American Salvage by Bonnie Jo Campbell
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(Paperback)
- Pub. Date: April 2009
- 184pp
- Sales Rank: 11,588
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Product Details
- Pub. Date: April 2009
- Publisher: Wayne State University Press
- Format: Paperback, 184pp
- Sales Rank: 11,588
- Series: Made in Michigan Writers Series
- ISBN-13: 9780814334126
- ISBN: 0814334121
- Edition Number: 2
Synopsis
"These short stories approach their subjects from an array of perspectives, but what they share is freshness, surprise, and a compulsion to plumb some absolute extremes of American existence."-National Book Award citation
Booklist - Donna Seaman
*Starred Review* The houses are ramshackle, the trucks hard-used, the weather extreme. The men, clad in shabby camouflage, are battered and scarred. They labor at dangerous, soul-killing jobs; hunt; drink too much; and stand by their loved ones no matter how flat-out crazy they are (or they think about killing them). Ditto for the women. Money is tight; the old ways and the precious wildlife are disappearing; loneliness is a plague; and the meth-cookers keep burning down the house. Welcome to rural Michigan, Campbell’s home ground, and a story collection of rare impact. These fine-tuned stories are shaped by stealthy wit, stunning turns of events, and breathtaking insights. Terrible injuries, accidental and otherwise, leave people and animals in misery, but they are salvaged, maybe even healed. Against all odds, salvation counterbalances loss and despair in unexpected ways in this small place of big feelings, where everyone is yoked together for better and worse, and where, as one persistent survivor observes, “what looked like junk to most people could be worth real money.” Campbell’s busted-broke, damaged, and discarded people are rich in longing, valor, forgiveness, and love, and readers themselves will feel salvaged and transformed by this gutsy book’s fierce compassion.
More Reviews and RecommendationsBiography
Bonnie Jo Campbell is the author of a collection of stories, Women & Other Animals, and a novel, Q Road. She is the winner of a Pushcart Prize, the AWP Award for Short Fiction, and Southern Review's 2008 Eudora Welty Prize for "The Inventor, 1972," which is included in this collection. Her work has appeared in Southern Review, Kenyon Review, and Ontario Review. She lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where she studies kobudo, the art of Okinawan weapons, and hangs out with her two donkeys, Jack and Don Quixote.
Customer Reviews
stories about people you might knowby CMJones62
Reader Rating:
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July 11, 2009: A collection of short stories that end abruptly, leaving you wanting more, while at the same time sparking your imagination as to what happens next. Excellent character development and scene descriptive text. Especially if you live in the Midwest, it's easy to visualize the stories as you read them, easy to picture your own family, friends and acquaintances in these same situations.
I Also Recommend: Q Road, Women and Other Animals.
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Bonnie Jo Campbell is the author of a collection of stories, Women & Other Animals, and a novel, Q Road. She is the winner of a Pushcart Prize, the AWP Award for Short Fiction, and Southern Review's 2008 Eudora Welty Prize for 'the Inventor, 1972," which is included in this collection. Her work has appeared in Southern Review, Kenyon Review, and Ontario Review. She lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where she studies kobudo, the art of Okinawan weapons, and hangs out with her two donkeys, Jack and Don Quixote.