Pieces for the Left Hand: Stories [Paperback]

J. Robert Lennon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 31, 2009

Finally available in the United States, a singular story collection that Time Out declared “unsettlingly brilliant”

 

Astudent’s suicide note is not what it seems. A high school football rivalry turns absurd—and deadly. A much-loved cat seems to have been a different animal all along. A pair of identical twins aren’t identical at all—or even related. A man finds his own yellowed birth announcement inside a bureau bought at auction. Set in a small upstate New York town, told in a conversational style, Pieces for the Left Hand is a stream of a hundred anecdotes, none much longer than a page. At once funny, bizarre, familiar, and disturbing, these deceptively straightforward tales nevertheless shock and amaze through uncanny coincidence, tragic misunderstanding, strange occurrence, or sudden insight. Unposted letters, unexpected visitors, false memories—in J. Robert Lennon’s vision of America, these are the things that decide our fate. Wry and deadpan, powerful and philosophical, these addictive little tales reveal the everyday world as a strange and eerie place.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Pieces for the Left Hand consists of 100 very short stories . . . in which not a word is wasted, and not one of which could be cut. Despite its self-deprecating title, the collection is anything but offhand: it is a rigorous display of storytelling verve, quantity and control . . . It is his most perfect work so far.” —WYATT MASON, London Review of Books

About the Author

J. Robert Lennon is the author of five novels, including Mailman and The Light of Falling Stars. His stories have appeared in The Paris Review, Granta, Harper’s, Playboy, and The New Yorker. He lives in Ithaca, New York, with his wife and two sons.

Product Details

• Paperback: 212 pages
• Publisher: Graywolf Press; Original edition (March 31, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555975232
• ISBN-13: 978-1555975234
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #671,431 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 100 Anecdotes, October 9, 2009

By 

Zachary Cole (Rockland, ME) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pieces for the Left Hand: Stories (Paperback)

This is a great, funny collection of 100 very short stories--but as the subtitle suggests, they're more like anecdotes. The stories vary in tone and style-- a small-town sports animosity leads to violence, a lonely man accidentally shares his depression with q co-worker, and a lucid dreamer suffers a crisis of faith. The stories are are all roughly less than three pages, and some of them will say with me longer than many novels I've read--especially haunting, surreal tales such as "Heirloom" and "Twins."

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid stories, each very short, February 13, 2011

By 

John J. Regan (Bellevue, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pieces for the Left Hand: Stories (Paperback)

I enjoyed this book of stories and read it much faster than novels of the same page length. Stories range between one and four pages and most of the 100 tales are about a page and a half. If these are all true accounts, the author lives in a very interesting place but many of the comeuppances of the characters seem to undo them just a little bit too neatly that it strains my "suspension of disbelief" membrane and I as a the reader imagine some creative license was employed. Whether they are all true, partially true, and all made-up stories does not really matter to me.

The writing is crisp and interesting and the author practices economy of statement. Like one of the other reviewers said, the stories stay with you. My favorite was The Folder, about a phantom laundry folder who folds the laundry of strangers and visualizes the person returning to the perfect stack of clothes. I have been "the folder" and other characters he paints beautifully on his well-hewn upstate New York canvass.

I am going to check out some of his other work. Lennon is a good writer.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars brilliant and highly entertaining, January 21, 2011

By 

E. Delune (baltimore, md USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pieces for the Left Hand: Stories (Paperback)

brilliant and highly entertaining. beautifully crafted short pieces, loosely unified in theme. absolutely great stuff. i am a jaded reader, exhausted by the steady stream of tripe i come across. pieces for the left hand is a breath of fresh air, a beautiful collection of thought and substance. more, please.