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Comedians (Contemporary American Fiction) [Paperback]

John L'Heureux (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)


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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

L'Heureux explores faith and redemption in a secular age. "His Flannery O'Connor-like moral tales expose the perverse secrets hidden in our hearts and capture the irreversible moments in which lives are forever changed," said PW. Penguin's paperback edition of L'Heureux's short story collection Desires is also slated for January.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In one of the brief lives that make up this collection, an aging choreographer obsessed with the memory of her abusive parents resists "the dark temptation to explore her own soul" in her final work, a period piece celebrating Lizzie Borden's ax murders. In another story, the envious director of a writers' workshop unaccountably forgets the titles of Iris Murdoch's books when introducing her to the class as "the most truly wicked" and exciting writer alive. In fact, L'Heureux himself is a moralist very much in the Murdoch tradition. Trendy topics--everything from the Argentinian "disappeared" to the boom in stand-up comedy--are dragged onstage like unwieldy props in a costume drama. The writing is elegant and assured, the witticisms deft and pithy, but the profundity is pretty much an illusion.
- Edward B. St. John, Loyola Law Sch. Lib., Los Angeles
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (January 1, 1992)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 014016765X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0140167658
  • Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5 x 0.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,491,639 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4.0 out of 5 stars Suffering and Redemption, May 11, 2009
This review is from: Comedians (Contemporary American Fiction) (Paperback)
This is a very interesting collection of short stories by John L'Heureux. I believe that the crux of this book can be summed up in his statement as follows:

"And to that history, which he cannot alter, he brings his own mystical belief: that from all this suffering there must eventually come some kind of redemption".

Suffering and redemption play a large thematic role in this collection. Of note, are the following stories:

1) Comedian: A Stand-up comic becomes pregnant with a baby who sings but will be born dumb. This is a poignantly beautiful story.

2) The Expert on God: A priest doubts the existence of love and God. Yet, through faith, he tries to conjure love.

3) A Gift: What makes a real person - his true goodness or his meanness of spirit.

4) Father: An artist disappears into his painting. Again, the question arises, what is real?

5) Rejoice and Be Glad: A woman dying of uterine cancer tries to make a deal with herself. Her hope is to assign more meaning to the ending of her life.

6) The Terrible Mirror: A Novella: An artist and his wife live lives neither balanced nor synchronous, yet intertwined.
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