Customer Reviews

Hard Feelings

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Don--

I did a search for you on Google and was directed to your university's
website, which contained your e-mail address.

Here comes the gush: When I was 11, I found a book called Muldoon on the
shelf of the Lawson-McGhee Library in Knoxville, TN. I loved it and was led
by it to your first book, Hard Feelings. To say that I merely loved the
story of Bernie Hergruter would be an understatement. It's like that scene in
Annie Hall, where Alvie tries to explain to Annie that he doesn't just love her,
he "lurves" her, he "loaves" her; there's no word to describe it.

Hard Feelings became my favorite book from that first reading, and I've read
it at least once a year since then. I'm 30, so that means I've read the
novel around 20 times. Every time I read it, I find something new, and I've never
read a book in which the characters are so alive. Yeah, nearly six years of
grad school in English taught me that verisimilitude does not equal a good
work of literature, but screw 'em.

From Bernie's thoughts about the belt buckle embedded in the road, to his
musing on the reality of experiencing "my time of day," to the descriptions
of fumbling sex with Barbara that made my 13-year-old imagination go out of
control, to the tenderness with which you treat Bernie's relationship to
Winona, to Bernie's emergence as a sports hero . . .What can I say? I just
love the book. I could go on and on.

It also inspired me as a writer. For instance, when I lived in Las Vegas and
began freelancing for local papers, I couldn't use my real name because the
English department at UNLV would have canned my [...] for having a job outside
of just making the equivalent of four bucks an hour teaching freshman comp
classes. I chose the byline "Lee Bridgman," after Bernie's best friend.

More importantly, you helped me learn that a work of literature can be
amusing and about "real" people and "ordinary" events and yet still be a
great work of art. Your book is at least one of the reasons I became an
English major in the first place.

I'd like to say more, but I don't want this e-mail to run on forever, nor do
I want to come off like a total nut. The bottom line is that, although you
don't know me and I don't know you, you have had an immensely widespread
effect on my life. I have my copy of Hard Feelings beside me right now, and
it's like one of my oldest and very best friends. Thank you for writing it.

[name withheld]