false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171476782m/101172.jpg 101172 5 Thom Jones's first collection of stories is a revelation. In prose that sounds like nobody else, Jones channels a variety of distinctively different voices, from the lustful book editor of "Unchain My Heart" to the epileptic, amnesiac adman of the Dostoevskian fable "A White Horse." There's not a miss among these tales, but two in particular stand out: the title story, about a boxer and Vietnam vet who has plumbed the vicious depths of his own soul, and the almost unbearably intense chronicle of a woman fighting a losing battle with cancer, "I Want to Live!" "The world is replete with badness," says the aging fighter of "A Pugilist at Rest"; yet, as the narrator of "I Want to Live!" discovers, there is nothing stronger than the human will to go on, to <I>persist</I>--even in the face of the hell that exists right here on earth. It's not all gloom, doom, and napalm, however. There's also the surreal, Gogol-esque humor of "The Black Lights," in which the pysch-ward protagonist insists his only problem is epilepsy, yet hallucinates a giant, shuddering rabbit caught under his bed at night ("It's that rabbit on the Br'er Rabbit molasses jar. That rabbit with buckles on his shoes! Bow tie. Yaller teeth! Yaller! Yaller!") Then, too, Jones creates images of startling, surreal clarity amid the horror, like the dying lieutenant who remains on one knee even after being shot, "his remaining arm extended out to the enemy, palm upward in the soulful, heartrending gesture of Al Jolson doing a rendition of 'Mammy.'" Take a decidedly grim world-view, add a dose of existential slapstick, some Schopenhauer, an encyclopedic knowledge of pharmaceuticals, and a soundtrack by the Doors, and you have what may be the darkest, funniest, most urgent fictional debut in years. <I>--Mary Park</I> 820131 1993 The Pugilist at Rest: Stories total:437|5:157|4:194|3:73|2:12|1:1| 437 1805 564 44 5 2 false false Wed Aug 22 07:22:08 -0700 2007 Fri Sep 07 14:29:48 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 2 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Tue Sep 18 12:31:30 -0700 2007 Tue Sep 18 12:31:30 -0700 2007 3 0 false false Sat Aug 29 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 29 07:49:07 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 29 08:25:24 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1999 Thu Apr 19 23:57:14 -0700 2007 Fri Apr 20 00:01:44 -0700 2007 4 1 false false Sat Jun 23 16:55:10 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 03 13:35:06 -0700 2007 2 0 false false Tue May 26 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 25 13:24:37 -0700 2009 Wed May 27 08:31:44 -0700 2009 at least 2 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Jan 27 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Mar 27 10:59:37 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 31 10:08:41 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Jun 07 18:51:33 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 07 19:00:13 -0700 2009 I like it. Brings to mind Tim O'Brien, Charles Bukowski, Raymond Carver.
I seem to be going through a pugilist fas...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Mar 29 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 22 19:04:46 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 29 15:32:48 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Tue Aug 26 21:15:20 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 26 21:16:18 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue May 19 22:23:03 -0700 2009 Tue May 19 22:28:45 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Mon Jul 02 05:19:21 -0700 2007 Mon Jul 02 05:22:58 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Nov 09 14:52:29 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 09 14:56:21 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Sun Jun 22 11:45:34 -0700 2008 Sun Jun 22 12:03:20 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Aug 08 10:10:44 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 08 10:11:45 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Oct 12 10:40:35 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 12 10:41:22 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Tue Dec 30 09:43:43 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 30 09:44:47 -0800 2008 3 0 false false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1992 Thu Jan 22 19:56:50 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 22 19:57:25 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Sat Jul 21 20:53:59 -0700 2007 Tue May 13 21:32:47 -0700 2008
Boxing and Vietnam and absent fathers and sex, in that order. Boxing in Vietnam. boxing to spite absent fathers. Absent fathers who were boxers. That kind of thing. If you like Tim O'Brien but think his books are too complex and meta-fictional and self-conscious, and la...more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Jan 29 16:28:25 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 01 13:52:41 -0800 2008 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=101172