Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles

In this tour de force of imagination, Ron Currie asks why literal veracity means more to us than deeper truths, creating yet again a genre-bending novel that will at once dazzle, move, and provoke.

The protagonist of Ron Currie, Jr.’s new novel has a problem­—or rather, several of them. He’s a writer whose latest book was destroyed in a fire. He’s mourning the death of his father, and has been in love with the same woman since grade school, a woman whose beauty and allure is matched only by her talent for eluding him. Worst of all, he’s not even his own man, but rather an amalgam of fact and fiction from Ron Currie’s own life. When Currie the character exiles himself to a small Caribbean island to write a new book about the woman he loves, he eventually decides to fake his death, which turns out to be the best career move he’s ever made. But fame and fortune come with a price, and Currie learns that in a time of twenty-four-hour news cycles, reality TV, and celebrity Twitter feeds, the one thing the world will not forgive is having been told a deeply satisfying lie.

What kind of distinction could, or should, be drawn between Currie the author and Currie the character?  Or between the book you hold in your hands and the novel embedded in it? Whatever the answers, Currie, an inventive writer always eager to test the boundaries of storytelling in provocative ways, has essential things to impart along the way about heartbreak, reality, grief, deceit, human frailty, and blinding love.

-San Francisco Chronicle

"Mr. Currie is a startlingly talented writer whose book will pay no heed to ordinary narrative conventions.... He survives the inevitable, apt comparisons to Kurt Vonnegut and writes in a tenderly mordant voice of his own.... Throughout the story there is the sheer delight of Mr. Currie's fresh, joltingly funny imagery.... Above all "Everything Matters!" radiates writerly confidence. The excitement that drives the reader from page to page is not about the characters. It's about seeing what Mr. Currie will try next."

--Janet Maslin, New York Times

Praise for EVERYTHING MATTERS!

“Joltingly funny…Mr. Currie is a startlingly talented writer…he survives the inevitable comparisons to Kurt Vonnegut and writes in a tenderly mordant voice of his own.”                                                            --Janet Maslin, The New York Times 

“There’s nothing predictable about this story, and Currie repeatedly upends our expectations…there’s something refreshingly youthful about Currie’s eagerness to call out the big existential questions.”                                                            --Ron Charles, The Washington Post Book World 

“Contains both a declaration of the possibilities of narrative fiction and, above all, a defense of good old-fashioned human resilience in the face of petty distraction and profound horror.”                                                              --Zach Baron, The Village Voice 

“[A] superb novel…this is a comedy, albeit a scary one. Some scenes make you laugh out loud. There are passages of beauty and wicked turns of phrase…Marvelously, Currie suffuses his unhappy and disparate characters with salvation.”                                                                 --Diana Wagman, The Los Angeles Times 

“Currie mixes the weight of tragedy with a hyperbolic adventure story that’s got the international intrigue of a John le Carré thriller and the deep humor of David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest.”                                                                  --Time Out New York 

“A hugely imaginative novel loaded with narrative tricks and set pieces that let the author proudly show off his clever clockwork, but Currie keeps things thoroughly grounded in the messy, mysterious business of human interaction. A beautiful, sad and haunting book.”                                                                     --National Public Radio

Praise for GOD IS DEAD “[A] cavalierly ambitious debut…with talking dogs, text message-happy teenagers, and end-of-day shenanigans. Like Kurt Vonnegut, [Currie] seems to understand that in the face of grim and grave concerns, humor is more powerful salt than screed.”                                                                      --John Freeman, The San Francisco Chronicle 

“Currie’s strength rests in his ability to focus humanity’s conundrums on the smallest physical particles. The truth he presents is that the world has become absurd; he is merely delivering a steady-cam view.”                                                                       --The Los Angeles Times 

“In his cutting-edge debut book of fiction Ron Currie, Jr. triggers…real admiration. Provocative.”                                                                           --USA Today

 Praise for FLIMSY LITTLE PLASTIC MIRACLES

“Sharp and sarcastic, Curries dramatic story keeps you tethered in place…its a truly genuine love story wrapped in a series of comically improbable events.” —thedailybeast.com

“A powerful, brilliant, compelling novel about love, writing, fame, fiction and shame that is emotionally effective and intellectually engaging, coming as close to anything Ive read, to meeting David Foster Wallaces call for fiction that makes the head beat like the heart.” —bookslut.com

“So blisteringly funny that I laughed as I hadnt laughed in years:  were talking demonic, unstoppable, dont sit next to that guy howls.” —The Washington Post

“Resounds with humor and insight into love, loss, and reality…An astonishing feat of innovation with surprises on nearly every page, Curries entrancing novel marks the work of a scathingly comic virtuoso.” —ALA Booklist

“A postmodern love story, self-consciously playful…things get both crazy and interesting…moving and hilarious.” —Kirkus Reviews

“A metafictional tangle of debauchery and technological anxiety…Told in a bouncy, pinball style, this darkly droll novel is never boring.” —Publishers Weekly

“Currie stays true to his gutsy, thoughtful, and unconventional self in this brilliant meditation on life, death, truth, and imperfection. Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles is flimsy like a brick sh*thouse. Ron Currie, Jr. is a fearless and inspired writer at the top of his game.  Read him.” —Jonathan Evison, author of The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving and West of Here

