Working Men

by Michael Dorris

Overview

The celebrated author of the bestselling A Yellow Raft in Blue Water dazzles readers once again with his newest work of fiction, a collection of 14 beautifully crafted short stories, each one about a working man. 50,000 sold in hardcover. "First rate collection".--Publishers Weekly.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780446670197
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	10/01/1994
Edition description:	REPRINT
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Michael Dorris’s adult fiction includes the bestselling A Yellow Raft in Blue Water, The Cloud Chamber, and The Crown of Columbus, co-authored with Louise Erdrich. Among his nonfiction work are The Broken Cord, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, and Paper Trail, a collection of essays.

Editorial Reviews

Dorris ( A Yellow Raft in Blue Water ) offers 14 carefully etched portraits of just plain American folk puzzling through their roles as parents, children, husbands, wives, neighbors, friends and, as the title says, working men (and women). Not macabre, sensational or faddish, his stories are propelled by the persistent, half-spoken tension between the characters' everyday existence and their greater aspirations. In commonplace surroundings--a yard sale, a front room, a roadside Sheraton--Dorris's people meet with unexpected and often unwelcome epiphanies that jar their lives into perplexing clarity. Even the most secure ties to family and home begin to unravel when protagonists face themselves or when they feel a call to wander to that peculiarly American destination--no place in particular. Dorris has an uncanny ear for the ways people derive self-definition and consolation from the routines of labor and social convention--consider the simple attestation of the narrator of ``The Benchmark,'' reflecting on the empty years after his son's drowning in the pond he built with his own hands: ``every hour occupied, and I did quality work.'' No journeyman himself, Dorris displays his craftsmanship in each edgy, understated tale of this first-rate collection. 50,000 first printing; author tour. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

As one expects, the skillfully dramatized first-person narrators in this collection include several working men, but Dorris ( A Yellow Raft in Blue Water , LJ 5/1/87; and, with Louise Erdrich, The Crown of Columbus , LJ 3/15/91) is equally adept at speaking in the voice of a grieving mother, a girl who receives two marriage proposals, or an itinerant elephant thief. Some of the best stories ring with the varied melodies of love--young and old, straight and gay, marital and extramarital--or allow us to hear the lingering resonance of death. ``Groom-Service,'' for example, is a comic account of an arranged marriage in a matriarchal society. In ``The Benchmark,'' an aging surveyor contemplates those things that remain forever true in his craft and in life; through his work building small dams, he also constructs a bulwark against grief. Whether set in an Alaskan fishing village, a rural Indiana cemetery, or an army PX in Vietnam, Dorris's remarkably varied stories are uniformly excellent. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/93.-- Albert E. Wilhelm, Tennessee Technological Univ., Cookeville

Library Journal

YA-Students familiar with his nonfiction title, The Broken Cord (HarperCollins, 1989) and his novel, A Yellow Raft in Blue Water (Holt, 1987), will find that Dorris continues to tell a good story. Although the selections here aren't exclusively about men or about working, they should appeal especially to male readers. There are the deft details and nuances of relationships that ring true to life. The settings vary from the Northeast, to the South, to the Northwest, and often the themes and plots hinge on the unexpected significance of a chance encounter or event. Enjoyable, quality short fiction.-Ruth Melvin, Lee High School, Springfield, VA

School Library Journal

"Stunning in its shorthand poetry. . .Admirable not just for its mastery and variety, but for Michael Dorris's faith in the heroism and importance of ordinary American life." —Los Angeles Times

"Skillful and subtle storytelling, roving imagination, and embracing humanism. . .[from] one of the more exciting and gifted American short story writers." —The New York Times Book Review

"His vision is extraordinary. . .contains stories as good as we are likely to find by anyone writing today."—The Washington Post

"Exhilarating. . .He has added a new benchmark to the genre." —Philadelphia Inquirer

From the Publisher