Bin Laden's Bald Spot
& Other Stories
-
- $13.99
Publisher Description
A collection of humorous short stories from the award-winning author of The Plover and Mink River.
Welcome to the peculiar, headlong world of Brian Doyle's fiction, where the odd is happening all the time, reported upon by characters of every sort and stripe. Swirling voices and skeins of story, laughter and rage, ferocious attention to detail and sweeping nuttiness, tears and chortling—these stories will remind readers of the late giant David Foster Wallace, in their straightforward accounts of anything-but-straightforward events; of modern short story pioneer Raymond Carver, a bit, in their blunt, unadorned dialogue; and of Julia Whitty, a bit, in their willingness to believe what is happening, even if it absolutely shouldn't be.
Funny, piercing, unique, memorable, this is a collection of stories readers will find nearly impossible to forget.
"To read Brian Doyle is to apprehend, all at once, the force that drives Mark Twain, and Walt Whitman, and James Joyce, and Emily Dickinson, and Francis of Assisi, and Jonah under his gourd. Brian Doyle is an extraordinary writer whose tales will endure. The sublime 'Waking the Bishop' is going to inhabit American anthologies forever and ever." —Cynthia Ozick, New York Times–bestselling author of Heir to the Glimmering World
"What I like about Brian Doyle's writing is that it's real—it's got mud and blood and tears but it's also got earthly angels who teach him to grasp on to each small epiphany as it opens before him." —Martin Flanagan, author of The Call and The Art of Pollination
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The title of Doyle's third collection of (often very) short stories reflects his humorous approach to topics such as terrorism, religion, and infidelity. Conveying more sentiment and humor in a few paragraphs than many writers do over several pages, Doyle (Mink River) introduces a slew of memorable characters, including a man who purports to be the official barber of al Qaida in the title story (clearly written before bin Laden's assassination in May 2011). In "King of the Losers," the 16-year-old narrator kidnaps his 4-year-old niece and 1-year-old nephew to rescue them from social workers. In "AAA Plus," a broken-down car leads Doyle's narrator to expound on the merits of expanded coverage offered by the American Automobile Association, while "The Man Who Wanted to Live in the Library" needs no explanation. With deft versatility, he counters those pieces with gut-wrenching war stories, a diatribe against pedophilia in the Catholic Church, and a moving take on teen pregnancy. Doyle skillfully plays with words and phrasing, stringing intricate narratives through paragraph-long sentences and, in one lengthy piece, even uses the ampersand as a plot device.
