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Product Description
Review
“Zsuzsi Gartner’s writing is dazzling, effortless, and clear as a bell. She’s able to crystallize a cultural moment in a way entirely her own that is both instantaneous and eternal. I couldn’t let go of it and read it all in one go.” - Douglas Coupland
“What crazy, wonderful writing this is—hilarious, exuberant, apocalyptic, heart-stopping. Gartner sees all, dissects all, loves all. An absolutely irresistible collection.” - Barbara Gowdy
“What crazy, wonderful writing this is—hilarious, exuberant, apocalyptic, heart-stopping. Gartner sees all, dissects all, loves all. An absolutely irresistible collection.” - Barbara Gowdy
Book Description
From an emerging master of short fiction and one of Canada's most distinctive voices, a collection of stories as heartbreaking as those of Lorrie Moore and as hilariously off-kilter as something out of McSweeney's.
In Better Living through Plastic Explosives, Zsuzsi Gartner delivers a powerful second dose of the lacerating satire that marked her acclaimed debut, All the Anxious Girls on Earth, but with even greater depth and darker humour. Whether she casts her eye on evolution and modern manhood when an upscale cul-de-sac is thrown into chaos after a redneck moves into the neighbourhood, international adoption, war photography, real estate, the movie industry, motivational speakers, or terrorism, Gartner filets the righteous and the ridiculous with dexterity in equal, glorious measure. These stories ruthlessly expose our most secret desires, and allow us to snort with laughter at the grotesque world we'd live in if we all got what we wanted.
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Most helpful customer reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Lots of fun darkly,
This review is from: Better Living Through Plastic Explosives (Hardcover)
I was reading this book in a noodle restaurant on Broadway when a British couple asked me about the puzzling (disturbing?) title. It was a challenge to provide a tidy summary of such a quirky collection of short stories, but I did explain that the author was local, the stories contained many charming local references, and that the stories were very funny in a very dark way. I hope they were intrigued enough to buy this book as an authentic and very entertaining souvenir of Vancouver. Zsuzsi totally nails both the charms and affectations of modern civilization in this urban rainforest.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
More Bookish Thoughts...,
By
This review is from: Better Living Through Plastic Explosives (Hardcover)
I can't seem to find appropriate adjectives to describe "Better Living Through Plastic Explosives"; weird, unnerving, volatile and wild all come to mind but none perfectly captures this funny "ha ha" and funny "strange" collection. Gartner's West Coast provides the background for otherworldly visitations, squatter camps and body part-containing trash bags, displaying a nervy mix of scientific ideas, quackery and pop culture.Granted, some stories deal with the more mundane: relationship woes, a child's unsatisfactory art grade, real estate transactions. But regardless of plot, all Gartner's tales contain acute observation, vivid description and sharply drawn characters. Her twisty, dense sentences move from sardonic to plangent, wry to heartfelt in a mere clause or two while avoiding the category of "too cerebral." Ultimately, the collection blends the extraordinary with the very ordinary, the hybrid stories animated by a fact-happy, snarky and inventive author.
9 of 12 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
"What are we doing here?" It's the not knowing that's killing her,
By I Built a Mountain of Thunder (Augusta, GA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Better Living Through Plastic Explosives (Hardcover)
Zsuzsi Gartner is a darn fine writer and reading "Better Living Through Plastic Explosives" both encouraged, yet depressed, me as a struggling, see fledgling, writer myself.As an encouragement, this book gave me a clear understanding of what good short stories should look like. These are stories with tight, concrete sentences and language that highlights Gartner's cynical, yet sarcastic, tone. However, the most appealing thing about "Better Living" is the characters. These are characters anxious with longing, characters bold enough to get drunk with existentialism and ask, "If we truly have developed from apes, then why do we still pick and prod at this thing called a soul?" and "Why are we doomed to want what we can't have?" and "Just what exactly are we doing here?" Most of us aren't brave enough to sit down with these questions and talk to them until we're red in the face. But Gartner won't let her characters do that. No, Gartner sits her characters down and shows them, and us, that maybe life isn't about finding answers. Maybe life is about being courageous enough to ask questions, and not let go. Maybe life is a question without an answer, and maybe we feel sad for these characters because their inability to answer their questions reflects our inability to answer our questions, as well. But at least they're bold enough to ask them, which is something us non-fictioneers are often too afraid, and unwilling, to do. And for the depression. Well, the depression hits when I realize that I can't write like Zsuzsi Gartner, which, I guess, is okay--for now. For now, I can just convince myself that I'm not carbon-copying her characters. And hope too, that somehow, she doesn't find out.
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