Searoad, Chronicles of Klatsand (Inscribed By the author)
(New York, 1991): HarperCollins. First Edition. Octavo. Item #031418
. 193pp., Inscribed by the author: (A Very Merry Christmas/to Philomena/with Love/ from Ursula, December 9) another small note below author's name which is undecipherable…. and ? all the West? Le Guin's Searoad is also about the people who settled in the West and is among her finest works though not in the science fiction genre. This collection of stories spans about 100 years in the history of Klatsand, a northern Oregon coastal town that doesn't quite exist on the map. Her focus is less on events than on people, and we see people from different points of view. Le Guin also makes main characters of those otherwise marginalized in the existing body of literature - housewives, waitresses, junior college professors. But the stories are linked not so much by recurrent characters as by the ocean, which courses beneath the narrative layer with a restless, powerful rhythm. Le Guin most frequently examines the relationships between generations of women, as in "Quoits". The book's luminescent centerpiece, "Hemes," is a long, non-linear narrative about four generations of women in a Klatsand family and is a fine presentation of women in a male dominated society who survive and find a rewarding life despite obstacles. A near fine copy bound in 1/4 green cloth over pink paper covered boards with silver decorative accent, spine lettering silver, in a very good clipped pictorial dust jacket with light wear to spine ends and edges near spine ends with paper clear coating lifting just a bit.
Price: $185.00