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MacMurray & Beck 2000
Worship of the Common Heart is a collection of new and selected stories, written from 1979 to 1998. These stories were previously published in the two collections, Friday Night at Silver Star and The Secret of Cartwheels, with the addition of three new stories. In the title story, two sisters, one wild and the other a novice nun, take a trip to France together. Sister Stephanie struggles to distance herself from her sister's sexuality and bluntness, but at one point she remembers the words of a revered Aunt who told her, "Conversation is worship of the common heart. That's Emerson."
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I wrote the three new stories in 1997 and 1998 when I was going through a difficult time because I hadn't been able to find a publisher for Hummingbird House. I was at loose ends and didn't know if I wanted to write another novel. "Sun Damage" is about a woman who has moved away from the Midwest and rejected her painful childhood. She returns for her father's funeral and it all floods back. "The Pleasure of Pears" is from a male point-of-view. Bax is a builder of children's playhouses. His wife wants to contact her former spouse and Bax has to deal with that.
"Worship of the Common Heart" is my favorite of the new stories in this collection. It's the good sister/bad sister story. I think there's a little bit of me in each of these characters.
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