by A. M. Homes
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Product Description
Published to overwhelming critical acclaim, this extraordinary collection of short stories established A. M. Homes as one of the most provocative and daring writers of her generation. Here you'll find the cult classic "A Real Doll," the tale of a teenage boy's erotic obsession with his sister's favorite doll; "Adults Alone," which first introduced Paul and Elaine, the crack-smoking yuppie couple whose marriage careens out of control in Homes's novel Music for Torching; and "Looking for Johnny," in which a kidnapped boy, having failed his abductor's expectations, is returned home. Brilliantly conceived, sharply etched, and exceptionally satisfying, these stories explore the American dream in ways you're not likely soon to forget. Working in Kodacolor hues, Homes offers an uncanny picture of a surreal suburbia-outrageous and utterly believable.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Where the suburban heart is, 2008-04-27
American cinema and literature have glimpsed close at lives in the suburbs with mixed results - some good ("Little Children", both movie and novel; Philip Roth's "American Pastoral", Raymond Carver's and John Cheever's stories, among others) and some not so ("American Beauty"). What most of the works focused on suburbia share is the sarcastic tone - rarely a tender look. It is not A. M. Homes' crafted collection of short stories "The Safety of Objects" that will change it - and that come as a blessing.
Published in the early 1990s, these stories seem to look to a world and a time far, far away. That was when either computer or cell phones were common equipments in everybody's lives, and there was some innocence that seemed to be lost in the turn of the century. But she is also able to capture the changing of times. One of her characters dreams of `a different kind of life, the kind he'd read about in stories of men outdoors, fishing trips and cabins in the woods'.
In "The Safety of Objects", Homes is more interested in the bizarre than in the peculiar. But the form how she portrays it never turn her characters into freaks. Here we have a fat girl called Chunky `in part after the candy bar'; a boy who dates his little sister's Barbie doll; a couple who behaves like children when her kids are away; and a kidnapped boy who fails his kidnapper expectations.
The writer's approach is to find the most human side of each of her characters meaning demystifying their possible freakiness. The boy dating the Barbie doll is `practicing for the future', for instance. This story, called "A Real Doll", by the way, has already become a classic. Another strange person, so to speak, who looks very realistic in Homes' pages Jim Train, the title character of a story, whose behavior is so bizarre that completely convincing.
The characters who people "The Safety of Objects" are people unsatisfied with their lives who has neither the chance nor the energy to change their present - they are sort of depressed or, at least, bipolar who can't move on, who is too deep in their nothingness to move over. Take Frank, the protagonist of "The Bullet Catcher", for instance, his goings to the mall becomes his biggest pleasure, and when his neighbors enters a competition this is one of the most exciting things in his life.
Homes' writing is sort a combination of Raymond Carver's sharp look at suburban life with Mary Gaitskill's taste for strangeness. However, in "The Safety of Objects", the writer is able to develop her own style which blends fun with a detailed account of dead-end lives. Moreover, she must be one of the best opening-sentences writer ever. "Elaine takes the boys to Florida and drops them off like they're dry cleaning". "I'm hiding in the linen closet writing letter to myself". "If something horrible happens it won't be my fault". And the best one: "I'm dating Barbie" - only four words that express so much about a character.
Chekhov is also an important reference when it comes to "The Safety of Objects". Homes is not only interested in the daily unglamorous lives of suburbia, but she also knows that when you show a gun in the first act, it will have to be fired until the third one.
As one character puts, he has `no desire to be beautiful or good. Somehow I suspect because it did not come naturally, I longed to be bad'. Maybe this how Homes expects her writings to be - not bad as in badly written, but bad as in a discomforting form, in a way that is disturbing as something that makes you think, question the way we live - and this is her best accomplishment.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Good stuff. Strong voice., 2008-03-02
Homes writes mostly about detached suburbanites. Her stories are extreme, often ridiculous. Her writing is sparse and strong, and her characters are typically flawed but likable. Among my favorites in this collection of short stories is one about two young parents who drop the kids off at grandma's and vacation at home together, during which they decide to experiment with smoking crack. There's also an interesting story about a young boy having an affair with his sister's Barbie, and my favorite--a story about a not disgruntled, but not exactly content lawyer who amuses himself by regularly urinating in the senior partner's potted plant. I don't think Homes is for everyone, but I think her stuff is smart, funny, and refreshing.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Nobody is Safe, 2007-07-18
A.M. Homes brings the reader inside places they may not want to be. Each character in these short stories are memorable, unusual, and on the edge of a kind of yearning, longing, and desire to attain something beyond their reach. Thus, Home's characters will resonate with readers--because in actuality, we are continually grasping onto the ungraspable, thinking ghastly thoughts, fantasizing about things we keep secret, especially events from our childhood.
Reading "The Safety of Objects" is like peeking through somebody's window watching them undress. Each piece of clothing removed, reveals something more delicious about their sins and their naughty obsessions.
The reader will think--"Well, this is quite unnatural." A little boy who'd rather stay with his kidnapper than go home; a dad thinking about a 15 year old girl's fresh body; a fat teenager fantasying about her fat jiggling while having sex; a mother murdering her vegetative son, and a young boy jacking off to a Barbie doll.
But in truth, Homes is only showing us things we already know, have done, or have thought about. Actually, it's quite natural if we're being honest with ourselves. It's exceptionally believable.
"The Safety of Objects" is surprising, witty, intelligent, sexy, unnerving, and explosively authentic. Whether we admit it or not, we are all guilty of doing something behind closed doors that others would be shocked and stunned by. Homes just happens to write our dirty, little thoughts on paper.
6 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
 Embarrassed for her children, evoked a laughing mockery of the author, 2006-05-15
Alright, the first two stories are interesting, hence the deuce dropped for the stars. However this is not suburbia, this is hacked up dreck that manages to be under and overdone contemporary malarkey. To wit:
Kids don't fantasize about Barbie and then masturbate in Ken's head three times...parents don't send their kids to Florida and all the sudden start smoking crack...pedophiles do not try to fill the void of a rolling stone father and get angry when the captive doesn't play son...and 'Chunky in Heat' satisfying herself, completely naked, in the backyard as her lover, the neighbor child, wonders around in the back calling for her and her mother comes home and just asks her to help bring in the groceries....see, I just saved you from having to read this abomination of taste and decency, this abortion of good writing and an engaging story. You can do me a favor by clicking the "this review was not helpful" button....idiot.
Oh, and I'm sure there are exceptions, and this stuff does happen, but Homes never explicitly states that what she is writing about is autobiographical.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Rural America like you've never read it before!, 2005-04-08
This is not a typical book about a standard American suburban families! The characters in Safety in Objects are odd and disarming. The stories are dark, the language sharp and the dialogue is crisp. A.M. Homes has written tales that are bound to become cult classics. My favorite stories are "Slumber Party," "A Real Doll," "Adults Alone," and "Jim Train." As said earlier, these are not stories about conventional families in rural America. These stories will make you think and perhaps even offend some readers. This is not for the faint at heart. Holmes is a fantastic writer and I look forward to reading more work by this author.
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