We Find Ourselves In Moontown - Hardcover

Gummerman, Jay

3.5

46 ratings by Goodreads

9780394574592: We Find Ourselves In Moontown

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0394574591 ISBN 13: 9780394574592

Publisher: Knopf, 1989

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A debut collection of fresh and offbeat short stories probes the slightly askew world of a grade school teacher in love with a student's pregnant mother; an aging, one-armed umpire; a jazz drummer; and others

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From Publishers Weekly:

Showing himself to be a highly gifted writer in this first collection of short stories, Gummerman demonstrates a special understanding of the confused adolescent boys and young men who inhabit the suburbs and exurbs of the American Northwest. Dopers, misfits, the lovelorn--the characters all deal with some form of impending sexual or physical violence. In "The Painter," a yuppie fired from his job for stealing a valuable painting, an impressionistic rendering of Jello-O salad, is visited by a streetwise teenager who talks her way into his house, his bed and his heart. "Russell's Honor" is a chilling tale of a bigamist who walks away from a minimal security prison and winds up at his unstable, vengeful sister's house. In the gothic "A Minor Forest," a hippie dope dealer joins an illegal business venture to cut down Christmas trees, and the trip takes on a bizarre, surrealistic cast when the car he's riding in crashes and he sees the world in a new way. In almost every story, the characters' humorous, offhand responses to events mask a deep-seated sadness about the narrowing of life's possibilities ("Reality sucks," one character says) and the inevitability of disappointment, even despair. While the stories are technically perfect, however, they lack heart; it's almost as if Gummerman is afraid to embrace his characters, to engage in an emotional response.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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