Invitations to a Bridge Burning [Paperback]

David Maizenberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 23, 2000

The people in David Maizenberg's startling short stories are at once self-aware and delusional; visionary and myopic; perfectly formed and utterly raw. They're as real as they are fantastic. They're just like you and me.

Product Details

• Paperback: 137 pages
• Publisher: Agony Press (June 23, 2000)
• ISBN-10: 0970214200
• ISBN-13: 978-0970214201
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,715,065 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Invitation to read great fiction, January 27, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Invitations to a Bridge Burning (Paperback)

David Maizenberg's book is much more than a fine collection of short stories -- it's an unintentional treatise on what is wrong with the corporate book-publishing world. For every nonlinear leap and unpredictable twist of thought in these pages, there's a moment of genuine revelation. I don't want to call it spiritual, though it is. I don't want to call it redemptive, though I feel redeemed. I only want you to give this book a chance to change your life. Because it can do so, it is art in the truest sense. Don't say you weren't warned.

If you're looking for a familiar landmark to compare this book to, try George Saunders. Although Maizenberg's targets are more real and immediate than Saunders's, this author possesses a similar wit and dazzling capacity for self-revelation through seemingly mundane details. This book will haunt you.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dirty realism to surrealism in 137 pages flat, October 6, 2000

By 

Mark Ching (Sherman Oaks, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Invitations to a Bridge Burning (Paperback)

A kneejerk reaction would be to compare "Invitations to a Bridge Burning" to "Generation X." Maizenburg's tone echoes the simple profoundness of Douglas Coupland's watershed novel, and like Coupland, firmly entrenches his characters in times and places familiar to young oh-so-hip college-educated readers -- coffee shops in SoHo, IPO parties in Palo Alto, flirtations in Rome. There are no universal sentiments here. With only a few exceptions, the prose is sleek and evocative, sometimes dancing with verse. This is a book for those looking for love and the Big Score in the 2000s.

But read the last two stories, and suddenly you are thrust deep within a character's spirit, where dreams are not empty but virile, and for better or worse take control. This collection yanks you on a bullet-train from dirty realism to surrealism in 137 pages flat. "Invitations to a Bridge Burning" will appeal to everyone who might feel his or her life is not quite settled -- not because Maizenburg reflects our yearning for more with a pandering wink and nod, but because he realizes our dreams exist to serve us, not vice versa. By the last page, you feel wrong has been made right.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Live Wire, July 31, 2000

By 

Gerry Callaghan (Richmond, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Invitations to a Bridge Burning (Paperback)

This is a very exciting collection, electric and original, the author never reaching and straining with his dynamic language; the text moves smoothly, mellifluously; it breathes, intelligently alive, often hilarious, and it is filled with keen, pretty lines and scenes, deft touches, sensitive feels, so much more refreshing than the majority of short fiction published today: MFA fast food, tiny mass produced crackers (salt-less) in shiny cellophane packages; but not this author, who is consistently bold, expressive, and vital. I burned through this collection and I can't wait to read any new collections, stories, or novels.