A Different Kind of Tension
New and Selected Stories
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- USD 15.99
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- USD 15.99
Publisher Description
A definitive collection of new and selected stories by a master of the form
“Comparisons might be drawn to writers ranging from Jorge Luis Borges and Haruki Murakami to Margaret Atwood and J. D. Salinger. All of Lethem’s stories are enlivened by his wit and provocative wordplay.” —Chicago Tribune
This dazzling, genre-defying collection from Jonathan Lethem features seven major stories published since his last collection, along with his best work spanning more than three decades. A major new story, “The Red Sun School of Thoughts,” never published before, follows a teenage boy coming to terms with figures of authority and power—those in both his biological family and in the family he creates for himself.
Elsewhere we meet “Super Goat Man,” a down-at-heels bohemian superhero; “The Porn Critic,” whose accidental expertise wrecks his own romantic aspirations; and “Sleepy People,” who pose interpersonal conundrums without ever rousing from their slumber. Fluidly moving between realism and the surreal, the absurd and the mundane, A Different Kind of Tension is a container bursting with life and death, couples in trouble, talking animals, and technologies on the fritz. Through it all are people longing to be seen and to connect; to thrive, love, and be forgiven. “This is the joy of reading Jonathan Lethem: you never know what you’re going to get.” (Financial Times)
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lethem (Brooklyn Crime Novel) offers a revelatory career-spanning collection of 30 fantastical and speculative stories, all but 11 of which have appeared in previous volumes. Among the often-melancholy characters are "Sleepy People" protagonist Judith Map, who finds a sleepwalking man on her doorstep and takes him into her apartment. She has sex with him while he sleeps, and afterward seeks answers about his provenance from a militia who hangs out at a nearby bar. Other characters endure alienation, such as those in "Program's Progress" who aspire to upward mobility in a weird world where cars are the highest order of being; or disembodiment, like the party guests in "Forever, Said the Duck" who arrive as virtual reality simulations of themselves. In the standout "Red Sun School of Thoughts," a 13-year-old boy visits a commune in 1976 San Francisco, and his desire for answers from the Founder leads to a strange and disenchanting encounter. The imagery is often suggestive, hovering in a genre-defying space between literal and metaphorical, as with the predatory teen gang members referred to as dinosaurs in "Sleepy People." In large doses, the effect can be exhausting, but the repeating motifs—claustrophobia, desire, malevolent chaos—provide keys to understanding Lethem's often elliptical tales. The author's fans will find much to love.