“Both a brilliantly constructed inquiry into the nature of reality and a soulful ode to the free fall of obsessive love. These two spines interweave ever more tightly till they fuse into a dazzling question mark with no easy answers. This is a beautiful book.” —Kate Christensen, author of The Astral and The Great Man

Praise for FLIMSY LITTLE PLASTIC MIRACLES

“Resounds with humor and insight into love, loss, and reality…An astonishing feat of innovation with surprises on nearly every page, Curries entrancing novel marks the work of a scathingly comic virtuoso.” —ALA Booklist

“A postmodern love story, self-consciously playful…things get both crazy and interesting…moving and hilarious.” —Kirkus Reviews

“A metafictional tangle of debauchery and technological anxiety…Told in a bouncy, pinball style, this darkly droll novel is never boring.” —Publishers Weekly

“Currie stays true to his gutsy, thoughtful, and unconventional self in this brilliant meditation on life, death, truth, and imperfection. Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles is flimsy like a brick sh*thouse. Ron Currie, Jr. is a fearless and inspired writer at the top of his game.  Read him.” —Jonathan Evison, author of The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving and West of Here

“Both a brilliantly constructed inquiry into the nature of reality and a soulful ode to the free fall of obsessive love. These two spines interweave ever more tightly till they fuse into a dazzling question mark with no easy answers. This is a beautiful book.” —Kate Christensen, author of The Astral and The Great Man

In this novel rich in character, Junior Thibodeau grows up in rural Maine in a time of Atari, baseball cards, pop Catholicism, and cocaine. He also knows something no one else knows-neither his exalted parents, nor his baseball-savant brother, nor the love of his life (she doesn't believe him anyway): The world will end when he is thirty-six. While Junior searches for meaning in a doomed world, his loved ones tell an all-American family saga of fathers and sons, blinding romance, lost love, and reconciliation-culminating in one final triumph that reconfigures the universe. A tour de force of storytelling, Everything Matters! is a genre-bending potpourri of alternative history, sci-fi, and the great American tale in the tradition of John Irving and Margaret Atwood.

Ron Currie’s gutsy, funny book is instantly gripping: If God takes human form and dies, what would become of life as we know it? Effortlessly combining outlandish humor with big questions about mortality, ethics, and human weakness, Ron Currie, Jr., holds a funhouse mirror to our present-day world. God has inhabited the mortal body of a young Dinka woman in the Sudan. When she is killed in the Darfur desert, he dies along with her, and word of his death soon begins to spread. Faced with the hard proof that there is no supreme being in charge, the world is irrevocably transformed, yet remains oddly recognizable.

In this novel rich in character, Junior Thibodeau grows up in rural Maine in a time of Atari, baseball cards, pop Catholicism, and cocaine. He also knows something no one else knows-neither his exalted parents, nor his baseball-savant brother, nor the love of his life (she doesn't believe him anyway): The world will end when he is thirty-six. While Junior searches for meaning in a doomed world, his loved ones tell an all-American family saga of fathers and sons, blinding romance, lost love, and reconciliation-culminating in one final triumph that reconfigures the universe. A tour de force of storytelling, Everything Matters! is a genre-bending potpourri of alternative history, sci-fi, and the great American tale in the tradition of John Irving and Margaret Atwood.

Ron Currie’s gutsy, funny book is instantly gripping: If God takes human form and dies, what would become of life as we know it? Effortlessly combining outlandish humor with big questions about mortality, ethics, and human weakness, Ron Currie, Jr., holds a funhouse mirror to our present-day world. God has inhabited the mortal body of a young Dinka woman in the Sudan. When she is killed in the Darfur desert, he dies along with her, and word of his death soon begins to spread. Faced with the hard proof that there is no supreme being in charge, the world is irrevocably transformed, yet remains oddly recognizable.

Ron Currie, Jr.s first two works of fiction, God Is Dead and Everything Matters!, dazzled readers and critics alike with their audacity, originality, and psychological insight. Hailed by the New York Timess Janet Maslin as a “startlingly talented writer,” Currie once again moves and provokes us with his latest genre-bending novel, one that asks why literal veracity means more to us than deeper truths.

The protagonist of Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles is named Ron Currie, Jr., and as youd expect, hes a lot like the guy who wrote the book. Both of them are writers; both of their fathers are dead; both are deeply in love with women whose beauty and allure are matched only by their elusiveness. When Currie the character travels to a small Caribbean island to begin a new book about the woman he loves, he inadvertently fakes his own death, which turns out to be the best career move hes ever made–until he  learns that the one thing that the world will not forgive is having been told a deeply satisfying lie.

Ron Currie, Jr.s first two works of fiction, God Is Dead and Everything Matters!, dazzled readers and critics alike with their audacity, originality, and psychological insight. Hailed by the New York Timess Janet Maslin as a “startlingly talented writer,” Currie once again moves and provokes us with his latest genre-bending novel, one that asks why literal veracity means more to us than deeper truths.

The protagonist of Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles is named Ron Currie, Jr., and as youd expect, hes a lot like the guy who wrote the book. Both of them are writers; both of their fathers are dead; both are deeply in love with women whose beauty and allure are matched only by their elusiveness. When Currie the character travels to a small Caribbean island to begin a new book about the woman he loves, he inadvertently fakes his own death, which turns out to be the best career move hes ever made–until he  learns that the one thing that the world will not forgive is having been told a deeply satisfying lie.