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This title in other editions

American Salvage

by

American Salvage Cover

 

Review-A-Day

"[A] beautifully written collection, yet a harrowing one — especially if read all at once. Page by page, Campbell portrays the thoughts of rape survivors, meth addicts, alcoholics, victims of accidents and violent crimes, each clinging to any flawed human relationship they can in small towns ravaged by economic decline." Matthew Jakubowski, Rain Taxi (Read the entire Rain Taxi review)

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

American Salvage is rich with local color and peopled with rural characters who love and hate extravagantly. They know how to fix cars and washing machines, how to shoot and clean game, and how to cook up methamphetamine, but they have not figured out how to prosper in the twenty-first century. Through the complex inner lives of working-class characters, Bonnie Jo Campbell illustrates the desperation of post-industrial America, where wildlife, jobs, and whole ways of life go extinct and the people have no choice but to live off what is left behind.

Review:

"These short stories approach their subjects from an array of perspectives, but what they share is freshness, surprise, and a compulsion to plumb some absolute extremes of American existence." National Book Award citation

Review:

"Campbell's an American voice — two parts healthy fear, one part awe, one part irony, one part realism." Los Angeles Times

Review:

"The effect of American Salvage is that Campbell's Michigan lingers and cannot be ignored or forgotten." Chicago Literary Scene Examiner

Review:

"Starred Review. These fine-tuned stories are shaped by stealthy wit, stunning turns of events, and breath-taking insights.... Readers...will feel salvaged and transformed by the gutsy book’s fierce compassion." Booklist

Review:

"'Beware ye who enter here,' and yet you should and must because the work is so fine and truthful and deeply human, And you will surely know yourself and your world better for having come." Small Press Review

Synopsis:

Finalist for the 2009 National Book Award in Fiction; finalist for the 2009 National Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction. 'These short stories approach their subjects from an array of perspectives, but what they share is freshness, surprise, and a compulsion to plumb some absolute extremes of American existence."National Book Award citation

Synopsis:

The effect of American Salvage is that Campbell’s Michigan lingers and cannot be ignored or forgotten.‘Beware ye who enter here,’ and yet you should and must because the work is so fine and truthful and deeply human, And you will surely know yourself and your world better for having come.

Synopsis:

American Salvage is rich with local color and peopled with rural characters who love and hate extravagantly. They know how to fix cars and washing machines, how to shoot and clean game, and how to cook up methamphetamine, but they have not figured out how to prosper in the twenty-first century. Through the complex inner lives of working-class characters, Bonnie Jo Campbell illustrates the desperation of post-industrial America, where wildlife, jobs, and whole ways of life go extinct and the people have no choice but to live off what is left behind.
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About the Author

Bonnie Jo Campbell is the author of the National Book Award finalist American Salvage, Women & Other Animals, and the novels Q Road and Once Upon a River. She is the winner of a Pushcart Prize, the AWP Award for Short Fiction, and Southern Review’s 2008 Eudora Welty Prize for "The Inventor, 1972." Her work has appeared in Southern Review, Kenyon Review, and Ontario Review. She lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where she studies kobudo, the art of Okinawan weapons, and hangs out with her two donkeys, Jack and Don Quixote.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 3 comments:
Larry Robinson, January 6, 2010 (view all comments by Larry Robinson)
Talk about bleak, try working-class Michigan in the winter. The first story is only three or four pages, but you will be devestated after you read it. It's not pretty, but it's true. Some of the characters in this amazing book of short stories are not nice people. Some of them just can't buy a break. Whatever their story, each of them will have a powerfull effect on you. The best short story collection I've read in quite a while.
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John Chattin, January 2, 2010 (view all comments by John Chattin)
Tragic moments lead to haunting lonely epiphanies for working-class characters. They face their hardscrabble lives—pipefitters, hunters, foundry workers, meth heads—and the cold hard realities of bad relationships, bad jobs and addictions. Beneath it all is hope, held tightly in their hearts. A heartbreaking and beautiful collection of stories.
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workingclasshero, December 30, 2009 (view all comments by workingclasshero)
I am hungry for literature written by working class authors. The people in this book are my family, friends, and neighbors. It is good to be seen.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780393339192
Author:
Campbell, Bonnie Jo
Publisher:
W. W. Norton & Company
Subject:
Short Stories (single author)
Subject:
Stories (single author)
Subject:
Literature-A to Z
Copyright:
2009
Publication Date:
20091231
Binding:
TRADE PAPER
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
170
Dimensions:
8.18x6.62x.49 in. .35 lbs.
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Related Subjects

Fiction and Poetry » Literature » A to Z

American Salvage New Trade Paper
0 stars - 0 reviews
$14.95 In Stock
Product details 170 pages W. W. Norton & Company - English 9780393339192 Reviews:
"Review A Day" by , "[A] beautifully written collection, yet a harrowing one — especially if read all at once. Page by page, Campbell portrays the thoughts of rape survivors, meth addicts, alcoholics, victims of accidents and violent crimes, each clinging to any flawed human relationship they can in small towns ravaged by economic decline." (Read the entire Rain Taxi review)
"Review" by , "These short stories approach their subjects from an array of perspectives, but what they share is freshness, surprise, and a compulsion to plumb some absolute extremes of American existence."
"Review" by , "Campbell's an American voice — two parts healthy fear, one part awe, one part irony, one part realism."
"Review" by , "The effect of American Salvage is that Campbell's Michigan lingers and cannot be ignored or forgotten."
"Review" by , "Starred Review. These fine-tuned stories are shaped by stealthy wit, stunning turns of events, and breath-taking insights.... Readers...will feel salvaged and transformed by the gutsy book’s fierce compassion."
"Review" by , "'Beware ye who enter here,' and yet you should and must because the work is so fine and truthful and deeply human, And you will surely know yourself and your world better for having come."
"Synopsis" by , Finalist for the 2009 National Book Award in Fiction; finalist for the 2009 National Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction. 'These short stories approach their subjects from an array of perspectives, but what they share is freshness, surprise, and a compulsion to plumb some absolute extremes of American existence."National Book Award citation
"Synopsis" by , The effect of American Salvage is that Campbell’s Michigan lingers and cannot be ignored or forgotten.‘Beware ye who enter here,’ and yet you should and must because the work is so fine and truthful and deeply human, And you will surely know yourself and your world better for having come.
"Synopsis" by , American Salvage is rich with local color and peopled with rural characters who love and hate extravagantly. They know how to fix cars and washing machines, how to shoot and clean game, and how to cook up methamphetamine, but they have not figured out how to prosper in the twenty-first century. Through the complex inner lives of working-class characters, Bonnie Jo Campbell illustrates the desperation of post-industrial America, where wildlife, jobs, and whole ways of life go extinct and the people have no choice but to live off what is left behind.
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