- Paperback: 240 pages
- Publisher: Back Bay Books (May 4 1994)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0316473049
- ISBN-13: 978-0316473040
- Product Dimensions: 14 x 1.9 x 21 cm
- Shipping Weight: 272 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #71,253 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon.com
Thom Jones's first collection of stories is a revelation. In prose that sounds like nobody else, Jones channels a variety of distinctively different voices, from the lustful book editor of "Unchain My Heart" to the epileptic, amnesiac adman of the Dostoevskian fable "A White Horse." There's not a miss among these tales, but two in particular stand out: the title story, about a boxer and Vietnam vet who has plumbed the vicious depths of his own soul, and the almost unbearably intense chronicle of a woman fighting a losing battle with cancer, "I Want to Live!" "The world is replete with badness," says the aging fighter of "A Pugilist at Rest"; yet, as the narrator of "I Want to Live!" discovers, there is nothing stronger than the human will to go on, to persist--even in the face of the hell that exists right here on earth. It's not all gloom, doom, and napalm, however. There's also the surreal, Gogol-esque humor of "The Black Lights," in which the pysch-ward protagonist insists his only problem is epilepsy, yet hallucinates a giant, shuddering rabbit caught under his bed at night ("It's that rabbit on the Br'er Rabbit molasses jar. That rabbit with buckles on his shoes! Bow tie. Yaller teeth! Yaller! Yaller!") Then, too, Jones creates images of startling, surreal clarity amid the horror, like the dying lieutenant who remains on one knee even after being shot, "his remaining arm extended out to the enemy, palm upward in the soulful, heartrending gesture of Al Jolson doing a rendition of 'Mammy.'" Take a decidedly grim world-view, add a dose of existential slapstick, some Schopenhauer, an encyclopedic knowledge of pharmaceuticals, and a soundtrack by the Doors, and you have what may be the darkest, funniest, most urgent fictional debut in years. --Mary Park
From Publishers Weekly
Jones's gritty and poetic debut short-story collection was selected by PW as one of the best books of 1993.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very good, not amazing,
By
This review is from: The Pugilist at Rest: Stories (Paperback)
A good collection of short stories, for sure, however the quality varies. Some (generally the 'Nam stories) are genius, whereas a few other stories fall a little flat. The quality is generally quite strong, though, and the closing story (I Want to Live!) is fantastic. Generally a good read!
7.5/10
4.0 out of 5 stars
Short stories that i wish were longer,
By
This review is from: The Pugilist at Rest: Stories (Hardcover)
Thom Jones writes like a person may think. He truly paints a picture of vivid colors and images in your head with this series of short stories. The three Vietnam stories at the front of the book make this book of short stories worth puchasing alone. So good infact that I had to read one of the stories over the second I finished reading it. Truly an incredible writer.
5.0 out of 5 stars
SHORT STORIES YOU REMEMBER FOR A LIFETIME,
By
This review is from: The Pugilist at Rest: Stories (Hardcover)
I last read this book 11 years ago when it came out in its first edition, and I still remember each story with such clarity it's like I just finished reading it this morning. That's nothing to do with my (atrocious) memory, but with the power and clarity of Jones' writing. I liken Thom Jones to a literary Tom Waits.
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