Customer Reviews

Paradise Dance

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Michael Lee all have in common? They all appear somewhere in Michael Lee's Paradise Dance. OK, OK, it's a stretch, but the facts are still darn impressive.
Carrol-(winner of National Book Award) wrote the foward to this book.
Dubus III and Mailer-Recommended the book on the book sleeve. So who is Michael Lee?

Michael is a talented author from Cape Cod, Massachusetts. His hard hitting and often humorous stories take place in the fictitious working class town of Albright, MA. One thing you should know is that people like the Clevers, the Andersons, the Bradys, the Wilsons, and the Partridge's don't appear in this collection. Certainly if they lived in Albright, you won't meet them in this excellant collection. The folks you meet in Albright are the regular, unhappy souls, he would find in any normal American working class town. You will find out their stories, their strange behaviors, their interesting hobbies (Adult XXX,mini-golf anyone?), and their deep dark wishes. The stories are well written, short, bittersweet and punchy. You get to know the people from Albright individually in each story, and then Lee will take you to the next scene, the next story. Using the town as the common thread works wonderfully here and in my humble opinion, Micheal Lee will be a man on the literary move, a force to be reckoned with.

Michael Lee captures the heart's hidden emotions of our day to days most ordinary and mundane interludes. Each and every person
who reads this book will look with new insight into their lives and those closest to them. This collection of short stories is a must read.

Mike Lee's ability to turn a phrase is akin to the joy that newly washed windows bring: sudden clarity to unexpected views.

People come first in Lee's world, and he introduces some beauts and some beauties. From Frankie and Bobby in Oklahoma to "Nola" Bowden, all of his characters express their innermost thoughts whether we're ready or not.

Lee is able to describe feelings many of us have shared in language that is crisp and direct, but applied in circumstances that few, if any, could claim to share. Neither the plight of budding entrepeneurs in the XXX sports market, nor the happiness of an immobile street performer in Paris tickled a neuron of identification with me, but the desperate need to succeed or simply to be the first in one's family to be happy are so fundamental that each of us is able is pick off a piece of such longing to consume and reflect on.

"Paradise Dance" is an eclectic package of disparate characters brought to the edge by a handful of emotions. Where the hell is Albright , Massachusetts anyway?

The stories in this collection by Michael Lee come at you with a humor and humanity that to this reader's mind and heart tell the story of American manhood today. These are stories about guys with heart trying hard to preserve their good humor and what dignity a world that could mostly care less allows them. There are no literary posturings here, just literature at its quiet, touching, funny, enjoyable best. This would be a great gift for just about any man between the ages of 25 and 70 -- and for any woman who wants a glimpse of how we tick! The only bad thing about this book is that it ends. More, Mr Lee, more!

"PARADISE DANCE" IS A GREAT READ!

LAUGHED, CRIED AND WAS DEFINITELY MOVED.

LEE'S GRASP OF HIS CHARACTERS AND THE CHALLENGES THEY ENCOUNTER
EXHIBITS AN ADEPT UNDERSTANDING OF THE QUIET NOBILITY THAT RESIDES
IN THE HUMAN CONDITION.

THE BEST COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES I'VE READ THIS SEASON.

LEE HAS THE GOODS!