The Heyday of the Insensitive Bastards - Softcover

Boswell, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1458716880 ISBN 13: 9781458716880

Publisher: ReadHowYouWant, 2012

Synopsis

Robert Boswell's extraordinary range grips us at full tilt in this crackling new collection. Set mainly in small, gritty American cities, each of these stories is a world unto itself. When two marriages end, one by death, the other divorce, the two wives, lifelong friends, become strangers to one another. A young man's obsession with visiting a fortune-teller leaves him nearly homeless. And in the unforgettable title story, a man recounts the summer he spent on a mountain with a loose band of slackers, living in a borrowed house, abstaining from all drugs (other than mushrooms and beer) - and ultimately asking just what kind of harm we can do to one another. Boswell's unexpectedly affecting characters and exuberant prose make The Heyday of the Insensitive Bastards a book to celebrate.

About this title

About the Author:

ROBERT BOSWELL is the author of five novels, most recently Century's Son; two previous short-story collections; and a collection of essays, The Half-Known World: On Writing Fiction. He teaches creative writing at New Mexico State University, the University of Houston, and in the Warren Wilson College MFA Program.

From Publishers Weekly:

In this imaginative story collection, author Boswell (Century's Son) examines the limits and losses of ordinary souls with technical mastery and profound sympathy. In No River Wide, a widowed woman visiting a longtime friend in Florida discovers that their friendship is over; her story unfolds in overlapping narratives that form a startling, resonant meditation on the nature of time. Another story finds a 30-something returning to his North Dakota home to identify the body of his missing mother; what he finds instead frees him from the long shadow of his embittered father. In the title story, a gang spends the summer squatting in the home of a vacationing family, with dire consequences; in Supreme Beings, a priest's attempts to intervene in the lives of three troubled youths lead him to confront personal and professional failure. Boswell conveys the sordid but hopeful inner lives of average people with insight and care; his shorter stories (Miss Famous, Skin Deep) showcase his pleasure in language and invention, and his longer tales pack the emotional weight of a novel. (May)
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About this edition

• Publisher: ReadHowYouWant
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1458716880
• ISBN 13: 9781458716880
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 448