Trigger Man: More Tales of the Motor City

by Jim Ray Daniels

Overview

Trigger Man is a superb collection of stories capturing the gritty spirit of Detroit and the sometimes grim circumstances of the characters shaped by its industry and economics. Grounded on the bleak streets of the Motor City, these stories also explore the mythical “Up North,” the idealized country of many Detroit workers’ fantasy — an escape from the concrete and metal reality of their daily lives. Daniels’ characters are resilient and defiant, inhabiting a world that has often placed them on the margins of society, scouring a declining region for spiritual providence. Building on Daniels’ earlier collections of stories, Trigger Man brings vivid life to individuals struggling both to remain in and to flee the city that once sustained them.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781609172244
Publisher:	Michigan State University Press
Publication date:	07/25/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	154
File size:	401 KB

About the Author

Jim Ray Daniels is the Thomas Stockman Baker Professor of English at Carnegie Mellon University. He has published three previous collections of short stories and received the Best Regional Fiction Gold Medal in the 2008 Independent Publisher Book Awards.

Editorial Reviews

Daniels (Mr. Pleasant) extends his insightful, empathetic literary embrace of drab, blue-collar Detroit in 10 new tales. Dysfunctional families lurch along as best they can in stories such as "Threshold," wherein Ricky bails out his crackhead kid sister so many times that his girlfriend leaves him, disgusted, though not before the adolescent act that bonds these siblings is revealed. Elsewhere, people struggling to connect are left fractured or severed for good. "Candy Necklace" shows how desperate kids have to play adult roles when a 14-year-old girl must care for her violent alcoholic mom. In "Shocks and Struts," a middle-aged reformed hell-raiser still covers for his cokehead kid brother until a savage bar brawl leaves them estranged. No less intense, the first love of "Separated at Birth" between two 14-year-olds is marred when their swinger parents swap partners. Though hard-edged and dark, Daniels's tales aren't all devoid of humor. "Clown, Drown," told in the form of an English comp paper, finds a student encountering antics at the annual South-eastern Michigan Clown Convention. These well-crafted, accessible stories echo Carver and Bobbie Ann Mason, but bear Daniels's original stamp, delivered with lyrical force while remaining gritty enough to suit the subject matter. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Trigger Man is riveting, revealing—full of gritty detail, atmosphere, beauty, and meaning. I savored this collection the first time through. . . . The second time, I read for the fun, shock, and memorable (life-changing!) epiphanies of the stories. The Motor City has found in Daniels a true bard. He has put to words a kind of secret history for the ages.

—Laura Kasischke, author of In a Perfect World and The Raising

Jim Ray Daniels’ characters in Trigger Man inhabit an emotional demolition derby, where even the “winners” do as much damage to themselves as they do to others. Stories as close to desperation as the city they’re set in.

—John Sayles

From the Publisher