Next to Nothing Stories edition by Keith Banner Literature Fiction eBooks
Download As PDF : Next to Nothing Stories edition by Keith Banner Literature Fiction eBooks 
O. Henry Prize-winning author Keith Banner’s new collection of short fiction recounts the troubled lives of ne’er-do-wells and outsiders. The banality of life, whether it be trapped in front of the television or popping pills for E.D., is exposed and mocked with aplomb. Few writers capture the quintessence of awkward domesticity and growing up queer like Banner.
Next to Nothing Stories edition by Keith Banner Literature Fiction eBooks
In NEXT TO NOTHING, his second short story collection, Keith Banner presents a series of heart-wrenching, yet at times almost slapstick, tales of the barely working class in depressed Midwestern suburbs. His conversational style features shorthand descriptive techniques including pop culture references and incongruous combinations of smells to evoke an entire milieu: “ancient mop water and total exhaustion, burnt meat and old walls” … “puke and dropped booze and cigarette smoke” … “mildew and mouse-s***.” Without undue attention to past events, these traits tell us more than full pages of physical description. The style is perfectly suited to the people who inhabit this fictional world.“Quirky” barely scratches the surface.
It comes as no surprise that Banner’s new book is graced with an epigraph from Flannery O'Connor. After all, his stunning first novel, THE LIFE I LEAD, was widely compared to O’Connor’s work. But when I read the quotation he chose for the opening of NEXT TO NOTHING, I had to ponder: “It is when the freak can be sensed as a figure for our essential displacement that he attains some depth in literature.”
It sounds as though we are always-already displaced with no belonging anywhere, and “the freak” is a mere instrument of displacement. This is the condition Banner’s characters face. Their own freakishness, or that of their loved ones’, is so ingrained in their sense of being that it becomes a matter of moral or genetic determinism. I find no questioning of social mores, no laying of blame at the feet of criminal parents or oppressive belief systems. This world acknowledges neither easy explanations nor extenuating circumstances: the characters may be likeable or not, but their eating disorders, sexual orientation, survival of abuse, or other issues appear to render them permanent misfits. Even a case of cancer can leave a person blighted and pitiful and in his own eyes.
This is not to say that Banner belittles or judges his people. He portrays their intractable problems as they feel from the inside: inherent features of life that keep happening to us regardless of what we do or what we promise to do. Flannery O’Connor might well agree. None of us asked to be born into white trash families or to become raving lunatics, but God loves us no matter how freakish he makes us appear to our fellow human beings. Just don’t expect Him to prove that love in a way we might prefer.
Product details
|
Tags : Next to Nothing: Stories - Kindle edition by Keith Banner. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Next to Nothing: Stories.,ebook,Keith Banner,Next to Nothing: Stories,Lethe Press,FICTION Gay,FICTION Short Stories
People also read other books :
- Perfectly Incorrect Why The Common Core Is Psychologically And Cognitively Unsound eBook Terry Marselle
- Perfectly Incorrect Why The Common Core Is Psychologically And Cognitively Unsound eBook Terry Marselle
- The Search For My Inner "I" Joseph W Macy 9781483679297 Books
- Perfectly Incorrect Why The Common Core Is Psychologically And Cognitively Unsound eBook Terry Marselle
- Perfectly Incorrect Why The Common Core Is Psychologically And Cognitively Unsound eBook Terry Marselle
Next to Nothing Stories edition by Keith Banner Literature Fiction eBooks Reviews
Banner’s mini-cameo portraits of midwestern America are so true and unflinchingly accurate, you can nearly smell the Miracle Whip. His characters are detailed and interesting—smalltown, yes, but complex in a way the mainstream media has yet to characterize them in light of the T---p administration. Politics aside, these are people you may have grown up with, and it’s very nice to visit them again.
A long-awaited second collection of short fiction by the wonderful Keith Banner, with his unmistakable style, unique subject matter, and great depth of understanding.
Really just one of the best writers out there.
Keith Banner is a talented writer whose stories are touching, thoughtful and a little quirky. His characters are not beautiful in the traditional sense—they are ordinary people—the type you meet at the local buffet or discount store—nor they are not movie star slim-- but he shows us their secret dreams, passions and fears. The stories deal with gay themes and Banner's strength as a story teller is in blending that into each story as a matter of fact. I believe this writer is an original voice and having read his short stories and previous books I look forward to even more.
