God Lives in St. Petersburg: Short Stories [Paperback]

Tom Bissell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 3, 2006

Young Americans abroad in Central Asia find themselves pushed to their limits in these acclaimed, prize-winning stories by one of our most exciting and talented new authors. Combining bleak humor, ironic insight, deep compassion, and unflinching moral and ethical inquiry, Tom Bissell gives us a gripping collection that is both timeless and profoundly relevant to today’s complex world.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Mercilessly, masterfully nails its target. . . . Astonishing. . . . A discipline of craft and sensitivity to place that do for Central Asia what Paul Bowles did for North Africa.”
–The Chicago Tribune

“[Bissell's] wit and dry-eyed compassion are on ample display, along with a precocious capacity for invention that would put most golden codgers to shame. . . . These stories are one more proof of a stunning and prodigious talent.” –Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Terrific. . . . Scabrously funny. . . . Dazzling. . . . 'A'.” –Entertainment Weekly

“Bissell has a keen awareness of human loneliness — what O’Connor defined as the mark of great short story writers. . . . [He] reveals himself to be not only a subtle craftsman but also a mordant observer of a new generation lost in a complex and dangerous world.”
–The New York Times Book Review

“Gobsmackingly great . . . Bissell traverses the landscape of modern war, and he does it with the tough bluntness and literary assurance of a young Hemingway.” –Outside

“Razor-sharp, blackly comic. . . . Bissell always avoids easy cynicism, dotting each bleak plot twist with big-hearted detail and pitch-perfect humor. This is fiction full of friction . . . [and] it's a thrill to watch the sparks fly.” –Newsweek

About the Author

Tom Bissell is the author of Chasing the Sea (available in paperback from Vintage Books) and contributes to Harper’s Magazine, The Believer, and other publications. He lives in New York.


From the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (January 3, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400075424
• ISBN-13: 978-1400075423
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.5 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #945,161 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great stories about a place most Americans won't get to, May 4, 2006

By 

William J. Feuer "awjfire" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: God Lives in St. Petersburg: Short Stories (Paperback)

These are smart, humorous, readable, and compassionate stories that insert you easily into their characters and their characters' foreign experiences. We're lucky to have a writer as talented as Bissell to give us a window into the ex-Soviet republics of Central Asia, of which most Americans will know little except for their connection to Afghanistan. I was disappointed to read that Bissell's next book will be about Vietnam.

Death Defier, Expensive Trips, The Ambassador's Son, and Animals are all terrific in very different ways. The prize winning title story, God Lives in St Petersburg, was a little too bleak for me.

I agree with the Amazon reviewer who felt that "Aral", maybe didn't work completely as fiction. The story aims for the point where one character tells us they had wished to communicate to Americans the tragedy of the Aral - much as Bissell might like to bring this same message to his American readers. Unfortunately I fear the character is correct and `showing the Americans' will not matter. I know from my daughter's experience in Turkmenistan (where she was a Peace Corps Volunteer - a Do-Gooder in the language of "The Ambassador's Son") that of the many problems these struggling countries face (some of which if you're interested are: corrupt governments, rampant bribery, disease, lack of education/sanitation/good health-care, unemployment, ethnic tensions), water is among the biggest.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't believe the hype: this book is bad, December 28, 2007

By 

Asian (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: God Lives in St. Petersburg: Short Stories (Paperback)

After having lived in some of the cities that Bissell writes about for more than a year both my wife and I were highly disappointed in this book. It was so bad, in our opinion, that we chose to throw it away rather than keep it in our library or pass it on to a friend. I have to say this was the first time I have ever done that.

We felt that the stories were overly sensationalist using language that was trying to show how smart the author thought he was. After having thoroughly enjoyed his earlier book "Chasing the Sea" (which I would give 5 stars) this book was a huge disappointment.

After hearing one review saying that Bissell was "destined to do for Central Asia what Paul Bowles did for North Africa", I couldn't disagree more. I think it begins with the fact that Bowles had decades of experience living in North Africa while Bissell was in Central Asia for less than a year.

Don't believe the hype. Ignore this book. If you want something better by the author, read "Chasing the Sea". It is worth your time.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rare Feat Combines Short Stories with Political Expose, January 19, 2006

By 

M. JEFFREY MCMAHON "herculodge" (Torrance, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: God Lives in St. Petersburg: Short Stories (Paperback)

Bissell, who is very young (born in 1974)to be writing short stories with this kind of wisdom, worked as a Peace Corps volunteer near the Aral Sea and has used his experiences in South Central Asia and Eastern Europe, delving into the lives of journalists haunted by demons, searchers, spoiled rich brats, do-gooders, criminals, sociopaths, and a litany of misfits to produce a rare feat of fiction--literary short stories that have the feel of expose. He takes you into the heart of modern day Afghanistan, for example, in his story "Death Defier," where an American journalist, haunted by family demons, appears to be a courageous photographer of truth on one hand and a man with a death wish on the other. In "Aral," his story that more than the others ventures into exposition and polemic, a nihilistic KGB officer lectures an American biologist UN worker about the "fat souls" of Americans who, for all their platitudes, know nothing of real suffering before subjecting the woman to a little trial of her own. In "The Ambassador's Son" a rogue narrates his licentious exploits and the manner in which he corrupts a Christian missionary.

Amazingly, these stories can be peeled layer upon layer for their psychological depth while at the same time they percolate with the buzz of the chaos that we read about in the daily newspapers and blogs. A great achievement.