Former Virgin

( In this collection of stories, critically acclaimed wri...)

In this collection of stories, critically acclaimed writer Cris Mazza shines a kleig light on the dark underside of relationships in a disturbing look at the ambiguous nature of our own desires. From women who foster their own abusive relationships, to failed suicide attempts, to furtive -- and horribly violent -- encounters in steamy basements, Mazza's stories cut to the heart of doomed human relationships, landing squarely in the murky territory between desire and despair, between freedom and loss of control.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1573660337/?tag=2022091-20

Waterbaby: A Novel

( As children, Tam and her older brother were swimming wh...)

As children, Tam and her older brother were swimming when she suffered her first epileptic seizure. He pulled her from the water and was crowned a hero. Tam was labeled “disabled” and never swam again. And so began 30 years of vigilance, never allowing her body to betray her, never allowing her brother or her family or anyone else to influence her path. Now, in middle age, a lifetime’s worth of control has taken its toll. Exhausted, she heads to Maine where, while working on a genealogy project, she falls under the spell of two dead women: an ancestor, Mary Catherine, who died at 33; the other, the town ghost. Through their cloistered, tragic lives Tam relives her own life over and over — until a distant cousin forces her to see herself in a new light. Tam’s quest to transcend self-imposed limitations is superbly crafted and richly satisfying.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1933368845/?tag=2022091-20

Animal Acts

(In a striking first collection of stories, Cris Mazza bri...)

In a striking first collection of stories, Cris Mazza brings a startling vision to the familiar terrain of intimate relationships. The eleven stories in Animal Acts describe characters navigating an unsteady course through the turbulence of sexial desire. Set in unmistakably American landscapes--from sprawling West Coast cities to the dry, dusty scrub of rural Southern California--the work is populated by gym teachers, aging flower children, secretaries and artists--most of them strong, willful women. The narrator of the title story holds the guests at a party spellbound with her fantastic retelling of another woman's perverse life--which may, in fact, be her own--thereby seducing a man who has previousley eluded her. Mazza's arresting narrative structures and sharp sense of the absurd make for a dazzling debut collection.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0932511163/?tag=2022091-20

Various Men Who Knew Us as Girls VARIOUS MEN WHO KNEW US AS GIRLS BY Mazza, Cris ( Author ) Jan-11-2011 VARIOUS MEN WHO KNEW US AS GIRLS VARIOUS MEN WHO KNEW US AS GIRLS BY MAZZA, CRIS ( AUTHOR ) JAN-11-2011 By Mazza, Cris ( Author )Jan-11-20

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D5L44LC/?tag=2022091-20

Various Men Who Knew Us as Girls (Paperback) - Common

(Hester Smith is a woman who always played life near the s...)

Hester Smith is a woman who always played life near the sidelines until she decides to rescue a teenage Mexican prostitute. She's up against the border sex trade in Southern California that works like a drug cartel, where the smuggled contraband is teenage girls forced to work as prostitutes in undeveloped canyons just outside suburbia.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EQCFG2K/?tag=2022091-20

Revelation Countdown

(While in many ways reaffirming the mythic dimension of be...)

While in many ways reaffirming the mythic dimension of being on the road already romanticized in American pop and folk culture, "Revelation Countdown" also subtly undermines that view. These stories project onto the open road not the nirvana of personal freedom but rather a type of freedom more closely resembling loss of control. Being in constant motion and passing through new environments destabilizes life, casts it out of phase, heightens perception, skews reactions. Every little problem is magnified to overwhelming dimensions; events segue from slow motion to fast forward; background noises intrude, causing perpetual weehour insomnia. Imagination flourishes, often as an enemy: people suddenly discover that they never really understood their travelling companions. The formerly stable line of their lives veers off course. In such an atmosphere, the title "Revelation Countdown", borrowed from a roadside sign in Tennessee, proves prophetic: It may not arrive at 7:30, but revelation will inevitably find the traveller.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1573660760/?tag=2022091-20

Various Men Who Knew Us as Girls

( Would her life have been better if she’d had sex with h...)

Would her life have been better if she’d had sex with her supervisor when she was 23? Hester Smith is a woman who always played life near the sidelines—until she decides to rescue a teenage Mexican prostitute. She’s up against the border sex trade in Southern California that works like a drug cartel, where the smuggled contraband is teenage girls forced to work as prostitutes in undeveloped canyons just outside suburbia. Law enforcement agencies know it happens, as do investigative journalists, yet the illegal sex trade continues to exist. While she prepares for the rescue, Hester discovers that the man with whom she almost had an affair—her mentor when she was a 23-year-old student teacher—had been simultaneously having a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old student. Hester mines her own memories of the would-be affair and ultimately tracks down the former 16-year-old. When these two women with a shared scandal in their pasts confront one another, the meeting coincides with the last step necessary to rescue the teenage prostitute Hester has tried to protect. It is only this mayhem that allows Hester to finally take ownership of her decisions and regrets.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0988569485/?tag=2022091-20

Revelation Countdown REVELATION COUNTDOWN By Mazza, Cris ( Author )Mar-01-1993 Paperback

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AABBEUO/?tag=2022091-20