Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events: Stories [Paperback]

Kevin Moffett (Author)

Book Description

Release date: March 20, 2012

A dazzling new story collection from brilliant, young, award-winning writer Kevin Moffett, Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events illuminates the intimate experiences of characters caught between aspiration and achievement, uncertainty and illumination, inertia and discovery, the past and the future. Channeling unexpected, eclectic voices in a collection perfectly suited to readers of Daniyal Mueenuddin, Alice Sebold, and Dave Eggers, Moffett delivers a nuanced, powerful, humorous, and moving meditation on the trials of transitions and liminal living in today’s modern world. Richard Russo says, “the first thing you notice reading the stories in Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events is the author’s extraordinary range—of expertise, technique, imagination and wit. There doesn’t seem to be much Kevin Moffett can’t do.”

Editorial Reviews

Review

“The first thing you notice reading the stories in Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events is the author’s extraordinary range--of expertise, technique, imagination and wit. There doesn’t seem to be much Kevin Moffett can’t do.” (Richard Russo )

“Kevin Moffett’s stories are stealth heartbreakers, as well as wonders of sly detail and perfect tone. He’s writing some of the best short fiction around.” (Sam Lipsyte )

“These stories are as enormously funny as they are enormously sad. Moffett deals in wisdom, humor, and sympathy with extraordinary fluency; the results are always as unsettling as they are reassuring. And this seems to me about as close as you can come to writing the truth about life.” (Chris Adrian )

“Humor is too often heartless, sheer cleverness lacking content. Kevin Moffett is a member of that delightful minority that takes up the ordinary to reveal the extraordinary. These stories are funny, insightful, and reveal, but never strive for, true depth.” (Alice Sebold )

“Moffett’s work is melancholy and funny at the same time. . . . Language soars in unexpected directions. . . . This collection will leave readers grateful to have encountered characters who are as odd as they are, as sad as they may be, and as stupidly hopeful.” (Publishers Weekly (starred review) )

“Marvelous stories.” (Vanity Fair )

“One of the most delightful collections in recent memory. . . . It’s rare to see as bright a star as Moffett on the literary scene. With this lovely collection, he is one to watch.” (The Rumpus )

From the Back Cover

Propelled by a multitude of idiosyncratic voices, the stories in Kevin Moffett's Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events are tragic in their conception and comic in their execution. Moffett casts light on characters in transitional states, stalled and puzzled. In "In the Pines," a Civil War reenactor visits an elderly woman recently relocated to a retirement home. In "Border to Border," an immigrant working at an amusement park faces a disconcerting choice when he loses one of his dental crowns. In "First Marriage," a honeymooning couple is stalled in Arizona by the stink of dead animal in their rental car. Even as they bumble and disappoint their way through these stories, these characters elicit from us a sympathy—even a self-identification—that is something much stronger than pity. The result is an unsettling and unforgettable collection. Written with penetrating insight into our motivations and fears, Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events is a wise, funny, and haunting book that signals the emergence of a trailblazing talent.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (March 20, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9780062069221
• ISBN-13: 978-0062069221
• ASIN: 0062069225
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #366,973 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kevin Moffett's first collection of stories, Permanent Visitors, won the John Simmons Short Fiction Award, judged by George Saunders, and was long-listed for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and the Believer Book Award. His new collection, Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events was released in March 2012 from Harper Perennial.

He is a frequent contributor to McSweeney's and his stories and essays have appeared in Tin House, the Harvard Review, American Short Fiction, the Chicago Tribune, the Believer, A Public Space, and in three editions of The Best American Short Stories (2006, 2009, and 2010). He has received the Nelson Algren Award, the Pushcart Prize, and a literature fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts.

He won the National Magazine Award in 2010 for "Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events."

He lives in Claremont, California, with his wife and son.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Moffett is amazing October 30, 2011

By S. Kay Murphy VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

I was a fan of Moffett's first collection of short stories, Permanent Visitors. I thought those stories were brilliant in their insight and depiction of the universal human dilemma of trying to find our way in the journey of life. One always wonders, at the outset of reading what amounts to 'the next installment' from a favorite writer, if one will ultimately be satisfied or disappointed. No disappointment here.

Moffett has, as I see it, two essential gifts. The first is his gift for crafting fluid, graceful, honest prose. The second is the gift of seeing people as they are, of seeing through the veil of what we would pretend to be and understanding precisely who we truly are beyond the mask. That he can render up these timeless stories, each one with a wholly different persona, impresses and amazes me every time.

As I have noted in a previous review of Moffett's work, short stories are a difficult genre to do well. For my money, Kevin Moffett is one of the most skillful and talented short story writers out there right now. If you're a fan of the genre, you won't be disappointed by these new offerings.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow, I've Really Been Missing Something! June 21, 2012

By Julie VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

I absolutely enjoyed this book and realized early into it that I've been short-changing myself by passing up short stories! Reading Mr. Moffett's collection felt like I was cruising across the country and randomly dropping in on someone's slice of life. This book is simply good stories. The plot, characters, scenery, etc. are all the right amount of information to paint the picture, the people and the emotion. I became invested in every character and story from the onset, and couldn't put the book down until I knew how it all ended.

I really have a whole new appreciation for short stories; this was such an engaging and enjoyable book! And I have a whole new respect for short story authors such as Mr. Moffett. He has a true gift, even if you only consider the sheer number of characters and stories he created for this book, but especially because it all works together to create a book full of satisfaction and amusement.

If you don't have time to sink into a full-on novel, and need some relaxation and diversion, Mr. Moffett's book will not disappoint!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Strange Little Tales February 24, 2012

By Anne M. Hunter VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

There are nine stories in this 240 page book, and each story has a quite
specific, if hard to describe, tone. While the tones vary from one story to another, they're all in the same mood. The people in these stories are constrained by forces that are hard to perceive, that must be taken as existing, from communicating clearly, from behaving and relating to others as they wish, or from working through terrible grief. Even the amusing ones have a somber, cautious quality. Strange things happen, people behave unaccountably, perhaps unable to control themselves, but life goes on.

The one I'm finding most memorable and humorous is
about a lonely woman who's just moved into assisted living overlooking
a Civil War battlefield, and a civil war re-enactor in uniform
approaches her several times on her patio and stays zanily in
character, and she goes along, accepting the situation as a metaphor
for her life and relationships. It's never acknowledged in the story
until the very end, and then only obliquely, that this is what is going on.

The language rarely calls attention to itself with excessive
cleverness, and it's an extremely easy and fast read. Each story can be read
very carefully in half an hour or less, and the whole book therefore could be
read in one sitting, if one could take that much of that tone. I love the
tiny worlds of short stories and the brief commitment one has to make. I can't
say that these are brilliant or powerful, but they're interesting and worth reading.