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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.
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.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No (1 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)
Product details
170 pages
W. W. Norton & Company -
English9780393339192
Reviews:
"Review A Day"
by Matthew Jakubowski, Rain Taxi,
"[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 National Book Award citation,
"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 Los Angeles Times,
"Campbell's an American voice — two parts healthy fear, one part awe, one part irony, one part realism."
"Review"
by Chicago Literary Scene Examiner,
"The effect of American Salvage is that Campbell's Michigan lingers and cannot be ignored or forgotten."
"Review"
by Booklist,
"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 Small Press 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."
"Synopsis"
by Hold All,
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 Norton,
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 Norton,
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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