Wildly imaginative tales of America’s past and present. Understanding that history is nothing but a fable purged of grit and grime, Ruland transforms historical fiction into something slick, brutal and weird. Whether he’s spinning a lurid yarn about the previous adventures of Popeye, imagining Dick Tracy as a San Fernando Valley police detective, or retelling the story of Little Red Riding Hood in Nazi Germany, Ruland’s tales are full of crime and punishment. He isn’t afraid to set a teenage mob story in St. Petersburg, Florida, or tell the story of an unlucky pair of pants in the style of a catechism--and every line resonates with the truth of lessons learned the hard way.
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About the Author
Jim Ruland is a U.S. Navy veteran whose love of history began in the ship's library where he was restricted after too much fun on shore. His adventures in ports of call around the world fostered in him a desire to seek out back alleys and underground places--both in life and on the page. He works as a creative supervisor at an LA ad agency and is a part-time instructor of English at Santa Monica College.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
clever & witty, yet stunning & soulful,
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This review is from: Big Lonesome (Paperback)
Ruland knows how to tell a story, that's obvious from the first few pages of this gripping collection of shorts. There's a cleverness in his conceits here, the way he reimagines cartoon and fairy tale characters into new and sometimes seemingly outlandish situations. But he's talented enough to never falter. Beneath the slick veneer there's a troubled, wildly beating heart. It's an often lonely, bruised or despondent heart, and it's that juxtaposition that makes this collection so riveting and striking and moves it well beyond clever pulp and thrusts it into literary originality. He doesn't shy away from unsavory characters -- sometimes they creep up on you, and sometimes they hit you full in the face -- but one of his greatest feats is how manages to twist and change our initial impressions. Whether it's through a re-imagined modern-day Dick Tracy, a pair of (nonexistent)lucky pants, or a hitman named Big Elbow Macaroni, Ruland keeps you turning the pages and keeps you tangled up in the characters. An excellent debut.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
What Makes Us Human,
By
This review is from: Big Lonesome (Paperback)
There are no disappointments in this collection; each story offers something different while displaying a mastery of language and an empathetic understanding of what makes us human. Jim Ruland is a remarkable writer who has produced a debut collection that cannot be ignored. He's not afraid to challenge our assumptions, and in doing so we get to look at the world from a slightly off-kilter angle. [The full review first appeared in The Quarterly Conversation.]
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
witty and wild literary fiction,
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This review is from: Big Lonesome (Paperback)
Jim Ruland arises from L.A. like a new John Fante for the post-McSweeney's generation. The diverse stories here are whip-smart, weird, and Imaginative with a capital I. One bad-ass debut collection, Big Lonesome will be beating up and taking the lunch money of lesser collections for years to come. Ruland's genre-twisting genius returns us to the days when reading short stories was fun---Remember? In a book full of innovative characters and circumstances, one highlight is the brilliant title story, a Pynchon-meets-Old-West tale like none you've read before, where even a robot Indian can find love and a mad scientist can try his hand at bounty hunting. I don't know about lonesome, but this collection is big fun.
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