Synopses & Reviews
Prepare to be amused, moved, and disturbed. With these twelve exceptional tales, Ron Carlson takes readers to a world where wit has heft, charm has shadow, and human beings act out all the complicated nuances of love.
In the title story, a young man waiting in the Hotel Eden discovers -- as many others have -- that Eden is not a permanent domicile. In Zanduce at Second, a baseball player turned kille by accident undergoes a surprising transformation. We root for escaped felon Ray in A Note on the Type and drive through the sweltering summer streets of Phoenix as a nineteen-year-old narrator goes through an unsettling sexual awakening in Oxygen.
Carlson's work has always made a difference. Whether his characters are getting sabotaged by nightcaps or encountering nudists on a rafting trip, he takes us to a generous array of places in a new way.
Synopsis
Prepare to be amused, moved, disturbed. These stories by a master of idiosyncrasy visit a world where wit has heft, charm has shadow, and human beings act out all the complicated nuances of love.
Synopsis
In the title story, a young man waiting in the Hotel Eden discovers--as others have--that Eden is not a permanent domicile. In "Zanduce at Second," a baseball player turned killer-by-accident undergoes a surprising transformation. We drive the sweltering summer streets of Phoenix as a nineteen-year-old narrator goes through an unsettling sexual awakening ("Oxygen"). In these and other stories, whether his characters are getting sabotaged by nightcaps or encountering dudists on a rafting trip, Carlson takes us to new places in a new way.
About the Author
Ron Carlson teaches creative writing at Arizona State and lives in Scottsdale. His stories, much anthologized, have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, Esquire, Playboy, and other magazines.