EBOOK Brief Encounters with the Enemy
Opis
Fiction
The first short story collection from a writer who calls to mind such luminaries as Denis Johnson, George Saunders, and Nathan EnglanderFINALIST FOR THE PEN/ROBERT W. BINGHAM PRIZE *;NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY BOOKPAGE AND BOOKISHWhen The New Yorker published a short story by Sad Sayrafiezadeh in 2010, it marked the emergence of a startling new voice in fiction. In this astonishing book, Sayrafiezadeh conjures up a nameless American city and its unmoored denizens: a call-center employee jealous of the attention lavished on a co-worker newly returned from a foreign war; a history teacher dealing with a classroom of maliciously indifferent students; a grocery store janitor caught up in a romantic relationship with a kleptomaniac customer. These men&'s struggles and fleeting triumphswith women, with cruel bosses, with the morning commuteare transformed into storytelling that is both universally resonant and wonderfully strange. Sometimes the effect is hilarious, as when a would-be suitor tries to take his sheltered, religious date on a tunnel of love carnival ride. Other times it&'s devastating, as in the unforgettable story that gives the book its title: A soldier on his last routine patrol on a deserted mountain path finally encounters &';the enemy&' he&'s long sought a glimpse of. Upon giving the author the Whiting Writers&' Award for his memoir, When Skateboards Will Be Free, the judges hailed his writing as &';intelligent, funny, utterly unsmug and unpreening.&' These fiercely original stories show their author employing his considerable gifts to offer a lens on our collective dreams and anxieties, casting them in a revelatory new light.Praise for Brief Encounters with the Enemy&';With impressive guile and design, Mr. Sayrafiezadeh uses the arrival and escalation of that war as the through-line connecting each personal drama. . . . These calculated echoes work to unify [his] haunting book in a way that story collections rarely manage.&'Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal &';In his memoir, Sayrafiezadeh told the remarkable tale of a childhood steeped in doomed dogma. His stories . . . offer something more: a searing vision of his wayward homeland, delivered not in the clamoring rhetoric of a revolutionary, but in the droll monologues of young men who kill because they lack the moral imagination to do otherwise.&'Steve Almond, The New York Times Book Review (Editors&' Choice) &';Sayrafiezadeh&'s eight interlinked stories are just as fulfilling as any novel you&'re likely to read this summer.&'The Boston Globe&';A tantalizing fiction debut . . . [that] menaces and mesmerizes.&'Elle &';The recurring motifs include 99-cent American flags, putting in a word with the boss, idealistic Army recruitment brochures and unseasonable temperatures. Each time they recur they are more potent, and poignant. The collection is readable, and real, and hopefully a harbinger of more fiction to come from Sayrafiezadeh.&'Minneapolis Star Tribune &';Funny and surprising . . . Sayrafiezadeh&'s simple style can fool you into thinking that his struggling narrators are plain and unassuming. They are anything but. . . . Each story compels you to read the next, and no character escapes unscathed.&'The Daily BeastFrom the Hardcover edition.
The first short story collection from a writer who calls to mind such luminaries as Denis Johnson, George Saunders, and Nathan EnglanderFINALIST FOR THE PEN/ROBERT W. BINGHAM PRIZE *;NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY BOOKPAGE AND BOOKISHWhen The New Yorker published a short story by Sad Sayrafiezadeh in 2010, it marked the emergence of a startling new voice in fiction. In this astonishing book, Sayrafiezadeh conjures up a nameless American city and its unmoored denizens: a call-center employee jealous of the attention lavished on a co-worker newly returned from a foreign war; a history teacher dealing with a classroom of maliciously indifferent students; a grocery store janitor caught up in a romantic relationship with a kleptomaniac customer. These men&'s struggles and fleeting triumphswith women, with cruel bosses, with the morning commuteare transformed into storytelling that is both universally resonant and wonderfully strange. Sometimes the effect is hilarious, as when a would-be suitor tries to take his sheltered, religious date on a tunnel of love carnival ride. Other times it&'s devastating, as in the unforgettable story that gives the book its title: A soldier on his last routine patrol on a deserted mountain path finally encounters &';the enemy&' he&'s long sought a glimpse of. Upon giving the author the Whiting Writers&' Award for his memoir, When Skateboards Will Be Free, the judges hailed his writing as &';intelligent, funny, utterly unsmug and unpreening.&' These fiercely original stories show their author employing his considerable gifts to offer a lens on our collective dreams and anxieties, casting them in a revelatory new light.Praise for Brief Encounters with the Enemy&';With impressive guile and design, Mr. Sayrafiezadeh uses the arrival and escalation of that war as the through-line connecting each personal drama. . . . These calculated echoes work to unify [his] haunting book in a way that story collections rarely manage.&'Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal &';In his memoir, Sayrafiezadeh told the remarkable tale of a childhood steeped in doomed dogma. His stories . . . offer something more: a searing vision of his wayward homeland, delivered not in the clamoring rhetoric of a revolutionary, but in the droll monologues of young men who kill because they lack the moral imagination to do otherwise.&'Steve Almond, The New York Times Book Review (Editors&' Choice) &';Sayrafiezadeh&'s eight interlinked stories are just as fulfilling as any novel you&'re likely to read this summer.&'The Boston Globe&';A tantalizing fiction debut . . . [that] menaces and mesmerizes.&'Elle &';The recurring motifs include 99-cent American flags, putting in a word with the boss, idealistic Army recruitment brochures and unseasonable temperatures. Each time they recur they are more potent, and poignant. The collection is readable, and real, and hopefully a harbinger of more fiction to come from Sayrafiezadeh.&'Minneapolis Star Tribune &';Funny and surprising . . . Sayrafiezadeh&'s simple style can fool you into thinking that his struggling narrators are plain and unassuming. They are anything but. . . . Each story compels you to read the next, and no character escapes unscathed.&'The Daily BeastFrom the Hardcover edition.