A student'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 American 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 Pieces for the Left Hand, these are the things that decide our fate. Wry and deadpan, powerful and philosophical, these addictive little fables reveal the everyday world as a strange and eerle place.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
J. Robert Lennon was born in 1970 and lives in New York State. He is the author of Mailman, The Light of Falling Stars, The Funnies and On the Night Plain, all available from Granta Books.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Inspired!,
By Lou Beach (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Pieces for the Left Hand (Paperback)
Having read all of Lennon's novels I knew I would enjoy this collection. However, I wasn't prepared for the uniqueness of the ride....small tales of big issues, small issues, no issues at all but there is something about them that rings true. A great book to read aloud in bed with your favorite human.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Unique and engrossing,
By
This review is from: Pieces for the Left Hand (Paperback)
This is a collection of 100 well-written, super-short (2-3 pages) stories told from the point of view of a single narrator. Although the narrator himself is only a character in some of the stories, we get a good feel for his quirky observations about the world around him. Many of the stories are hearsay, starting off "A friend of ours knows someone..." or "There is a man who lives in town who..." They're the sort of weird human interest stories you might find in the back of a small town newspaper, though much more engaging and insightful. Each has a moral, or ironic twist, or mystery--something that's thought-provoking and makes you want to pass on, as if it's a true story you heard. And the whole collection holds together very well, creating a sort of rhythm that carries you through and leaves you wishing there were 100 more.
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Eight Pieces for the Left Hand,
By Jack Finn "storybored" (Atascadero, CA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Pieces for the Left Hand (Paperback)
I read eight of these gems in The Best American Short Stories of 2005. They are brilliant and at times hilarious vignettes, incisive snapshots of human nature. I can't wait to read the remaining 92!
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