Success: Stories [Paperback]

David A. Taylor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 2008

Fiction. SUCCESS: STORIES is the 2008 winner of the Washington Writers' Publishing House fiction prize. These stories probe the lives of people caught in an increasingly intertwined world, close to home and abroad. Exploring a human calculus of love, betrayal, and fantasy, this moving collection makes those dramas vivid. "Gritty dialogue, lean prose, layered plotting, and an eye for the perfect detail make these stories a satisfying and engaging read"--Susan Muaddi Darraj. "A book of fine stories"--Richard Bausch.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in locales as disparate as Bangkok, a Maryland racetrack, and a Moroccan village, these 14 lively tales by journalist Taylor (Ginseng) uncover gentle irony in the commonly held notion of a successful life. A son keen on pleasing his mother shows better skills at picking a winning horse than his ailing father in "Pelagro." A young student studying in Scotland in "May Day" rudely learns that because of his timidity (or is it honor?) he has lost the girl of his dreams to his more assertive best friend, while in "Counterfeit," Alexa and Howard's vacation-of-a-lifetime in Nepal turns disastrous when Alexa gets sick and Howard realizes he would rather not go back to life as a safety officer for a nuclear power plant. "Saigon Haircut" proves a hilarious story about a laid-off flower-shop worker who finds that a different haircut motivates him in strange ways. Taylor's characters valiantly make a go of it, yet discover that effort often isn't good enough.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"In 14 brilliant short stories, Taylor unpeels the lives and loves of ordinary people to reveal nuggets of extraordinary truths...Deceptively spare and absolutely unforgettable." --Dame magazine

"Straightforward prose that performs plenty of emotional and foreshadowing work, tight, convincing dialogue, and an eye for apt metaphors... As strong as anything in the Raymond Carver playbook..." --Washington City Paper

"These 14 lively tales...uncover gentle irony in the commonly held notion of a successful life." --Publishers Weekly

"Superbly-crafted tales...that explore the most vital crises of existence, when human emotions--desire and isolation, suspicion and jealousy--boil over... blooms in complexity every time the reader revisits it." --storySouth

"Success Stories is an imaginative collection, diverse and satisfying... The writing throughout is excellent, with convincing details...and dialogue that is crisp, real and direct." --PeaceCorpsWriters

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 210 pages
• Publisher: Washington Writers' Publishing House; 1st edition (October 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0931846900
• ISBN-13: 978-0931846908
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,645,205 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

After high school, I took a summer job at a military base nearby, running computer programs that I didn't understand, using sonar to map tunnels half a world away where North Korea was digging under the Demilitarized Zone to South Korea. Some days I went along to test sonar recorders. Out in a field, I'd twist a detonator (not the push-down motion you see in old Dudley Doright cartoons) and set off explosive charges of C4. It was wild, so years later I gave the job to a character in a short story. That experience showed me that the world was full of stories and unlikely connections, from Asia to American suburbia. I'm drawn to stories, both fact and fiction, that capture that strange quality of life.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars David Taylor has a gift..., February 20, 2009

By 

Stuart A. Lichtman (Santa Barbara, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Success: Stories (Paperback)

I'm a writer of how-to non-fiction (eBooks) and a slightly jealous admirer of those who elegantly describe their real and imagined experiences. David Taylor is a writer who does so.

Each of the little gems in this book harply illuminated the lives of people I've never met. Yet now I feel I know them.

I believe that's David Taylor's gift: vividly and swiftly recreating in the reader's experience his own experience, precisely sharing his world with the reader.

I'm eagerly looking forward to reading his new book, "Soul of a People: The WPA Writers' Project Uncovers Depression America" that I suspect will give a highly relevant reference point for evaluating the times we are now passing through.

I enthusiastically recommend Taylor's work and suggest that you read some of his articles in Smithsonian and a fascinating one in Forbes describing an American entrepreneur who is one of the top Ginseng distributors in China. Unlikely? Well, Taylor seems to have a knack for finding and sharing with us these unlikely but interesting stories.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Realistic, feel good short stories, September 2, 2008

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Success: Stories (Paperback)

The little victories in life are what matters. "Success: Stories" is an anthology of short stories from prolific author and documentary maker David A. Taylor. The individual tales focus on the every day lives of people and are written in a particularly vivid and well-crafted style that makes the reader legitimately care for his characters and what happens to them. Emotionally involving that makes you triumph with the protagonists, "Success: Stories" is highly recommended to anyone looking for some realistic, feel good short stories.