Paradise Dance - Softcover

Michael Lee

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0967952069 ISBN 13: 9780967952062

Publisher: Leapfrog Press, 2002

Synopsis

"Michael Lee's short stories have a rare quality. They are tough, hard-bitten, and surprisingly sensitive to the nuances that motivate behavior in people we assume too quickly are without nuance. What a good read!"—Norman Mailer

Michael Lee is a New England literary treasure—and until now, a secret. An original voice from the working-class outskirts of Boston, Lee’s standing-room-only readings have been delighting audiences for twenty years. Leapfrog is proud to be the first to collect his poignant and hilarious stories about Nam vets, waitresses, mediocre professors, middle managers, fathers and sons; people who are having a hard time of it, but who cling for dear life to that which holds them up: their sense of humor and a few fleeting moments of love. With equal parts sadness and belly laugh, a trace of Raymond Carver mixed with Dave Barry, Lee fulfills the time-honored ingredient for a good read: make ‘em laugh, make ‘em weep!

"In Michael Lee's stunningly crafted stories, we find people who suffer few illusions as to how they've lost their way, people on the cusp of making peace with all that will never be, yet who still yearn for one good kiss, one true triumph, one moment of lasting grace. Lee's vision is full of compassion, forgiveness, and hope, but is also unsparing in its veracity made all the more symphonic with humor: a tender humor that does not mask the wounds here, but tends to them. This is an important and memorable collection."—Andre Dubus III

Marketing Plans: · Author tour: NYC, New England and NY State · Coop Available · Advertising in key literary and trade magazines

Michael Lee is a Senior Editor at The Cape Cod Voice and a former editor of Miami Magazine. He received his MFA from Emerson College and lives on Cape Cod.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Michael Lee is a New England literary treasure-and until this first collection, a secret. An original voice from the working-class outskirts of Boston, Lee's standing-room-only readings have been delighting audiences for twenty years. "His achievement," says National Book Award winner James Carroll, "is to have taken the mundane experience of ordinary human beings with absolute seriousness, and in doing so he lays bare-no, celebrates-the dignity and value that adhere in every life."

"Michael Lee's short stories have a rare quality. They are tough, hard-bitten, and surprisingly sensitive to the nuances that motivate behavior in people we assume too quickly are without nuance. What a good read!" (Norman Mailer)

"In Michael Lee's stunningly crafted stories, we find people who suffer few illusions as to how they've lost their way, people on the cusp of making peace with all that will never be, yet who still yearn for one good kiss, one true triumph, one moment of lasting grace. Lee's vision is full of compassion, forgiveness, and hope, but is also unsparing in its veracity made all the more symphonic with humor, a tender humor that does not mask the wounds here, but tends to them. This is an important and memorable collection." (Andre Dubus III)

"Viet vets, failed musicians, waitresses, office workers, mediocre professors, middle managers, bartenders, fathers and sons: Michael Lee's Paradise Dance is a world peopled by adult men and their women who are having a hard time of it, but who will not lay down and die and who cling for dear life to that which holds them up, their sense of humor and a few fleeting moments of love. These are guys who stand up and square off with life even when they know they can't win, hard-boiled ne'er-do-wells indefatigably cracking wise in the teeth of it all. And their stories are equal parts sadness and belly laugh. A trace of Raymond Carver mixed with Damon Runyon and Dave Barry, Lee fulfills the time-honored ingredient for a good read: make 'em laugh, make 'em weep!" (Thomas E. Kennedy, author of "Drive Dive Dance & Fight" and "The Book of Angels")

"Mike Lee's stories provide a literary feast! They're gritty, but unafraid of the risks of sentiment, and leavened with wit. Here's a range of characters to delight in, all of them flawed, but courageously human. And his milieu, Albright, Massachusetts, a mill town in decline, is a world-in-small, one this reader came to know as if he had lived there himself. And the title story alone is worth the price of this collection. What a fine gathering of fictions, craft and heart and style-bravo!" (Gordon Weaver, Author of "Circling Byzantium" and "The Way We Know in Dreams")

"I've always admired Lee for his fast ball. His breaking stuff never sucked either. But not until the publication of Paradise Dance did I get a look at his change-up. It's an education watching him work. And a thrill to see him throwing in the majors. To him and to all who have yet to read him: Welcome to the show. " (Robert Sabbag, Author of "Snowblind" and "Loaded: A Misadventure on the Marijuana Trail")

About the Author:

Michael Lee is a Senior Editor at The Cape Cod Voice and a former editor of Miami Magazine.

About this edition

• Publisher: Leapfrog Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0967952069
• ISBN 13: 9780967952062
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 220