Caution, men in trees / stories by Darrell Spencer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Spencer, Darrell, 1947-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

West (U.S.)--Social life and customs--Fiction.

West (U.S.).

Genre:

Fiction.

Physical Description:

193 pages ; 21 cm

Place of Publication:

Athens : University of Georgia Press, [2000]

Summary:

The nine stories of Caution Men in Trees capture the pressure, need, and frequent helplessness of people confronted with intractable reality. As suggested by the collection's epigraph, from Superman -- "Did you say kryptonite?" -- the characters in these stories have reached a point where they realize that parts of their lives are coming undone and that their own thoughts and actions -- or, frequently, the failure to act soon enough -- are the cause. Though settings and situations vary, the same sense of overwhelming urgency recurs throughout the collection. The stories reflect a world distressed by conflict and settings fraught with the occurrences of personal violence.

Against the background of the O. J. Simpson trial, a man refuses to assist in a friend's suicide and realizes that he has been avoiding many unpleasant truths about himself and his life. A son faced with his father's debilitating stroke sees that he must ultimately confront the mortality and the feelings of grief that he has been concealing. In the title story, the film Bugsy and talk about the disappointing reality of pop-culture heroes set the seine for a husband's frightening confrontation with his own shortcomings. The shock of stark revelation combines with tightly wound chains of suggestive events to create a collection of gripping, edgy stories about individuals who, however battered, survive.

Contents:

Park host

Blood work

There's too much news

The 12-inch dog

Caution: men in trees

Late-night TV

Please to forgive sloppiness

It's a lot scarier if you take Jesus out

Pronto bucks.

Notes:

"Winner of the Flannery O'Connor award for short fiction."--P. preceding t.p.

ISBN:

0820321826

OCLC:

41488889