Refresh, Refresh: Stories

by Benjamin Percy

Overview

The war in Iraq empties the small town of Tumalo, Oregon, of men—of fathers—leaving their sons to fight among themselves. But the boys' bravado fades at home when, alone, they check e-mail again and again for word from their fathers at the front.

Often from fractured homes and communities, the young men in these breathless stories do the unthinkable to prove to themselves—to everyone—that they are strong enough to face the heartbreak in this world. Set in rural Oregon with the shadow of the Cascade Mountains hanging over them, these stories bring you face-to-face with a mad bear, a house with a basement that opens up into a cave, a nuclear meltdown that renders the Pacific Northwest into a contemporary Wild West. Refresh, Refresh by Benjamin Percy is a bold, fiery, and unforgettable collection that deals with vital issues of our time.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781555974855
Publisher:	Graywolf Press
Publication date:	10/02/2007
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.41(w) x 8.51(h) x 0.74(d)

About the Author

Benjamin Percy was raised in the high desert of central Oregon. He currently teaches creative writing, composition, and literature at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Editorial Reviews

Full of bravery and bravado, it fairly crackles with life. These stories mark the beginning of a long and brilliant career.” —Ann Patchett

“Benjamin Percy moves instinctively toward the molten center of contemporary writing, the place where genre fiction, in this case horror, overflows its boundaries and becomes something dark and grand and percipient. These stories contain a brutal power and are radiant with pain—only a writer of surpassing honesty and directness could lead us here.” —Peter Straub

From the Publisher

Ten stories about otherwise ordinary lives haunted by violence and death-Percy's second collection, following The Language of Elk (2006). All the stories are set in the high desert country of central Oregon; the harsh landscape defines the characters. The men are hunters and raise their sons to hunt, not always successfully. In "The Woods," Justin resents his father for the hunting lessons; years later, on a scary hunting trip involving two mysterious corpses, roles are reversed as son consoles fearful father. Josh and Gordon, high-school students in the prize-winning title story, love to hunt deer, but their fathers, National Guard reservists, have left for Iraq. In a story that pulses with violence, the local army recruiter is the bad guy. Memories of killing Iraqis surface in "Somebody is Going to Have to Pay for This" and "Meltdown"; Stephen and Darren, in almost identical circumstances, killed Iraqis at point-blank range. The puzzle is why the latter, near-future story, a study of Darren's anomie, needs the spectacular embellishment of a nuclear reactor meltdown. In two stories, "The Caves in Oregon" and "The Faulty Builder," death happens in the womb, with troubling consequences for two married couples. Less troubling for Jim, the lonely old hunter and taxidermist in "The Killing," is shooting his daughter's abusive boyfriend: "His entire adult life he has been surrounded by dead things." Another lonely old man, Gerald, has always lusted after his brother's wife ("Whisper"). It's unfortunate that this credible tale of sibling rivalry should take a sudden turn into melodrama. Blood swirls through these stories. Even a blackberry pie looks "a little like congealed blood," so it's nosurprise that Joey, the young dairy farmer in "Crash," considering suicide after his wife's accidental death, visualizes the blood pouring out of him. Percy does well by his trapped, uncomprehending men, but his endings are messy and inconclusive.

Kirkus Reviews