Description
Darkly comedic, lyrically mighty, and unabashedly vulnerable, There Is Happiness brings together Brad Watson's most celebrated pieces alongside new, unpublished works. Watson's characters-often boys and brothers, fathers and sons-are shaped by oddities of nature, while nature itself communicates loudly. In these pages, dogs most certainly have their day, a one-eyed woman swims the breaststroke, and Dolly Parton holds the key to a convict's salvation. Spouses grow apart while bitter landlords bang on the ceiling to quiet the creaking bedframe upstairs. Grotesque twins exercise in tandem, and two men drink to forget their dead wives (though "dead" is a relative term). Roller-coastering from the mournful to the hilarious (sometimes in the same paragraph) and steeped in both the Southern gothic tradition and a universal literature of the tragic, the beautiful, and the absurd, Watson's stories waltz masterfully with surprising, lovely, and strange melancholy, infused with wit and bound by authenticity.
About the Author
Brad Watson (1955-2020) was the National Book Award-shortlisted author of Last Days of the Dog Men, The Heaven of Mercury, Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives, and Miss Jane. Originally from Mississippi, at the time of his death he was a professor of literature and creative writing at the University of Wyoming.
Book Information
ISBN 9781324076421
Author Brad Watson
Format Hardback
Page Count 288
Imprint WW Norton & Co
Publisher WW Norton & Co
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