Ebooks for the Classroom+Faculty

Trigger Man: More Tales of the Motor City
ISBN: 9781609172244
Platform/Publisher: JSTOR / Michigan State University Press
Digital rights: Users: unlimited; Printing: chapter; Download: chapter
Subjects: Detroit (Mich.) -- Fiction;

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.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.