A Hand Reached Down to Guide Me, David Gates
A Hand Reached Down to Guide Me, David Gates
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A Hand Reached Down to Guide Me
Stories and a Novella

Author: David Gates

Narrator: Lesa Lockford and Eric Michael Summerer

Unabridged: 20 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/19/2015

Categories: Fiction, Short Stories

Synopsis

Gates's characters, young or old or neither, are well educated, broadly knowledgeable, often creative and variously accomplished, whether as a doctor or a composer, an academic or a journalist. And every one of them carries a full supply of the human condition: parents in assisted-living - or assisted-dying - facilities, too many or too few people in their families and marriages, the ties that bind a sometimes messy knot, age an implacable foe, impulses pulling them away from comfort into distraction or catastrophe. Terrifyingly self-aware, they refuse to go gently - even when they're going nowhere fast, in settings that range across the metropolitan and suburban Northeast to the countryside upstate and in New England.

About David Gates

David Gates lives in Missoula, where he teaches at the University of Montana, and in Granville, New York, where he is associated with the Bennington Writing Seminars. A former Guggenheim Fellow, for many years he was a writer and editor at Newsweek, where he specialized in music and books.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Josh on May 14, 2015

Often I when I rate a book down, I say, "don't avoid due to my not liking it". In this case, I might give the opposite warning; my eventual 4 star rating should not be seen as an invitation to try this one on for size. The author can sure trace the lives of some pretty unsavory folks. Not the "unsavo......more

Goodreads review by Laurie on April 14, 2015

These are not happy little stories. Not that stories need to be happy, of course, but these are depressing in the “this is how life is” kind of way. These are upper class people, for the most part- academics, artists, writers, architects- all people who are well educated. These are people who read S......more

Goodreads review by Kasa on March 07, 2015

It is rare that a collection shows as much excellence. A novella followed by eleven stories, this volume well deserves the comparison to Carver and Cheever, with the consistency of time, place and character. Each of these stories, set in Manhattan and New England, is populated with people above aver......more

Goodreads review by Steve on July 23, 2015

This review was first published, in a more readable format, at scrivenerscreed.com Over fifteen years ago David Gates released his stories, The Wonders of the Invisible World. Back then, Walter Kirn of New York magazine christened him the “true heir” to Raymond Carver. Hallelujah. This summer, after......more

Goodreads review by Kyle on May 13, 2016

Probably the closest work to Cheever in a modern world. Loads of drinking and bad decisions. Fantastic work that'll remain on my shelf.......more

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