Customer Reviews

Unsung Heroes of American Industry

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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).

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!

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...

What may be perceived as topical edginess does not equal entertainment. These stories each have several things in common, most notably that they proceed in an obvious manner, focusing upon the desperation of the characters and the clear motives for this desperation. Ultimately they go nowhere. This book isn't terrible. Its pedestrian. That said, I would rather be angered enough to put something down than simply lulled to a dead end while waiting to be stirred. This book is simply boring.

First of all, let me say that I love Poirier's first two books, the excellent Tuscon-themed short story collection Naked Pueblo and the quirky and compelling coming of age novel Goats. I also greatly enjoyed this latest assemblage of five stories, which inhabit that same darkly humorous area as his other work-and yet I found them slightly lesser in comparison. The twelve stories of Naked Pueblo are rooted in a sense of place and ring with authenticity and personal experience, whereas the stories in this book seem somewhat more manufactured, more obviously "written." This is a bit of nitpicking criticism though, because the stories are all gripping and enjoyable reads. Once again, Poirier seems blessed with the ability to balance outrageous (and yet wholly plausible) characters with intensely realistic and often sad emotions.

The first story, "Buttons", is the story of a family button empire that transforms into an egg empire whose hilarious attempt to ride a consumer craze results in inevitable downfall. Interwoven with this story is that of one of the the founder's great-grandchildren, who's locked in a silent sibling rivalry with his twin. A similar sibling rivalry is the catalyst for the narrator of "A Note On the Type," to go to veterinary school in Boston and thus move in with a bizarre aunt. It's the most stylized of the stories, and follows the same format as "Buttons," telling the story of the student while also going into his family history. The book's best moment occurs here, when the narrator waits for service at a deli counter and fantasizes about the young woman behind the counter, constructing her as a fascinating white trash theorist gathering research material.

The most inconsequential of the stories, "Pageantry", is the mostly inner-monologue of a teen contestant at a local beauty pageant. She recognizes the whole enterprise as an enterprise to prey of the dreams and thwarted ambitions of adults through their children and can't wait until she's old enough to say no to her mother. The story is a pretty sharp little piece, but the ground has been so thoroughly covered in so many contexts that it's hard to find anything new in it. "Gator" and "Worms" both concern themes of loss and parenthood. In "Gator" a Louisiana teacher encourages a student, the daughter of a gator-skinner, to become a Manhattan shoe designer. He clearly has some twisted inner fantasy of being her father, and Poirier beautifully captures his sense of loss when she leaves. "Worms" is another heartbreaking story, in which a Vassar woman who's forced to move to rural Texas to find work as a journalist falls in love with and marries a worm farmer. This is perhaps the only story in the bunch where the main characters aren't psychologically messed up in some way or another, and so it somehow seems more cruel when tragedy strikes.

Although a bit slim (the whole book can be read in about two hours), it's another solid collection from Poirier and I look forward to his next bit of writing.

I've been a fan of Poirier's work for a while, and I think Unsung Heroes is his best work yet. He has a gift for telling stories that manage to be outrageously funny and crushingly sad at the same time. You can tell the author's having fun when he's writing, and that fun is contagious. Even in the saddest stories--the ones that reveal characters coping with loss, loneliness, and alienation--you get to enjoy a wild ride on the way to that moment of illumination and empathy. "Worms" and "Gators" are spectacular, and I'll never forget how hard I laughed when I read about the invention of packaged, pre-scrambled eggs in "Buttons." Thank you, Mark Poirier, for writing so well, for eschewing the conventional, and for being unafraid to entertain your readers. I'm looking forward to the next book!

yet another witty, intelligent, thought-provoking, twisted book from the ever delightful mark jude poirier. his odd characters fit right in with all the grostesques in literary history. you almost feel you need to keep children away from these protagonists, but boy wouldn't they be interesting companions on a long plane ride. i am eagerly anticipating his next book!

After reading MODERN RANCH LIVING, this is my second Poirier book. I really enjoyed the stories "Worms," and "A Note on the Type," but the other ones here didn't do much for me. I thought the first one, "Buttons," was kind of predictable, though entertaining. The beauty pageant one, (can't remember the name of it right now,) was a little unrealistic. I think the author has some sort of fascination with teenage girls...the main character here, Belinda, is similar to Kendra in MODERN RANCH LIVING: overly-mature, all-knowing, super smart, worldly, etc... Though amusing, it gets to be a bit much with the teenage girls.

"Worms" was just fabulous. Realistic, hilarious, tragic, and very much a picture of a different life than most people imagine anyone actually lives. I thought the final story in the book really captured the author's true wit and talent. In "A Note on the Type," a young man basically discovers something about his family past that no one really wants to know, and in turn comes to grips with his own sexual predisposition. I really enjoyed it! I'd give "Worms" and "A Note on the Type" 5 stars easily. Two of the best stories I've ever read.

The five stories in Unsung Heroes of American Industry are all fabulous--full of weird characters, doing weird things. None if it is over the top, all of it is enjoyable. Have fun with these.

Mark Poirier's book is one of the best I have ever read. First of all the whole premise of the book is original, twisted, and interesting, as the author must also be. My favorite part was the brilliant metaphore about Shaquille O'Neal's shoe. Well done Mark Jude Poirier, I expect great things from you in the future.