Synopses & Reviews
Vada Prickett is a 29-year-old Hose Associate at a car wash in South Carolina, and Darla, the woman he loves, is about to marry his friend, rival, and life-long neighbor, Wyatt Yancey. Vada has “spent his life waiting for the thing to get a proper start.” But it will never get that start, for Vada, as this wildly original novel opens, is being crushed to death by Wyatts latest animal trophy, a stuffed grizzly bear Vada has been helping him to smuggle—against Darlas wishes—into Wyatts house.
It turns out that the cliché is true—at the moment of death, your life does flash before your eyes. Trophy, the account of a mans final, fleeting instant on earth, joins Vada as he attempts to make that flash last as long as possible. As he lies dying, too soon and too absurdly, Vada tries to unravel the mysteries of his life. He first bargains with God, then rages against the dying of the light. Exhausted, Vada proceeds to prolong, in every way available to a man in his dire circumstances, the time he has remaining.
Just beneath Griffiths dark humor and witty take on our present-day culture lies a meditation on memory and identity and the power of language over both.
Review
“A rare thing: brilliant, moving, hilarious, one of the smartest, funniest books Ive read in ages, as well as one of the most complicated.” —Elizabeth Mccracken
Review
Trophy is a brilliant novel; I cant think of another book like it, another book that loves its characters so much that it cant allow them to die, even when one (Vada, the novels beautifully written sad sack car washing “hose associate”) has been crushed by a stuffed bear. Trophy is powered by Vadas desperate attempts to stay alive, and you cant blame him: you wouldnt want to die, either, if you were part of this wickedly funny, allusive, word happy, tender novel. think of this book as the best kind of life support; while i was reading it, the world seemed likeamuch more brilliant place, a place worth living in, a place i didnt want to leave. you wont want to leave it, either.
— Brock Clarke, author of Exley and AnArsonists Guide to Writers Homes in New England
Synopsis
Vada Prickett is a 29-year-old Hose Associate at a car wash in South Carolina, and Darla, the woman he loves, is about to marry his friend, rival, and life-long neighbor, Wyatt Yancey. Vada has “spent his life waiting for the thing to get a proper start.” But it will never get that start, for Vada, as this wildly original novel opens, is being crushed to death by Wyatts latest animal trophy, a stuffed grizzly bear Vada has been helping him to smuggle—against Darlas wishes—into Wyatts house. It turns out that the cliché is true—at the moment of death, your life does flash before your eyes.
About the Author
Michael Griffith is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Cincinnati. He is the author of Spikes: A Novel (2001) and Bibliophilia: A Novella and Stories (2003).