- Hardcover: 240 pages
- Publisher: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill (September 1990)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0945575467
- ISBN-13: 978-0945575467
- Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 14.5 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 431 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,538,595 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Brown, whose novel Dirty Work was published to high praise last year, returns to short fiction in this virtuoso collection that parades a club of backwoods loners--men who swill too much beer, want too many women and write too many short stories. 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. Brown's people are disempowered but canny: at the end of "Falling Out of Love," the narrator says, "I saw with a sick feeling in my heart that our happy ending was about to take a turn for the worse." In "Discipline," presented as a play, a writer sentenced to "hacks' prison" comes before the parole board; he claims that the guard--a senior editor--has punished him for his poor writing by forcing him to prostitute himself. The final story, "92 Days," constitutes a type of coda: a man otherwise immolated in grief turns to fiction, embroiling his characters in situations that mirror his own desperation and abandoning them--and their stories--when he cannot construct solutions for them.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1990 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.
- Ann H. Fisher, Radford P.L., Va.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A masterpiece,
By
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.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Powerful at times,
By
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.
5.0 out of 5 stars
to doug vaughn,
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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