The Man Back There and Other Stories

In her introduction to The Man Back There, Mary Gaitskill writes simply, "I chose these stories because they made me feel. . . ."The reader of David Crouse's collection is bound to agree, but the reasons are not easily explained. Crouse crawls inside the heads of a dozen male protagonists and tells us how they think. They are not always likeable. They are often losers-their thoughts hurry ahead or dawdle behind, disconnected from what little action occurs around them.

And yet, somehow, we wince for the dog-catcher who crashes his ex-wife's Thanksgiving dinner in "The Castle on the Hill."We sympathize with the latch-key kid who pillages toys in a dead boy's closet in "Time Capsule."And in "The Long Run,"we find it hard to condemn a ninety-two-year-old senator trying to salvage his career after his ex-wife publishes a scandalous tell-all book about his life.

In this deceptively quiet collection, the truth is something that simmers up through what is not said. A hero is a man who saves himself from himself, who placates his temper with self-awareness and, most importantly, self-forgiveness. The Man Back Thereis a feat of empathy and razor sharp vision.

David Crouseis the author of Copy Cats, which received the 2005 Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. He lives in Fairbanks, where he teaches at the University of Alaska.

"Crouse follows his Flannery O'Connor award — winning Copy Cats with this moody dirge of nine deeply felt stories, the winner of the Mary McCarthy Prize. In 'The Forgotten Kingdom,' Denny, a technical-support operator for a video-game company that's 'lingering on the edge of death,' is unsure why he keeps showing up uninvited at his former girlfriend's house — maybe to hurt her or make her feel the emptiness that plagues his own life, or maybe, he considers, 'he was just a bad person.' Another borderline stalker, a lonely, unambitious animal-control officer, reappears at his ex-wife's house in 'The Castle on the Hill,' where she is now remarried and having a party. The title story finds a couple, Sharon and Sweets, stumbling shakily out of a bar after Sweets gets in a fight with Sharon's insolent ex; although Sharon imagines he is defending her honor, Sweets has his own motivation. Crouse digs into dark places, and while readers may cringe, the author's humane handling of his troubled, psychically scarred characters renders their pain authentic and universal, even when their actions are questionable." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

The 2007 winner of the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction, selected by Mary Gaitskill.

Crouse is author of the collection, Copy Cats, awarded The Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction in 2005. His short stories have appeared in such magazines as Quarterly West and The Greensboro Review, while his comic book writing is anthologized in The Dark Horse Book of the Dead. He teaches in The University of Alaska-Fairbanks MFA Program.