Burn Man: Selected Stories

by Mark Anthony Jarman

"Literature at the highest heartrending, disquieting, fascinating."— Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Drawing together the best of his short fiction published over the last four decades, Burn Selected Stories showcases Mark Anthony Jarman’s sharply observed characters and acrobatic, voice-driven prose in stories that walk the tightrope between the commonplace and the mystical. With an insightful introduction from John Metcalf, this revelatory selection highlights one of the most spirited and singular masters of the short story form.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2024

About the author

Mark Anthony Jarman is the author of Knife Party at the Hotel Europa, My White Planet, 19 Knives, New Orleans Is Sinking, Dancing Nightly in the Tavern, and the travel book Ireland’s Eye. His novel, Salvage King Ya!, is on Amazon.ca’s list of 50 Essential Canadian Books and is the number one book on Amazon’s list of best hockey fiction.

He has won a Gold National Magazine Award in nonfiction, has twice won the Maclean-Hunter Endowment Award, won the Jack Hodgins Fiction Prize, and has been included in The Journey Prize Anthology and Best Canadian Stories and short-listed for the O. Henry Prize and Best American Essays.

He has published in Walrus, Canadian Geographic, Hobart, The Barcelona Review, Vrij Nederland, and reviews for The Globe & Mail. He is a graduate of The Iowa Writers’ Workshop, a Yaddo fellow, has taught at the University of Victoria, the Banff Centre for the Arts, and now teaches at the University of New Brunswick, where he is fiction editor of The Fiddlehead literary journal.

A.S. BYATT on Mark Jarman:

At last. It is very irritating to discover a wonderful book published too long ago to be an official "book of the year". I was talking to a German friend, a few years ago, and we were trying to think of the greatest short story ever. We agreed enthusiastically that it was Henry James's "The Beast in the Jungle". Martin then said reflectively, "Unless it is 'Burn Man on a Texas Porch'." I had never heard of that, nor of its author, Mark Anthony Jarman, a Canadian. (Canadians specialise in great short stories - Munro, Atwood.) Jarman's collection is called 19 Knives, and it is brilliant. The writing is extraordinary, the stories are gripping, it is something new. And now I can say so.

—The Guardian, November 24, 2007

Reviews

[Ken]

I read somewhere (I think it's south of the Mason-Dixon line) that Canadian short story expert Mark Anthony Jarman is worth a look, so I took a look and, overall, am glad I did. The range is there, that's for sure. Some stories read like travel pieces, set as they are in exotic places like Pompeii, Italy, and Show Me, Missouri.

Like one of his writer-heroes, Denis Johnson, Jarman creates some down and outers, some low lives, and some violence. But his characters can be refined travelers, too. In some cases, the traveling (for readers) comes in the shape of time travel. A couple of stories take us back to the days of Custer fighting Native American Indians in a gory sequence you won't soon forget. Jarman's equally comfortable writing about hockey: scouting, playing, and the lifestyle for those trying to make it (hey, he's Canadian after all).

The stories are not so much chronological as musically aligned. Many tales are as much poetry as they are prose. Listen to those sound devices! Some (esp. early) are so into word play that Jarman forgets (or says to hell with) the plot. OK. I can deal.

Did I like them all super fraja? No. Most? Sure. Willing to read Jarman again? Double sure. Waving the maple leaf. Singing "Oh, Canada" and repeatedly littering my speech with "Eh?" instead of the ubiquitous "like" heard in America (and I'm like done with my review).

