Big Bad Love: Amazon.ca: Larry Brown: Books

Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

Womanizing, heavy-drinking, often desperate backwoods loners inhabit this virtuoso collection of short stories. According to PW , "A casual glance suggests invasion of Raymond Carver territory, but Brown stakes out his own turf by dint of his integrity and wit; his heroes are savants of the down-and-out set, harrowingly aware of their own limitations without abandoning hope of salvation."
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

From the author of Dirty Work , a searing war/antiwar novel ( LJ 7/89), comes a rich, moody collection of stories. All feature male protagonists of the beer-drinking, pick-up truck-driving persuasion, who are awkwardly trying to relate to women in a raunchy, sentimental way. Most seem stranded by a failure to communicate, a yearning to connect with others. "Discipline" is a different style, effectively told as a courtroom interrogation. The final long story, "92 Days," is an almost too-real chronicle of a writer trying to get published, struggling with a lack of money and a bitter ex-wife, drinking too much, but still driven by the need to write. Brown, an ex-firefighter from Oxford, Mississippi, might just become another powerhouse Southern writer.
- Ann H. Fisher, Radford P.L., Va.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Customer Reviews

12 Reviews

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
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Average Customer Review

4.6 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars A masterpiece, July 24 2001

By

Timothy Gager "some call me Tim" (Boston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Big Bad Love (Paperback)

This is an inspiring collection of shorts by Larry Brown. Rarely does he follow the typical short story plot curve, but the twists of events and dialog make this a real text in the art of short fiction. Mr. Brown reminds us of Carver, Bukowski and the rest of the "time to get out of Dodge in into the bar" great writers of recent times. An enjoyable read while sitting on a cooler, watching the sunset.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Powerful at times, Jun 5 2001

By

J. Mullin (Plantation, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Big Bad Love: Stories (Hardcover)

I picked up this volume of stories after Brown's novel Father and Son blew me away, and while these tales of drunk Mississippians don't necessarily rise to the level of Brown's best work, they are a nice diversion and occasionally pack a wallop. Brown writes about the places he knows best, rural Mississippi where the men ride around in pickups or dusty old cars with a cooler of beer in the back and a shotgun at their feet.

Some of the stories were downright hilarious, like the tale of the husband whose wife writes abominable fiction, like the "Hunchwoman of Cincinnati", trying desperately to get published. Then there are the poignant tales of Southern racism and the unwritten bonds between men, like Old Soldiers, that have a real ring of truth about them. I loved the observation of the old gas station owner who was asked by an African American woman to check her air pressure - the old guy reluctantly complied, taking his time about it, and 30 minutes later she drove away with 4 very low tires...for the most part I enjoyed Brown's lean, true dialogue and his characters' unpredictable nature and penchant for trouble.

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5.0 out of 5 stars to doug vaughn, July 2 2000

By

Justin Martin - See all my reviews

This review is from: Big Bad Love (Paperback)

writing like this isn't taught, or learned; it's born from living and absorption.

i'm the guy who's also "a reader from purchase, ny." and this Brown character is a master.

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