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The National Virginity Pledge: Short Stories and Other Lies
by
Barry Graham
With a voice that maintains a gritty strength balanced with poetic vision, Barry Graham pushes all his chips to the center of the table in this collection of from the gut short stories that are as sentimental as they are cynical. Set in America's underbelly-from dead-end small towns with their futile Virginity Pledges to larger than life Las Vegas with it's own brand of lu...more
Paperback, 100 pages
Published
February 1st 2009
by Another Sky Press
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Barry Graham pulls off a really neat trick with The National Virginity Pledge. On the surface what you get is a series of awesomely disturbed pieces rife with prostitutes, gamblers, tacos, Wal-Mart, car crashes, and bodily fluids. The thing is, while the interplay between these images are entertaining all by themselves, what you come to realize as you slowly lose yourself in Graham's cracked world, is that these stories are also a super-insightful exploration of all the myriad ways relationships...more
Gritty, honest, raw: These are words used to describe Barry Graham's The National Virginity Pledge, and they couldn't be more accurate. This debut collection pulls no punches and bars no holds. Most of the stories are delivered from a first person point of view in past tense, and while this works more often than not, I would've liked to see opener "On the Edge" and "The Cigarette Story" in present tense. I believe present tense would've heightened the tension and suspense. Nonetheless, because t...more
I don't always use the word "gritty" because it's often overused, but really, it was...gritty. In a good way.
Sep 12, 2010
Amanda
marked it as to-read
I think I should get an autographed copy of this book?????
all hail barry graham, the prophet and slayer
A punk Flannery O'Connor.
good shiz
When I think of edgy fiction, Barry Graham is up there with a bullet. He's fearless and shows the middle finger to taboos. These are smash-mouth stories, but also full of vulnerability in the most surprising places, and that's when they rip your heart out.
Jul 06, 2012
Morgenn Hester
marked it as to-read
Apr 14, 2012
Matt
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Jan 08, 2012
Countdowntoblastoff
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Dec 26, 2011
Kelly
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Nov 14, 2011
Steph Anne
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Nov 13, 2011
K.V. Taylor
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Sep 25, 2011
Midu Hadi
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Sep 10, 2011
Zahirim
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Apr 22, 2011
Kristine
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