parking lot at that Star Market by Hoolihan\u2019s. You know, the one in Tremont Square.\u201d\n\u201cIt\u2019s not fine<\/em>. It won\u2019t be fine<\/em>. You can\u2019t leave the car there overnight. It\u2019s going to get towed!\u201d Her father\u2019s slippers stop moving. Then he stomps his left foot on the floor and throws a sofa cushion out into the hallway. A table lamp crashes to the floor and her mother shouts at him to Stop it, just stop it. <\/em>\nLacey can\u2019t understand how Eileen always sleeps through their parents\u2019 arguments, which often involve things being broken. A few weeks ago, her mother hurled a bottle of red wine against the front door. Another time it was plates. She\u2019s also thrown glasses, shoes, and once a dining room chair. But her father always cleans it all up, and in the morning, there is never a trace of the mess, not even one thing out of place anywhere.\n\n[\/column]\nAbout the Author<\/a>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"