Overview
āHere is a generous portion of the work of a swiftly passing lifetime. Bountiful is the deserving page,ā Joy Williams writes in her introduction to this astonishing selection of Brad Watsonās published and unpublished stories: āexcellent, assured, funny, startling, heartbreaking, wild,ā full of āfreakish flairā and āmelancholy realismāāstories that give us a āglimpseā of ourselves āso surprising, so varied yet unequivocal, so ruthlessly complete, that it does awaken us in some manner, if not protect or prepare us.ā
Brad Watson was a master of dark comedy, extraordinary lyricism, appalling grotesquerie, and unabashed vulnerability; a sublime prose stylist whose novels and stories drew upon the fecundity and moodiness of the South. Male meltdown, carrying with it the possibility of being saved by Dolly Parton or some other woman or maybe by animal friends, is a theme, as is young love and its disillusionment, as are strange neighbors who cannot be understood. A leopard that consumes its zookeeper, pronghorn antelope tenderly transporting the poop of their young, insufferably articulate birds and restless, tolerant dogsāthis is also eco-fiction of a very peculiar sort, in which nature reassures, transcends, and finally escapes judging or being judged by us.
Roller-coastering from the mournful to the comical (sometimes in the same paragraph), Watsonās work is both embedded in a literary heritage tied to place and at home in a universal literature of the absurd. His stories waltz with lovely and strange melancholy, infused with wit and astonishing beauty. There Is Happiness embodies the twisted hilarity and undeniable grace of an underrecognized literary genius.
This book title, There Is Happiness (New and Selected Stories), ISBN: 9781324076421, by Brad Watson, Joy Williams, published by W. W. Norton & Company (July 16, 2024) is available in hardcover. Our minimum order quantity is 25 copies. All standard bulk book orders ship FREE in the continental USA and delivered in 4-10 business days.
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