Synopses & Reviews
A hapless private investigator who loses his hearing after having one ear bitten off, a maverick weights-and-measures man who gets pulled into a sinister blackmailing scheme by a seductive Japanese woman, a college kid so desperate to avoid an office job that he tries to break into boxing and organized crime: the characters in Gates of Eden grapple with their place in the world, trying to comprehend what fate has placed before them. With these stories -- sometimes heart-felt, sometimes brutal, always wildly entertaining -- Ethan Coen delivers everything you would expect from such an original imagination.
Review
"Some wacky extremes pervade Mr. Coen's 14 stories, just as they do the films he makes with his brother, Joel....In Gates of Eden, Mr. Coen has sounded the jagged dissonance of the American experience....he tallies up the costs of a journey that has yet to achieve the promised land." Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times
Review
"The discriminating viewer who enjoyed [Coen's] distinctive and quirky films will like the equally unconventional Gates of Eden, Coen's first collection of stories. It is a crisp and chatty book populated with dirty souls confined to their own tailor-made hells." Jay A. Fernandez, The Washington Post
Synopsis
From the brilliantly funny and darkly surreal pastiche, to wry explorations of angst-ridden adolescence, the stories in "Gates Of Eden" feature characters grappling with their place in the world, trying to comprehend what fate has placed before them. With these stories -- sometimes heartfelt, sometimes brutal, always wildly entertaining -- Ethan Coen delivers everything you would expect from such an original imagination.
About the Author
Ethan Coen and his brother, Joel Coen, are multiple Oscar-winning American filmmakers who have written and directed a number of acclaimed motion pictures, including Raising Arizona, Blood Simple, Fargo, and the 2007 Best Picture Academy Award winner, No Country for Old Men.