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1 Burnside Anthologies- Miscellaneous Literature


The Worst Years of Your Life: Stories for the Geeked-Out, Angst-Ridden, Lust-Addled, and Deeply Misunderstood Adolescent in All of Us

by Mark Jude Poirier

The Worst Years of Your Life: Stories for the Geeked-Out, Angst-Ridden, Lust-Addled, and Deeply Misunderstood Adolescent in All of Us Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

A delightful and terrifying collection of twenty short stories, edited by critically acclaimed writer and novelist Mark Jude Poirier.

Adolescence. Fortunately it's over with early and once you've finished paying for therapy, there's still a chance to move on with your life.

The Worst Years of Your Life says it all: angst, depression, growing pains, puberty, nasty boys and nastier girls; these are stories of aaawkwardness and embarassment from a stellar list of contributors. Great postmodern classics like John Barth's "Lost in the Funhouse" are paired with newer selections, such as Stacey Richter's "The Beauty Treatment" and A.M. Homes's "A Real Doll," in this searing, unforgettable collection. A perfect book for revisiting old favorites and discovering new ones, and the opportunity to relive the worst years of your life — without having to relive the worst years of your life.

Review:

"Sometimes sad, often poignant and always painfully honest, the stories in this fiction anthology do away with the rose-colored glasses that grown-ups often employ to make memories of adolescence bearable, drawing them back into the bewildering fog of youth. Beyond a talented group of writers-including George Saunders, Jennifer Egan, Stacey Richter, A.M. Homes and Nathan Englander-author and editor Poirier has gathered a happily diverse set of sad-sack stories. Julie Orringer produces a 'Note to Sixth-Grade Self,' in which she advises an awkward 12-year-old how to get through excruciating dance classes ('Do not think about Zachary Booth's hand warts'); Mark Poirier contributes the story of an unhappy boy whose compulsive lies hide an unspeakable secret; and Amber Dermont posits a convincing tale of a teenage girl learning to understand her abhorrent mother. For adult readers, this rich, candid collection is bound to stir memories of their own growing pains, and more than a few words of thanks that they're in the past; for those in the thick of it, these stories will, if nothing else, take a little of the sting out of teenage loneliness and confusion." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Table of Contents

Contents

Introduction

George Saunders Bohemians

Jennifer Egan Sisters of the Moon

Victor D. LaValle Class Trip

Julie Orringer Note to Sixth-Grade Self

John Barth Lost in the Funhouse

Rattawut Lapcharoensap At the Café Lovely

Stanley Elkin A Poetics for Bullies

Stacey Richter The Beauty Treatment

Jim Shepard Spending the Night with the Poor

Alicia Erian Alcatraz

A.M. Homes A Real Doll

Robert Boswell Brilliant Mistake

Kevin Canty Pretty Judy

Mark Jude Poirier Thunderbird

Amber Dermont Lyndon

Nathan Englander How We Avenged the Blums

Malinda McCollum Good Monks

Chris Adrian A Child's Book of Sickness and Death

Elizabeth Stuckey-French Junior

Holiday Reinhorn Charlotte

Contributors

Permissions

Product Details

ISBN:
9781416549260
Subtitle:
Stories for the Geeked-Out, Angst-Ridden, Lust-Addled, and Deeply Misunderstood Adolescent in All of Us
Author:
Poirier, Mark Jude
Publisher:
Simon & Schuster
Subject:
Anthologies (multiple authors)
Subject:
Teenagers
Subject:
Youth
Subject:
Short stories, American
Edition Description:
Trade paper
Publication Date:
August 2007
Binding:
Paperback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
383
Dimensions:
8.48x5.84x.97 in. .81 lbs.

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