Friday 56 & #BookBeginnings: Lucky Alan


In the months after I'd auditioned for him, I would run into the legendary theater director Sigismund Blondy at the movies, near-empty Thursday matinees of indifferent first-run films—North Country, Wednesday Crashersin the decaying venues of the Upper East Side, where we both lived: the Crown, the Clearview, the Gemini; big rooms chopped into asymmetric halves or quartered through the balcony.
- p. 1, from the short story "Lucky Alan"

For Friday 56:  
He was getting his morning thrill on, his eye-opener, and this place, besides from being on the right corner of the right block for him to stumble in, made a fine joltingly strong concoction strictly from the addict's point of view.
- p. 56, from the short story "Procedure in Plain Air"


About Lucky Alan and Other Stories by Jonathan Letham: Jonathan Lethem’s third collection of stories uncovers a father’s nervous breakdown at SeaWorld in “Pending Vegan”; a foundling child rescued from the woods during a blizzard in “Traveler Home”; a political prisoner in a hole in a Brooklyn street in “Procedure in Plain Air”; and a crumbling, haunted “blog” on a seaside cliff in “The Dreaming Jaw, The Salivating Ear.” Each of these locates itself in Lethem-land, which can be discovered only by visiting. As in his celebrated novels, Lethem finds the uncanny lurking in the mundane, the irrational self-defeat seeping through our upstanding pursuits, and the tragic undertow of the absurd world(s) in which we live.

10 comments

  1. I look forward to reading your thoughts on this one.
    I added you to the Linky! Happy weekend!

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  2. Both of the short stories excerpted here sound very interesting! Thanks for sharing. :)

    Check out my 56 with Book Beginnings.

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  3. Sounds like a great collection of stories. It's fun sometimes to read shorter pieces, isn't it? I hope you're enjoying these.
    My Friday post features WILLOW VALE.

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  4. I've never read his short stories.

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  5. An odd cover, but I like it. I am a bit curious about the stories. Thanks for sharing.
    sherry @ fundinmentalFriday Memes

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  6. These seem like interesting, quirky stories. Here's mine
    http://ebogie.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-burning-wire-book-beginnings-page-56.html

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  7. I like the sound of this collection...each story seems to touch on some drama in the characters' lives. Thanks for sharing.

    Here's mine: “THE DENIM BLUE SEA”

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  8. Aaaah I love short stories! I am currently reading a short story collection as well :) I love both of the teasers although I'm leaning towards the F56! The cover is really stylish as well! Thanks for sharing :) I hope you have an amazing weekend!
    My Friday post
    Juli @ Universe in Words

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  9. This sounds like an entertaining read. I really enjoy short stories and I love love the excerpts! I'll have to add this one to my TBR!

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  10. Very cool! I love short stories :)

    Here's my page 56:

    https://proudmommaofgirls.wordpress.com/2015/03/06/the-friday-56/

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© guiltless readingMaira Gall