From the author of The Wake of Forgiveness— "a mesmerizing, mythic saga"*—ten remarkable stories that tackle what it means to be a man.
Whether they find themselves walking the fertile farmland of south Texas, steering trucks through the suffocating sprawl of Houston, or turning logs into loose leaf in the mills just west of the Sabine River, the men of these stories find themselves beset by the insufficiencies of their own ingrained ideas of manhood.
Like Richard Russo, Bruce Machart has a profound knowledge of the male psyche and a gift for conveying the absurdity and brutality of daily life with humor and compassion. Alternately lush with lyricism and starkly candid, these stories emerge from inside a vividly scrutinized everyday of farms, refineries, hospitals, and homes to explore what it means to be a man at the rise of a new millennium. What it means to be a man who can’t protect his wife from violence, or protect his children from tragic accidents, or protect himself from loss and heartbreak. Machart’s characters have a deep and abiding humanity that makes their hardscrabble lives all the more unforgettable.
* New York Times Book Review
Whether they find themselves walking the fertile farmland of south Texas, steering trucks through the suffocating sprawl of Houston, or turning logs into loose leaf in the mills just west of the Sabine River, the men of these stories find themselves beset by the insufficiencies of their own ingrained ideas of manhood.
Like Richard Russo, Bruce Machart has a profound knowledge of the male psyche and a gift for conveying the absurdity and brutality of daily life with humor and compassion. Alternately lush with lyricism and starkly candid, these stories emerge from inside a vividly scrutinized everyday of farms, refineries, hospitals, and homes to explore what it means to be a man at the rise of a new millennium. What it means to be a man who can’t protect his wife from violence, or protect his children from tragic accidents, or protect himself from loss and heartbreak. Machart’s characters have a deep and abiding humanity that makes their hardscrabble lives all the more unforgettable.
* New York Times Book Review
Jackie says:
"Bruce Machart is one hell of a writer. I'd go so far as to say that he is a '3-D writer'--his stories jump off the page in vivid Technicolor with perfect Dolby sound and the grit of Texas sand in your mouth. He has a mastery of language that makes even a four page story a deep and enriching experience. And these are not easy stories to tell as they are all about men or boys at a crossroad or epiphany of one kind or another. There are ten stories in the book, all of them gritty, real, raw and intense. A lot of dogs die in this book. A lot of men have to face themselves in this book. And a lot of readers will be deeply impressed with the searing honesty in each and every one of them. This is definitely a 'guys' book, but ladies, you don't want to miss out on this amazing book either, for it's worth the read (and a re-read, or a dozen re-reads). Cutting to the chase, read this book!"
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