A
collection of stories from the National Book Award finalist and O.
Henry winner Thom Jones. In them, Jones wrestles with overadrenalized
themes of desire, mania, and rage. His circus of characters includes
Rwandans, doctors who fall in love with their illnesses, an advertising
writer who uses the hand of the devil to do the work of God.
Size
Height:
8.3 in.
Width:
5.8 in.
Thickness:
0.8 in.
Weight:
8.0 oz.
Publisher's Note
Ten
stories provide jolting excursions through a world of desperation and
fleeting transcendence, with protagonists ranging from a hard-luck
fighter, to a drunken doctor in a remote African aid-station, to a
strung-out advertising writer. Reprint. NYT.
Industry reviews
"...[T]he
aptly titled 'Cold Snap' presents a gallery of the walking wounded.
These are 'characters' in the fullest sense of the term, and, though
they are all in dire states, the last thing they demand is pity.
Bleakly and outrageously comic, the inhabitants of Mr. Jones's
fictional landscape are never less than articulate about their
fates....The vision in 'Cold Snap' is bleak and intransigent. Yet, over
all, Thom Jones's stories are anything but grim; they quiver with their
own manic life." New York Times Book Review - Joyce Carol Oates (06/04/1995)
"The
author's line of sight has shifted, maybe broadened....[W]hat's common
among mannerly short-story writers is to leave the reader, in a muted
last paragraph, with a carefully polished pebble of irony. Jones leaves
a chunk of primal matter, painful to hold, thrown up with volcanic
depths." Time - John Skow (06/19/1995)
"Where Jones
excels is in observing the fraying social fabric and in breathing life
into death-defying--or death-smitten--protagonists who 'declare war
against society'. He's a champoin of the virulent underdog, and
although a number of his characters are the sort you would cross the
street to avoid in real life, they can be thrilling to encounter on the
page. Add to that Jones' genius for capturing the herky-jerky rhythms
of sidewalk slang from several continents in his prose, and you have a
compelling reading experience." San Francisco Chronicle Book Review - Michael Upchurch (06/04/1995)
"...Jones'
characters seldom are inviting, as they might be divided between those
trying to die and those barely reconciled to continuing to live. 'Cold
Snap', though, is imbued with a strange underlying tenderness and hope;
elsewhere his actors are possessed of wrenching despair, crumbling
machismo, bizarrely resigned humor. Regardless, you are bound to each
by Jones' deftly visceral, febrile writing....It is Jones' rich genius
that he can create empathy where it is least expected, bring you into
the personal hell of characters who, objectively, may be utterly
foreign; and have you come away loving it, feeling a hope in the
despair. This is rawness, but rawness measured, meted out with odd
humor; this is freneticism that is never out of control; these are
voices that ring dizzyingly true." San Francisco Review of Books - Bethany Jean Clement
"...Jones
continues to examine the horrible and wonderful qualities that bracket
quotidian existence. Jones writes from the assumption that people are
neither completely sane nor in complete control of their lives, rather
they are insane to varying degrees and in denial of the lack of control
to the extent that it suits them. Chaos is constant....[A]ll of Jones's
characters have to relinquish their control at some point, whether they
like it or not." Voice Literary Supplement - Hugh Garvey (07/19/1995)
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