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Publication Date

Spring 2013

Degree Type

Thesis - Campus Access Only

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Department

English and Comparative Literature

Advisor

Andrew F. Altschul

Subject Areas

Literature; American history; Fine arts

Abstract

Lemonworld is a collection of seven short stories, which are connected by loss, loneliness, and unrealized hopes and dreams.

In "South," a son drives his sick father down the Atlantic side of Florida, looking for a hospital his father saw on television. "Fresh Air" is about an environmental group's attempt to save the endangered "running buffalo clover;" however, the group's efforts are being hampered by a new member. The next story--"Water Here"--examines the life of a recently divorced man and his attempts to win his family back. "This Will Save Us" delves into the mind of a museum curator, who works at the Crystal Palace Casino in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and is obsessed with J. Robert Oppenheimer--the father of the atomic bomb. In another desert locale, Denis--the protagonist of "Forever Overhead"--struggles with his sister's condition: her ability to light herself on fire.

The second-to-last story in the collection--"Dinner With The Colonel"--looks at a recent immigrant, Edgar, who is trying to make a better life for himself by taking business courses at a community college. "On Two Legs" is about the famed photographer Ansel Adams toward the end of his life. He is eighty-one, has just been released from the hospital after having surgery to install a pacemaker, and is trying to get back in shape.

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