What do you think?
Deep South Books
One Day in the Life of a Born Again Loser and Other Stories
Theron Estes, upon returning home from a 90-day stint in jail, is dismayed to find his two young daughters home alone and a cryptic note from his wife: "I had enuff its your turn." Thus begins the title story of Helen Norris's new collection, a funny yet pathos-filled tale of Theron's bizarre attempt to secure Christmas dinner for his girls.
Norris is one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary American fiction. Over a lifetime, she has developed a distinctive style and mastered the short-story form. With an impressive range, she invents and inhabits the worlds of a memorable set of characters both young and old, with authority, sharp insight, and great wit. Her wonderful older women, having found that everyone else's reality has nothing to offer them, claim the right to create their own. Troubled young couples mean well but find themselves heading down bewildering paths. Norris's stories are complex, at turns wry and poignant, playful and amusing, haunting and mythical. A few of these stories are traditionally southern in setting and theme, but Norris works well beyond the boundaries of regionalism, writing stories rooted in contemporary concerns and set in imagined places both rural and urban.
Norris is one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary American fiction. Over a lifetime, she has developed a distinctive style and mastered the short-story form. With an impressive range, she invents and inhabits the worlds of a memorable set of characters both young and old, with authority, sharp insight, and great wit. Her wonderful older women, having found that everyone else's reality has nothing to offer them, claim the right to create their own. Troubled young couples mean well but find themselves heading down bewildering paths. Norris's stories are complex, at turns wry and poignant, playful and amusing, haunting and mythical. A few of these stories are traditionally southern in setting and theme, but Norris works well beyond the boundaries of regionalism, writing stories rooted in contemporary concerns and set in imagined places both rural and urban.
- GenresShort Stories
208 pages, Paperback
First published April 18, 2000
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 17, 2021
The stories in this book followed a pattern--usually a very original idea that seemed promising, then they would proceed to go on and on until you thought a conclusion was nowhere in sight. And when you got to the end, there was the disappointment that nothing was ever really resolved--or it didn't seem to actually end at all. It just sort cut off abruptly. The only story I actually liked was The Great and Small, which *did* have a satisfactory and not predictable ending. I just couldn't get into this book.
November 27, 2014
Not sure what I expected but it wasn't what I got from this book. Also, I think I have read some of these before because they seem awfully familiar.
Overall, an average collection of short stories by the author.
Overall, an average collection of short stories by the author.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews