Contents
Motherhurt -- Gladys Knows -- The Flood -- Congressman Spoonbender -- The Earthling! -- The Prodigal Corpse -- Observer Status -- Jesus -- The Main Event -- The Last of the Plaids -- "Yes!" Wins -- Mouthfeel
Document Type
Book
Publication Date
1997
Series
Iowa Short Fiction Award
Judge
Ann Beattie
Award Date
1997
Publisher
University of Iowa Press
Place
Iowa City
Total Pages
136
ISBN
9780877456100
Abstract
Jim Henry's stories defy convention. There are no easy answers, no quick fixes. Although the plots vary—from a corpse returning to visit his family weeks after his burial, to the musings of a congressman grappling with the weight of history, to a wealthy family's elaborate plot to cheer their mysteriously wounded mother—all express a sense of the extraordinary in the ordinary, the absurd in the everyday.
Henry's characters are for the most part misfits, outsiders looking in on a world whose seemingly natural order is turned upside down. In a throw-away culture obsessed with sex and drugs, money and God, they struggle to connect with what is real while trying to convince themselves that anything is. And yet in the midst of their existential searching there remains always Henry's quirky sense of humor. As one character says, “Anything is possible,” and in this collection anything and everything happens.
Purchase the Print Book
Book available for purchase at University of Iowa Press.
Rights
Copyright © 2000 by Jim Henry. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, without permission in writing from the publisher.
URL
http://ir.uiowa.edu/uipress_isfa/43