Dogfight: And Other Stories [Paperback]

Michael Muhammad Knight (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1998

In this extraordinary collection, Michael Knight delivers ten tales of ordinary people whose attempts at human connection often result in false starts, misunderstandings, or heavy silence.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

These 10 distinctive and intensely affecting stories confirm Knight as a writer of significant gifts. In short narratives that invariably entice the reader with an arresting opening sentence, he establishes a solid sense of place, using the local color of his native Alabama, and transforms ordinary people into nearly mythic figures. The first story, "Now You See Her," sets the stage, constructing a conflict of nearly Oedipal proportions. A veterinarian widower and his teenage son, Xavier, who calls himself X, spy on Grace, their next-door neighbor, who "it would appear... renounced clothing altogether"; the surprising climax occurs when her dog suddenly takes ill. In many of Knight's offerings, animals act as agents of change: in the title story, a dogfight is the catalyst for an adulterous affair and results in a parallel clash between the dogs' owners. "Gerald's Monkey" uses a man's desire for a pet monkey to examine the emotional aftermath of Vietnam. Knight demonstrates agility with a diversity of viewpoints: he is equally at ease with first-person narration or third, an adult perspective or an adolescent's, as in a stunner called "A Bad Man, So Pretty" (taken from a Muhammad Ali quote) that works up to a Cain and Abel-style confrontation. Knight's characters are both recognizable and transcendent, suddenly drawn into trespassing the ordinary limits of their lives to enter the realm of allegory.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Dogfight, Knight's evocative first collection of short stories, is filled with sensitive 1990s men, slightly sad and confused, especially concerning the opposite sex. Fortunately, his characters don't wear their big hearts on their sleeves; if anything, they confront life's difficulties bemused, sometimes resigned, but still full of wonder. In "Sundays," a young teacher looking for domesticity can't find it, even in a neighborhood of single and sympathetic mothers. The sadness of a man returning to his old circle of friends after his divorce is revealed in "Poker." Not all the guys are saints: in "The Man Who Went Out for Cigarettes," a husband reflects on a future without his recently disabled wife, and in "A Bad Man, So Pretty," the focus turns to a helplessly angry and violent young man. Yet the author is skillful enough not to let these flaws dominate his characterizations, and even the lonely voyeur of "Now You See Her" comes off more sweet than pathetic. Compared with these stories, however, Knight's first novel, Divining Rod, is a disappointment. It's a tale of adultery, plain and simple, complete with a young wife, her much older husband, and a young neighbor who is destined to cuckold him. There's still some introspection here, but as a whole the writing is not terribly original, as if the author were trying to mainstream his work for the masses hungering for romance and tragedy. Knight can do better?and he will. The stories are recommended; the novel is not.
-?Marc A. Kloszewski, Indiana Free Lib., PA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Plume; First Edition edition (October 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452278945
• ISBN-13: 978-0452278943
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,573,663 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good stuff, January 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Dogfight: And Other Stories (Paperback)

Knight's work to date seems to me like a gentile version of "Goodbye Columbus." He has Roth's eye for the lusty details that make the blood go to the skin. I recommend this book especially to young readers and writers like myself who are interested in the way that middle class experience can be made into meaningful fiction. In response to one of the critics above, I think "Birdland" (NewYorker) is the best of all Knight's stories, with the exception, perhaps, of "Bad man, So Pretty." If you want to see someone get a lot better at fiction writing with time, read "Birdland" after Dog Fight. Hope to see more from Knight soon. Am very jealous of his talent.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars SOME OF THESE STORIES REALLY STAND OUT, December 4, 2002

By 

Larry L. Looney (Austin, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dogfight: And Other Stories (Paperback)

I picked up this book after reading `Killing Stonewall Jackson', the author's contribution to the outstanding collection STORIES FROM THE BLUE MOON CAFÉ. I enjoyed what I found here, but not as much as that story - which is not to say for a moment that Knight is not a talented writer.

The works that touched me the most in this slim volume were `Gerald's monkey' (a terrific coming-of-age piece in which a privileged young man experiences the shock of empathizing with some of the workers at his uncle's shipyard); `A bad man, so pretty' (another coming-of-age tale in which a young man watches his brother throw away any chances of making it in life); `The man who went out for cigarettes' (a look at a man toiling over an excruciating, life-changing decision); `Sundays' (one of the most painfully evocative depictions of loneliness I've read); and `Tenant' (in which a college professor comes to know his landlady after her death, through her German shepherd.

Knight's characterizations are well drawn and compelling - the people in these stories never come across as false or contrived. I didn't find myself drawn into the action or premise of every single story - the ones mentioned above managed to do that, exerting quite a strong pull on me. `Killing Stonewall Jackson' is, I think, a newer work, with more of a surreal quality to it than anything here - I'll definitely be inclined to check out anything I find by Knight in the future.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing...Wonderful...etc, July 25, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Dogfight: And Other Stories (Paperback)

There's something about Michael Knight's writing that keeps me turning each and every page. I loved every story in this book. If any other author had written these stories, they would most likely only be mediocre, but Michael Knight can take these stories and make them real. He's an extraordinary writer, a wonderful teacher, and a great person.