Synopses & Reviews
My power, if you can call it that, and I dont think you can, is that I am able to take about two gallons of water from the moisture in the air and shoot it in a stream or a gentle mist.”Moisture Man
Moisture Man, the hero of Third Class Superhero,” is tired of watching his former classmates kick ass and claim their secret hideouts while he struggles to maintain his good guy accreditation. Someday soon hell have to decide whose side hes really on, and how far hes willing to push the panels of his story line. Meanwhile, in My Last Days as Me” the actor playing Me on the hit show Family loses his composure when the new woman playing My Mother insists on abandoning the script. In Problems for Self-Study,” A and B fall in love but cant solve for the variable having a baby introduces. And a couple living in the Luxury Car Commercial subdivision in 401(k)” realize too late that their exotic vacation is a Life Insurance/Asset Management pitch.
In these and other stories, Charles Yus characters run up against the conventions and parameters of their genres while tackling the terrifying aspects of existence: mothers, jobs, spouses, the need to express feelings. Heartbreaking, hilarious, smart, and surprising, Third Class Superhero marks the arrival of an impressive new talent.
"Wonderfully wry work. A terrific debut. Its a delight to read someone who realizes that life in the world is not as simple as it is often made to seem."Frederick Barthelme, author of Bob the Gambler
Charles Yus work has been published in the Harvard Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, the Mississippi Review, Mid-American Review, and elsewhere. He is the recipient of the Sherwood Anderson Fiction Award. This is his first book. He lives in Los Angeles.
Review
"These stories read like entries in a private journal, with clever metaphors and philosophical introspection related through absurd situations that capture the vagueness in our lives." Library Journal
Review
"Rich with humor, invention, and humanity...Yu emerges as a first-class talent. (Grade: A)" Entertainment Weekly
Synopsis
Charles Yu experiments with form and genre to explore the stories we tell ourselves while navigating contemporary life. In Third Class Superhero, a would-be good guy must come to terms with the darkness in his heart. A couple living in the Luxury Car Commercial subdivision in "401(k)" are disappointed when their exotic vacation turns into a Life Insurance/Asset Management pitch. The author struggles to write the definitive biography of his mother in "Autobiographical Raw Material Unsuitable for the Mining of Fiction." In these and other stories, Yu's characters run up against the conventions and parameters of their artificial story lines while tackling the terrifying aspects of existence: mothers, jobs, spouses, the need to express feelings. Heartbreaking, hilarious, smart, and surprising, Third Class Superhero marks the arrival of an impressive new talent.
About the Author
Charles Yu's work has been published in the Harvard Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, the Mississippi Review , Mid-American Review, and elsewhere. He is the recipient of the Sherwood Anderson Fiction Award. This is his first book. He lives in Los Angeles.
Table of Contents
( Contents
Story 1 ( Third Class Superhero
Story 2 ( 401(k)
Story 3 ( The Man Who Became Himself
Story 4 ( Problems for Self-Study
Story 5 ( My Last Days As Me
Story 6 ( Two-Player Infinitely Iterated
-Simultaneous Semi-Cooperative
Game with Spite and Reputation
Story 7 ( Realism
Story 8 ( Florence
Story 9 ( Man of Quiet Desperation Goes on Short Vacation
Story 10 ( 32.05864991%
Story 11 ( Autobiographical Raw Material Unsuitable for the Mining of Fiction
Acknowledgments