Brief Encounters with Che Guevara: Stories by Ben Fountain Reviewed by Jill Owens
Powells.com
"Although his book of short stories had been sitting in one of many stacks on my desk for months, I first encountered Ben Fountain's writing in a piece in the New York Times Magazine. Eloquent, moving, and even a little funny, Fountain described the way he felt about returning to his hometown in the South for a funeral, after he'd moved halfway across the country. Both his prose and subject matter struck a strong chord, and his book rose to the top of its pile. In Brief Encounters with Che Guevara, only one story takes place wholly in the South ? on the contrary, the settings for these pieces stretch around the world and back ? but an uncanny and futile nostalgia affects all of them, a desire for home, physically and ethically, that never quite existed, but is passionately missed." Read the entire Powells.com review.