Unsung Heroes of American Industry [Hardcover]

Mark Jude Poirier (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 20, 2002

Worm farms, pearl-button making, chicken processing, pornography, and beauty pageantry. These quirky cottage industries hold the potential to make fortunes, though its more likely that theyll lead to bankruptcy and shattered dreams. And here, Mark Jude Poirier introduces the mists and visionaries who embody the aspirationsand frequently the lunacyof the North American entrepreneur.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Poirier (Goats) takes his readers for a walk on the wild side of working life in this collection, a brief but wide-ranging affair consisting of five stories about some bizarre cottage industries. "Buttons" starts things off with the odd but noteworthy history of the notorious Badde family (the "Royal Family of Pearl Button Making") as they move from the button industry to a series of successful but off-the-wall ventures in egg farming and marketing. Farming is also a major theme in "Worms," which describes the mismatched but entertaining marriage between a worm farmer and a profile reporter that ends in tragedy. "Gators" concerns a beautiful backwoods Louisiana girl who escapes poverty to make a name for herself in fashion by designing colorful alligator shoes. "Pageantry" moves deftly into the world of appearances as Poirier uses a sharp protagonist to outline the cutthroat competition in low-level beauty pageants as contestants try to work their way up the ladder, while "A Note on the Type" relates both a quirky young man's obsession with a deli worker and his family's success developing typefaces. Like David Sedaris, Poirier is a sharp, funny writer who has plenty to say about the lurid, tabloid side of modern American life, and while most of his characters are rather limited he never lets his curious story lines drift into excess or affectation. Readers who like to explore the stranger aspects of human behavior will find plenty of material here. Author tour.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Poirier, author of the well-regarded collection of stories Naked Pueblo (1999) and a wonderful debut novel Goats (2000), now shares his latest gathering of fascinating, macabre stories. Here are fictional accounts of folks from middle America that are imbued with an entrepreneurial spirit that the American dream (and often heartbreak) is made of. He tells of a button empire on the banks of the Mississippi River that turns into a chicken-processing empire in Arizona, with grandparental favoritism and sibling rivalry serving as its downfall. A worm farmer in Texas who loves a journalist from the North has his life shattered before his eyes over and over again. A teenage girl suffers through the tortures and tedium of the beauty pageant circuit for the benefit of her once beautiful, now-deformed mother. The daughter of a rural Louisiana alligator skinner sees her future in the shoe business in Manhattan. Poirier is gifted with telling tales well; these, which are not for the faint of heart, are often fantastic and bizarre, but strangely, they ring with the truth of reality. Michael Spinella
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Miramax (March 20, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786868279
• ISBN-13: 978-0786868278
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,946,242 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Singing Praise for a Hero of American Fiction, April 9, 2002

By 

J. Tan (Cincinnati, OH) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Unsung Heroes of American Industry (Hardcover)

After a successful turn with the novel Goats, Mark Jude Poirier returns to the short story format with brilliant results. The short story requires a certain discipline to develop characters while advancing a specific plot, and Mark is equal to the task. He allows nuance and inference to fill in a history for his characters that make them at once grandiose and everyday, triumphant and vulnerable, sympathetic and pathetic. He takes their foibles and victories and shows us that in this race we call human, Mark is at the finish line recording effort and cheering (or laughing and showing us how to also).

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Will Worm Its Way Into Your Day, October 4, 2002

By 

Lee Armstrong (Winterville, NC United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Unsung Heroes of American Industry (Hardcover)

Poirier's "Unsung Heroes of American Industry" is a quick read, but an exquisite one. "Worms" was my favorite because of how real Billy's character shined through in a matter of a few pages. While the topic of losing a child is one of the most difficult to handle, Mark Jude treats it with care. We see Billy and Dora's relationship disintegrate after Charlotte is lost. Almost equally as wonderful for me was "Gators." Vaughn's unrequited love for the shoe-making Durina seemed like a 21st Century O Henry to me. The care and sacrifice we give without thought when we love someone shines through. Duina's mother Honey is one of the most playful gator-gutting gals you're likely to encounter. "A Note On the Type" was also a very strong story. Aunt Lena, the unsocialized reader of romance novels, is a great character. From the moment Simon finds the wooden dildo in his bedroom, we know we're in for a quirky plot. I didn't totally get his fixation with the meat cutter, but the story seemed a great examination of securing failure with success so near. This is a short book and reads quickly. I had a lot of fun with it! Enjoy!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More great stories from Poirier, April 3, 2002

By 

sean star wars - See all my reviews

This review is from: Unsung Heroes of American Industry (Hardcover)

Naked Pueblo was a great introduction to Poirier's unique take on pop culture/college days and thrift store life..I found Goats to be even funnier and twice as hard to put down. I have read it three times.Now Unsung Heroes comes thru in classic form.This time around the humor is a little more subtle but the stories are much richer than in Naked Pueblo). My wife read me the entire book on my drive from Norfolk to New Orleans, and i cant wait to read it for myself on the drive back...