Paradise Road (Pitt Drue Heinz Lit Prize) [Hardcover]

Kirk Nesset (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 28, 2007 | Series: Pitt Drue Heinz Lit Prize

Winner of the 2007 Drue Heinz Literature Prize

The stories in Kirk Nesset's Paradise Road vividly examine the various pitfalls, both physical and emotional, we encounter and suffer trying to find lasting meaning in love.  Stark and unsentimental, they feature the chiaroscuro of particular worlds and particular lives, infused with the yearning and muted desperation that comes after passion has bent us,  burned us, and cast us aside.  “Nothing comes and goes without a trace,” muses the narrator of “The Prince of Perch Fishing,” the collection's opening tale.  “In this world there are consequences for everything.”  Such stories speak to the fleeting yet monumental moments of our lives, which catch us off guard, unveiling and unsettling us, each leaving its indelible mark.  The stories also offer paths, paved or unpaved, leading out of the ashes, out of the wilds of upheaval and betrayal and pain.  Story by story, Paradise Road guides us deeply into ourselves--into new kinds of awareness, if not transformation.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"What's most impressive about Nesset's fiction is his ability to explore how we don't know ourselves, or our intentions, not before we've done something, however heroic or awful, not even afterwards, and how it wouldn't make a difference even if we did."
--Barn Owl Review

“The figures and voices that appear in Paradise Road are like ghosts from an ancient land that move toward their destinies with hope and defiance. Mr. Nesset conducts their journeys with a sure hand while making fiction of striking originality and beauty. Paradise Road may go through geography unfamiliar to some of us, but the route, once taken, is unforgettable.”
--Hilary Masters

"Nessett displays his mastery of the short story form in twelve rich and well-developed stories. On the surface his stories appear to be simple tales about ordinary people, but the worlds he opens to us have several levels."
--Rain Taxi

About the Author

Kirk Nesset is associate professor of English and creative writing at Allegheny College in Meadville, PA. He is the author of Mr. Agreeable and the nonfiction study The Stories of Raymond Carver. He is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and numerous grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. His stories, poems, and translations have appeared in the Paris Review, Ploughshares, the Southern Review, and the Kenyon Review, among others.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 152 pages
• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press; 1 edition (September 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0822943158
• ISBN-13: 978-0822943150
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,567,808 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kirk Nesset is author of MR. AGREEABLE and PARADISE ROAD (fiction), ALPHABET OF THE WORLD (translations), THE STORIES OF RAYMOND CARVER (nonfiction), and SAINT X (poems, Lewis Clark Press, forthcoming. He was awarded the Drue Heinz literature prize in 2007 and has received a Pushcart Prize and grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. His stories, poems, translations and essays have appeared in The Paris Review, Ploughshares, The Kenyon Review, The Southern Review, American Poetry Review, Gettysburg Review, Iowa Review, Agni, The Sun, Fiction and Prairie Schooner, among others. His short short stories have been widely anthologized. most recently in Norton's anthologies Flash Fiction Forward, New Sudden Fiction and Sudden Fiction Latino. He teaches creative writing and literature at Allegheny College.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kirk Nesset's fiction cuts unnervingly to the bone, enchantingly, doggedly, chillingly, and honestly..., September 21, 2007

By 

Domenic L. Ionta Jr. - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Paradise Road (Pitt Drue Heinz Lit Prize) (Hardcover)

Passages like "nothing comes and goes without a trace," and "But what hurts is knowing you do it, and knowing you know, and knowing you haven't learned," poignantly and yet, cogently cajole us to reckon with life's intangible beauties, travesties, and uncertainties. They exigently whisper in our ear-urging us to divest ourselves of the trivial, temporal, transient nonsense with which we concern ourselves, and over which we lose sleep and sweat and blood and tears everyday-to focus on what matters, learn from our mistakes, and never give up hope. "Paradise Road" is a place everyone should journey through, truly, at least once, to really taste what it means to live, and know who you really ought to be...