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Carrying the Torch: Stories
by
Brock Clarke
The stories in this collection occupy a world at once as familiar as a suburban backyard or a southern collegeand arrive at a brilliance all their own.
Hardcover, 186 pages
Published
September 1st 2005
by UNP - Nebraska
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I knew Brock Clarke was a better writer than one would think from reading An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England! This collection of short stories shows that Clarke can allow his characters to be the stars of their own stories and not force them into contrived situations that might be best seller fodder but isn't all that interesting. In every one of these stories we are exposed to unhappy people who either are trying to fix their unhappiness or, in the case of my favorite story...more
Brock Clarke teaches creative writing in my hometown of Cincinnati at UC. I read about him in Citybeat, our local entertainment magazine, and he's become one of those random discoveries I love to share with my friends. I read his first short story collection, What We Won't Do, and his novel, The Ordinary White Boy. They we both great, but this collection of short stories is even better.
Clarke's view of the world is skeptical and self-deprecating. He paints characters (who surely echo...more
Clarke's view of the world is skeptical and self-deprecating. He paints characters (who surely echo...more
Any collection of short stories that opens with the image of a severed male appendage being transported around a suburban neighborhood as though it were the Olympic torch (hence the title) is definitely a must read. At times humorous, satirical and grotesque.
These are funny, sometimes surreal stories of suburban alienation, in the vein of A.M. Homes or Wells Tower. David Gates (who compared Clarke to a contemporary Cheever) and George Singleton wrote the cover blurbs--very appropriate.
Hilarious/novel (in the newness of it, not the form)
This was an interesting series of short stories. The beginning story is one of my favorites, but they all bring something to the book in it's entirety. Every story had a humorous sorrow to it about lives torn apart told in some strangely-humored way. It was an enjoyable book for me despite the strange combination of moods.
This guy was my creative writing professor at UC. Many of these stories touch upon infidelity and the loss of a child making me wonder what's up in this guy's real life. It makes me more sympathetic to him than I was when I was in his class and found him so hard to deal with...
I read Clarke's story "The Apology" in the Pushcart Prize anthology and loved it so much I had to get the collection. "The Apology" is still one of my favorite stories of all time, and the rest of the book is funny, sad, unsentimental, and deeply affecting.
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Brock Clarke is the author of three previous books: The Ordinary White Boy and two story collections. His stories and essays have appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review, OneStory, the Believer, the Georgia Review, and the Southern Review and have appeared in the annual Pushcart Prize and New Stories from the South anthologies and on NPR's Selected Shorts. He lives in Cincinnati and teaches crea...more
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“They looked at each other for a while their gazes steady, unblinking. It was the way people stare at each other not when they're in love but afterward, when they finally realize all the many horrible and beautiful things locked up within that love.”
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