This is the real Heartland, full of the everyday Americans you will find all around you, should you choose to look and see. These are not the trite buffoons of sitcoms, not the artificial, overwrought white trash inhabitants of “reality television.” These are people with whom you interact in a thousand little ways every day. The manager at Ponderosa. The sketchy family who run the video store beside the McDonald’s. That reminds me These stories primarily feel set in the nineteen seventies and eighties, but aren’t. This dichotomy comes about because there are no smart phones in these stories. There barely are any cell phones. No computers. No cable television. Then again, there are still pockets of this nation that cell phones barely reach, where unattended land lines often don’t go to answering services or even have answering machines attached, and where people, when asked if they have an email address, are apt to say, “Nah. I don’t fool around with them computers.” Trust me, I ask that question and get that response often, for work. This is that America, rendered with unflinching realism and care.
I read fiction to learn about myself and I read non-fiction to learn about the world. When my life didn't turn out like I thought it should and I didn't trust my own judgment anymore, I stopped reading fiction for a very long-time, combing so-called real-life accounts for more reliable clues as to what had gone wrong. .
-- You see, I'd assumed there was just one world -- my parent's world -- where people stayed married forever, put on ties, went to work everyday, and ate out on special occasions. They didn't do drugs or cheat on each other, a world that was fair.
When I tried to read Keith Banner's first collection of stories, The Smallest People Alive, I had to put it down because his characters made me so uncomfortable. But by the time i opened the cover of Next to Nothing, I guess I was finally ready. His flawed, sweet world - filled with the kind of people who work at Olive Garden and live in trailer parks, chronically un-hip and unambitious mothers who let other people raise their children, couples so desperate for something they think threesomes are normal - all of them, they all turned out to be me. Turns out they are all of us on the days when we are too tired to care what anybody thinks anymore and Keith Banner still loves us anyway.
In NEXT TO NOTHING, his second short story collection, Keith Banner presents a series of heart-wrenching, yet at times almost slapstick, tales of the barely working class in depressed Midwestern suburbs. His conversational style features shorthand descriptive techniques including pop culture references and incongruous combinations of smells to evoke an entire milieu “ancient mop water and total exhaustion, burnt meat and old walls” … “puke and dropped booze and cigarette smoke” … “mildew and mouse-s***.” Without undue attention to past events, these traits tell us more than full pages of physical description. The style is perfectly suited to the people who inhabit this fictional world.
“Quirky” barely scratches the surface.
It comes as no surprise that Banner’s new book is graced with an epigraph from Flannery O'Connor. After all, his stunning first novel, THE LIFE I LEAD, was widely compared to O’Connor’s work. But when I read the quotation he chose for the opening of NEXT TO NOTHING, I had to ponder “It is when the freak can be sensed as a figure for our essential displacement that he attains some depth in literature.”
It sounds as though we are always-already displaced with no belonging anywhere, and “the freak” is a mere instrument of displacement. This is the condition Banner’s characters face. Their own freakishness, or that of their loved ones’, is so ingrained in their sense of being that it becomes a matter of moral or genetic determinism. I find no questioning of social mores, no laying of blame at the feet of criminal parents or oppressive belief systems. This world acknowledges neither easy explanations nor extenuating circumstances the characters may be likeable or not, but their eating disorders, sexual orientation, survival of abuse, or other issues appear to render them permanent misfits. Even a case of cancer can leave a person blighted and pitiful and in his own eyes.
This is not to say that Banner belittles or judges his people. He portrays their intractable problems as they feel from the inside inherent features of life that keep happening to us regardless of what we do or what we promise to do. Flannery O’Connor might well agree. None of us asked to be born into white trash families or to become raving lunatics, but God loves us no matter how freakish he makes us appear to our fellow human beings. Just don’t expect Him to prove that love in a way we might prefer.
0 Response to "[Z0N]⇒ Descargar Gratis Next to Nothing Stories edition by Keith Banner Literature Fiction eBooks"
Post a Comment