Pieces for the Left Hand: 100 Anecdotes

Finally available in the United States, a singular story collection that Time Out declared unsettlingly brilliant

Astudent's suicide note is not what it seems. A high school football rivalry turns absurd--and deadly. A much-loved cat seems to have been a different animal all along. A pair of identical twins aren't identical at all--or even related. A man finds his own yellowed birth announcement inside a bureau bought at auction. Set in a small upstate New York town, told in a conversational style, Pieces for the Left Hand is a stream of a hundred anecdotes, none much longer than a page. At once funny, bizarre, familiar, and disturbing, these deceptively straightforward tales nevertheless shock and amaze through uncanny coincidence, tragic misunderstanding, strange occurrence, or sudden insight. Unposted letters, unexpected visitors, false memories--in J. Robert Lennon's vision of America, these are the things that decide our fate. Wry and deadpan, powerful and philosophical, these addictive little tales reveal the everyday world as a strange and eerie place.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Published: 03/31/2009
ISBN: 9781555975234
Pages: 212
Weight: 0.50lbs
Size: 6.90h x 5.00w x 0.70d

Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 01/26/2009 pg. 99
Kirkus Reviews 03/01/2009
New York Times Book Review 05/24/2009 pg. 17
New York Times Book Review 05/31/2009 pg. 30