Where We Are Now is a collection of stories that Carolyn Osborn has developed over two decades about a single family, the Moores. Marianne, the main narrator of these stories about her mother's family, says, ""The truth is sometimes a poor, sad thing - wax fruit melted in an attic, a lone mule wandering on the front lawn, a mute player piano - a few insubstantial fragments. All we could do was grab hold and make something more of them."" In the beginning story, ""The Greats,"" her relatives are so distant Marianne can only give brief glimpses of these ""eccentric, willful, mysterious Moores."" ""The Grands,"" an O. Henry Prize story, first introduced readers to many of the characters who inhabit Where We Are Now. By knowing the Moores, we begin to know Marianne who tries to understand them. Curious as she is, she must continually accept the mystery of reality. Aware of the need for family mythology, she orders her world as best she can with what she is given by reacting, reflecting, inventing and enlarging on the ""fragments."" Other narrators reveal omissions Marianne can never know. Marianne's life and the lives of the Moores have a definitely southern flavor. They mirror fading nineteenth century morality, an acceptance of eccentricity, a habit of story-telling, a strong consciousness of place, and the influence as well as the particularity of family. These stories are also attempts to show the failures and triumphs of love, the necessity of forgiveness, and the usefulness of different sorts of families.

Book Information
ISBN 9781609403874
Author Carolyn Osborn
Format Paperback
Page Count 200
Imprint Wings Press
Publisher Wings Press