Third Class Superhero [Paperback]

Charles Yu (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 5, 2006

Charles Yu experiments with form and genre to explore the stories we tell ourselves while navigating contemporary life. In "Third Class Superhero," a would- be good guy must come to terms with the darkness in his heart. A couple living in the Luxury Car Commercial subdivision in "401(k)" are disappointed when their exotic vacation turns into a Life Insurance/Asset Management pitch. The author struggles to write the definitive biography of his mother in "Autobiographical Raw Material Unsuitable for the Mining of Fiction." In these and other stories, Yu’s characters run up against the conventions and parameters of their artificial story lines while tackling the terrifying aspects of existence: mothers, jobs, spouses, the need to express feelings.

 

Heartbreaking, hilarious, smart, and surprising, Third Class Superhero marks the arrival of an impressive new talent.

(20070609)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Issues of identity and insecurity simmer throughout Yu's debut collection, an imaginative excursion into the burrow Kafka built. In "My Last Days as Me," the unnamed star of the hit TV show Me and My Mother chafes at the recasting of his onscreen mother and eradicates the line between actor and character. The unnamed man in "Man of Quiet Desperation Goes on Short Vacation" evaluates his existential condition as frequently as a time-obsessed man checks his watch. And in the title story, "Moisture Man" strives to improve his position in the superhero hierarchy, which means constant self-appraisal and comparison to his more successful counterparts ("fireball shooters. A few are ice makers. Half a dozen telepath/empaths"). Yu flirts with formal experimentation—"Problems for Self-Study" unfolds as a complicated multiple choice test, for example—but tempers his fantastical constructions with level prose. (The first two paragraphs of "The Man Who Became Himself" are "He was turning into something unspeakable" and "At the office, people avoided the issue.") There is abundant humor, though, and Yu allows the reader to feel pathos without patronization; a neat trick, in a compulsively readable collection. (Sept.)
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Review

PRAISE FOR CHARLES YU
 
"'Class Three Superhero' transcends what might have been a merely clever premise to speak to us about ambition, envy and the moral dilemmas that our own worst natures force on us. I admire it very much."--Jean Thompson, National Book Award Finalist

"Ambitious . . . funny and inventive."

(DailyCandy.com )

"Rich with humor, invention, and humanity . . . Yu emerges as a first-class talent. A."

(Entertainment Weekly )

"Audacious . . . Smart, engaging and often deadpan funny."

(Kirkus Reviews (starred review) )

"Reminds one of Kafka, if Kafka had had a geekish passion for science fiction and TV . . . hilarious."

(Los Angeles magazine )

"[Yu] show[s] that the short story is not only alive but being reinvigorated in excitingly diverse ways."

(Frank Egerton The Times (UK) )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books; 1 edition (September 5, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156030810
• ISBN-13: 978-0156030816
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #681,195 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Secret identity of a Third Class Superhero, May 27, 2008

By 

K. Collins (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Third Class Superhero (Paperback)

Based on the marketing and a short reading I heard, I picked this up expecting to follow the fate of a hapless superhero. I wasn't disappointed, and Moisture Man reminded me of what comics promised me as a kid. Further into the book, I was surprised to find that the rest of the stories dissected mundane characters with mathematical precision. It was as though I bought a Superman comic and found myself immersed in Clark Kent's relationship with his mother, Lois Lane, and his job. In this, Yu approaches the level of George Saunders at his best.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 1 Excellent Story + 10 Clinical Ones, February 28, 2007

By 

A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Third Class Superhero (Paperback)

I'll fully admit that I picked up this book based on the nifty pop art cover, and then after flipping through it and seeing somewhat unusual typography and story structure, I took it home. The title story leads things off and is a very engaging Jonathan Lethem-style tale about "Moisture Man." He's a cut-rate superhero whose power is, as he puts it, very handy in a water-balloon fight, but that's about all. Already past his prime, to "make it", Moisture Man has to be able to fly, and there's only one way for him to do that: the dark side. It's an amusing framework for examining the compromises we all have to make in our daily lives, and easily the most enjoyable story in the book.

The other ten stories are rather precise, almost cold exercises in the craft of short story writing. While some take on imaginative frameworks, such as "Problems for Self-Study", which unfurls as a quasi-math/logic test, or the series of rules in "Two-Player Infinitely Iterated Simultaneous Semi-Cooperative Game with Spite and Reputation", they don't deviate from the central theme of identity and the quest for a meaningful existence that runs throughout the stories. In one story a couple tries to derive meaning and identity via packaged consumer goods and services, in another a man's identity literally splits in two, in another, an actor becomes overly immersed in his role, and so forth. In many of the stories, the characters aren't even given names, just "man" or "woman" or "A" or "B"... Another running theme is the idea of connection (in the E.M. Forester sense), in that many of the characters want to connect with others (family, lovers, friends), but are unable to move themselves to action. Personally, these failed to strike any kind of chord, and the navel-gazing aspect grew somewhat repetitive. Still, fans of the short form should check this out, as Yu's approach is certainly different from most of what's out there.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious and thought-provoking., January 25, 2007

By 

Iao (Jersey City, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Third Class Superhero (Paperback)

Charles Yu's short stories are reminiscent of Donald Barthelme, but he has his own sensibility. I have read these stories over and over, at least three times each, and each time I enjoy them again. "Florence" is unforgettable. People I know who've read the book seem to be divided into two camps; one thinks the title story is the best, the other thinks it's the worst. I happen to be in the first camp. I think the title story is not only hilarious, but a little sad and all too human.