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Paradise Stories

Dustin Heron (Goodreads Author)

4.36 · Rating details · 22 ratings · 7 reviews

Fiction. Short Stories. "The Wright family lives in Chico with a little herd of goats and an exploded septic tank that drowns their yard, their interiors, their whole desperate souls with sewage, and that's just one of the hurdles they face in Dustin Heron's collection of linked PARADISE STORIES. In lesser hands his excremental invention might have lapsed into adolescent g ...more

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114 pages

Published January 1st 2007 by Small Desk Press

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Average rating 4.36 ·

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· 22 ratings · 7 reviews

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Nov 05, 2007 Jim rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-and-kept, reviewed

I cannot be objective about this book for a number of reasons.

One: Dustin was a student in a class I was a teaching assistant in. I count him as a good friend.

Two: In that class he brought in early drafts of the short stories that became the crux of this book. I and others offered him critiques on those drafts.

Three: Dustin is a hopeless 49ers fan. They had a couple of "okay" quarterbacks in the 80s, but that's as far as this Raiders fan will admit.

Now, on to the book itself.

Paradise Stories is I cannot be objective about this book for a number of reasons.

One: Dustin was a student in a class I was a teaching assistant in. I count him as a good friend.

Two: In that class he brought in early drafts of the short stories that became the crux of this book. I and others offered him critiques on those drafts.

Three: Dustin is a hopeless 49ers fan. They had a couple of "okay" quarterbacks in the 80s, but that's as far as this Raiders fan will admit.

Now, on to the book itself.

Paradise Stories is a counter-vision to the dominant theme of 20th Century American literature: the life and death of the American dream. In Paradise Stories, the American dream is already dead. There's no fighting it, no bemoaning its passing, no Willy Loman blindly driving himself off the road (although one story involves a car accident for quite different reasons), no liquor-soaked scenes of self-pity and woe-is-me. The family is in the shit on page one -- literally -- and they don't even bother to put up air fresheners. No one dast blame this man? No one dast think twice about this family -- until Dustin Heron trains his sight on them.

This is important because the American dream has transformed in the past twenty years, and American literature must recognize this rather than curse it. Paradise Stories gives this shift its due. No whitewash, and no glamourization either. Each story is a little gem, and best of all, Dustin gives his characters the dignity they're due, even when they're placed in some of the most undignified circumstances imaginable.

One of the discussions we had in that class was whether these stories should be viewed as magical realism or fantasies of the family's psychoses. (In one story, a pile of shit talks of immortality; in another, a six-foot tall miscarriage asks his mother for breakfast.) I say, as I said then, it doesn't matter. I for one am tired of imagination and fancy being crammed in the backseat of "serious" American literature. Let this book mark a counter-vision of another kind as well. ...more

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Oct 05, 2007 Ajloudermilk added it

My sister-in-law bought this for me after I requested books for my birthday. This one was penned by someone she knew, so I gave it a shot. At first I wasn't quite sure if I would like this novel (or novella? it barely stretches beyond 100 pages) featuring a talking pile of shit, but there was one supernatural story that stuck with me. Heron hits a lot of big topics -- poverty, family, death -- in his slender work, but his characters are always approachable. No way I would have found my way to th ...more

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Nov 28, 2007 Dustin rated it it was amazing · (Review from the author)

Recommends it for: everyone

Shelves: all-time-favorites

You can buy it here: Small Desk Press ...more

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Aug 31, 2011 Millard Johnson rated it really liked it

Not for everyone. By the middle of the book you are up to your chin in shit. You can all most taste the stuff and certainly smell it.

That said, this is a book that takes you places you will never go otherwise. The characters are strong and real. But what does it for me is the writing. Strong spare sentences. This is muscular prose of the best kind.

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Feb 22, 2010 Hollyn Heron rated it it was amazing

Excellent book...Highly sophisticated...Intelligent beyond reason...a book that will last the ages...comparitive to the works of Plato and Socrates...especially the shit monster...

Thanks for leaving me out of the book, Dick!

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Dec 12, 2007 Zulema Renee Summerfield rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: steaming piles of poop like you

this book is the shit. seriously. and i'm not just saying that because dustin wrote it and i owe him twenty bucks and i'm hoping my rave review will cancel that out. ...more

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Feb 01, 2008 L.J. rated it it was amazing

Shelves: literature

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-31...

...more

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About Dustin Heron

Dustin Heron

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Dustin Heron's work has appeared recently or is forthcoming in Drunk Monkeys, Passengers, Gravel, The Normal School, Fictive Dream, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. His first book, Paradise Stories, was published by Small Desk Press. ...more