Synopses & Reviews
People are different at night. More desperate, violent, or sad. Sometimes
hunting for adventure, sex, drugs. Cruising around, throwing their bodies
recklessly into...anything. The stories in
The Insomniac Reader: Stories of
the Night examine the dark side (literally and figuratively) of the
evening time. From prostitution and adultery to emergency rooms and
suicide. This anthology features some of the best writers in the country
shining their flashlights into a world that begins around the time when
most people are asleep.
Includes:
Jonathan Ames * Everybody Dies in Memphis
Todd Pruzan * No Fear
Rick Moody * Automatic
Richard Rushfield * Stalker's Paradise
Elizabeth Ellen * Listen
Davy Rothbart * The Lady with the Mannequin Arm
Jonathan Lethem * Call Waiting
T Cooper * Basic Rules for Handling Your Shotgun
Monica Drake * Gymkhana
Aimee Bender * Night Trilogy
Jeff Johnson * Pre-Supper Clubbing
James Tate * Suite 1306
Lucy Thomas * It's Not Black; It's Always Darker Than That
Thorn Kief Hillsbery * What We Do is Secret
Heidi Julavits * The MacMillan Hair
Michelle Tea * Fourteenth Street
Dan Kennedy * Tonight the Muse Is In a Popular Suburban Steakhouse Franchise
Stacey Richter * A Case Study of Emergency Room Procedure and Risk Management by Hospital Staff Members in the Urban Facility
Marshall Moore * The Right Way to Eat a Bagel
Synopsis
People behave differently at night: feelings of desperation, violence, melancholy surface; nocturnal hunts for adventure, sex, drugs transpire; prowling through shadows, throwing corporeal flesh recklessly at...anything.
The Insomniac Reader examines the dark side (literally and figuratively) of evening, from prostitution and adultery to emergency rooms and suicide. "So I was thrust into that twilight realm, that modern undeath," writes Jonathan Lethem about being put on hold in "Call Waiting," a deceptively simple story about two guys whose late night phone calls are interrupted by a mysterious young woman. In "Everybody Dies in Memphis," critically acclaimed author Jonathan Ames experiences the twisted underbelly of both the city and professional boxing as he covers the media-hyped Tyson-Lewis heavyweight bout for
New York Press.
This entertaining anthology features some of the best-known contemporary American authors shining their literary flashlights into a world that emerges when most people are falling asleep.
Synopsis
Explore the dark side—literally and figuratively—of evening time with short fiction by Jonathan Ames, Todd Pruzan, Rick Moody, Richard Rushfield, Elizabeth Ellen, Davy Rothbart, Jonathan Lethem, T. Cooper, Monica Drake, Aimee Bender, Jeff Johnson, James Tate, Thorn Kief Hillsbery, Heidi Julavits, Michelle Tea, Dan Kennedy, Stacey Richter, Marshall Moore, and Dave Eggers (writing under the pen name “Lucy Thomas”).
About the Author
Kevin Sampsell is the publisher of the influential Portland, Oregon,
micro-press, Future Tense Books, which he started in 1990. His own fiction
has appeared in journals such as Bridge, 3rd Bed, Little Engines, and Cimmaron Review, as well as on web sites like McSweeney's, Pindeldyboz, Identity Theory, Web Del Sol, and others. He also performs in the group Haiku Inferno, writes book reviews for several publications, and works as an events coordinator for Powell's Books. His newest book of stories is Beautiful Blemish (Word Riot Press, 2005).