Cities of Men: A Novel

by William Jensen

Overview

In 1987, twelve-year-old Cooper Balsam's mother, Arden, disappears without a trace. Cooper's father, Percy, a Vietnam veteran struggling with PTSD, doesn't seem too concerned. "This isn't the first time. She's done it before." As days pass, Cooper begins to act out and withdraw from the world, and his growing animosity toward his father's ambivalence begins to escalate even as Percy and Cooper begin to actively search for the woman in their lives. From the hills of Southern California, to the deserts of Arizona, and down to the beaches of Mexico, the father and son will look for someone who may not want to be found for reasons they don't yet understand.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781683366669
Publisher:	TURNER PUB CO
Publication date:	05/23/2017
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Nominated for two Pushcart Prizes, William Jensen is the editor of Southwestern American Literature and Texas Books in Review. His short fiction has appeared in journals such as The New Plains Review, The Texas Review, Stoneboat, and various other journals. Mr. Jensen, who grew up in southern California and central Arizona, lives in the Texas hill country and teaches English and Southwestern studies at Texas State University, from which he obtained his MFA degree. While obtaining his MFA he studied under Robert Stone and Tim O'Brien.

Editorial Reviews

03/27/2017
Cooper Balsam, the 12-year-old narrator of Jensen’s uneven debut, has a serious family problem. One day late in January 1987, his mother, Arden, disappears from their home in San Diego, Calif., not for the first time, and leaves him alone with his father, Percy, and lots of self-doubt. Percy, a taciturn Vietnam vet subject to terrifying flashbacks to the war, can’t offer Cooper much reassurance. A middling student, Cooper lets a school bully, who can be either a friend or an enemy, lead him into increasingly dangerous vandalism. Cooper’s memories of his mother combine with other sources—extracts from Arden’s diary, phone talks with his maternal grandmother, and a rude encounter with a jilted woman friend of Arden’s—to form an incomplete picture of the woman. Tips prompt Percy and Cooper to make road trips to Arizona and Mexico in search of the elusive Arden. Jensen memorably portrays Cooper as the boy copes as best he can with life’s vicissitudes, but poorly developed secondary characters detract from the novel’s impact. (May)

Publishers Weekly

“William Jensen’s compelling debut novel touches a central mystery of contemporary American life: How can a boy manage to become a man when all the models he has are numb, angry, damaged—or absent altogether?” —John Benditt, PEN-nominated and National Jewish Book Award-winning author of The Boatmaker

“. . . deeply moving and complex . . . has an ear to the ground for what makes us fully human: our yearning for more than the world will give. CITIES OF MEN asks the big questions that all great novels do: Who are we? And how do we know? Jensen is a writer to watch.”—Scott Blackwood, PEN USA Award finalist and Whiting Writers’ Award-winning author

"William Jensen’s CITIES OF MEN manages the remarkable..."—Manhattan Book Review

From the Publisher