The mechanical men in these stories--Industrial Age holdovers,
outsiders wanting for relevance and respect, or overwhelmed people
who confuse the certainties of one reality with the doubts of
another--are cut off in some way from contemporary culture.
Sometimes in these stories, which Randy F. Nelson calls "thought
experiments about values in conflict," the characters are like the
Native American prison guard in "Escape" Rifkin thinks that
atonement is possible even for fugitive killers. Others are less
sanguine. In "Breakers," a corporate hitman arrives on a
forgettable island off the African coast. His mission: to shut down
a hellish, polluting, ship-demolition business. His nemesis: a
lawyer, now gone Heart-of-Darkness crazy, who preceded him years
earlier for the same purpose. The bottom drops out in other
stories, rearranging all reference points to good and bad, true and
false. In "Abduction," for instance, a distraught young woman
summons a tabloid reporter to a grubby hotel room, where the
now-lifeless alien who had invaded her body lies wrapped in a
sheet.
Nelson once explained his motivations by alluding to a line in a
Gabriel Garcia Marquez story. A crowd of villagers are gazing upon
a man, "but even though they were looking at him, there was no room
for him in their imagination." "Stories and characters and
situations that ask the imagination to accommodate something
bigger, further, deeper--that's what I'm after," said Nelson.
General
| Imprint: |
University of Georgia Press
|
| Country of origin: |
United States |
| Series: |
Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction |
| Release date: |
October 2012 |
| First published: |
October 2012 |
| Authors: |
Randy F Nelson
|
| Dimensions: |
216 x 140 x 18mm (L x W x T) |
| Format: |
Paperback
|
| Pages: |
224 |
| ISBN-13: |
978-0-8203-4443-0 |
| Categories: |
Books >
Fiction >
Special features >
Short stories
|
| LSN: |
0-8203-4443-5 |
| Barcode: |
9780820344430 |
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
(1)