[Mike Thorn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listen to the Craftwork interview with Mark Anthony Jarman.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Burn Man: Selected Stories is a representative collection covering Mark Anthony Jarman’s award-studded career, chosen by the author and introduced by John Metcalf. It is the sort of treatment reserved for writers of major repute and significance (think Munro, Atwood). Whether or not Jarman deserves to be mentioned in that hallowed company will be a matter for future scholarly debate. For the moment we can say with a fair degree of certainty that while Jarman is a risk-taker extraordinaire and the author of some of the most adventurous fiction ever to emanate from within these borders, there’s also no getting around the fact that his take-no-prisoners brand of storytelling will not appeal to everyone. It is, however, a brand of storytelling that, if you’re willing to accept the challenge, will leave an indelible impression. Jarman writes in an unconventional mode. His largely first-person tales of male angst, misbehaviour and regret are boldly nonlinear impressionistic monologues, and can sometimes come across as a stew of words splattered across the page. First up in the new volume is “Burn Man on a Texas Porch,” the story (loosely speaking) of a man left marked beyond recognition when his camper’s propane tank explodes. The narrative, while swirling around notions of scars, healing, skin and the disguises we use to navigate a hostile world, centres upon the sort of life left to the burn victim once the doctors have done all they can. The narrator recalls a woman’s lips on his, tells us of love post-burn (keeping the lights off while being serviced by an escort dressed as a nurse), and describes his new career as a mascot on-demand, done up as a bunny at Easter or a clown waving a sign outside a flower shop. He figures that, as long as he can keep his face covered, he’s okay. The story—proceeding in fits and starts, circling back, jumping ahead, reprising theme and variations in different guises—ends as a commentary on the fragility of life and love. The narrator of “Song from Under the Floorboards”—a star football player in high school, now a mechanic—narrates a tale of failure and missed opportunities that includes the suicides of two classmates. “There is no convincing logic in my life,” he laments, a recurring theme across much of Jarman’s fiction. The narrator of the final story, “The Hospital Island,” is visiting Rome with his young cousin, Eve. He’s escaping, or avoiding, messy entanglements awaiting him back in Canada, but life in Rome offers little relief from his anxieties (in an earlier story he and Eve witnessed a stabbing and watched the victim bleed out). His thoughts fixate on things disturbing and gruesome, such as a local practise from hundreds of years earlier of relegating plague victims to a barge and setting them out to sea. At one point he’s wondering why he can be fascinated by stories of other people’s travels, but his own seem to amount to nothing. “Why,” he asks, “do I have no faith in my own life?” The question resonates, sticks with us. It’s probably true that in his fiction Mark Anthony Jarman is doing something that nobody else is doing. His singular manner of rendering the world is often shocking and chaotic, but also uniquely absorbing, even revelatory, much like the world itself. His prose cannot be pinned down as it swerves and contorts, zigs and zags, irresistibly pulling the along reader with it. The ride may be bumpy, and you can be sure there’s no soft landing. But, based on the evidence to be found in this new volume, it’s a risk worth taking.

[Philip Norwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of the stories are super good but it's also a pretty long collection and not all are as good as the best ones. The first half at least is all great and a few in the middle are more slice of life/not much actually happens but it picks up at the end. Definitely a book to buy and read at your own pace, I tried to get thru it too quick and got a bit burnt out but liked it way more when I gave it more time

[John Fetzer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Varied, mostly uncomfortable stories written creatively - drug addicts, native Americans being massacreed, violence in prison, and other such uncommon short-story themes. Not for the squeamish, but for a reader who appreciates words and evocative writing, it just might work - not resonating unless you are a serial-killer or crackhead or ne-er-do-well in the 19th century.

[James Callan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poetic. Beautiful. Ugly. Masterful. This collection is HEAVY. I've read nothing like it (although I did discern a style that reminded me just a little bit of Ander Monson). These Jarman stories are hypnotic and sad, yet somehow, after reading them, I felt elevated, animated, and impassioned. These pages weave an odd and enchanting spell. I am happy to have been bewitched by them.

[Larry Tse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not exactly experimental, but feels like tearing down/playing with language. Some western stories v McCarthy/Blood Meridian-esque. Incredible writing but I’m not sure if I could tell you what happens beyond the broad strokes in most of these stories. Tbh I could just be too dumb for this one!

[James Junke · Rating 5 out of 5]

A remarkable set of short stories. Imaginative, insightful, funny, edgy, quirky, sometimes dark. Totally inhabits his characters whose life stories are narrated in compelling phrasing and dialogue.

[Shannon A · Rating 5 out of 5]

These stories are about those that are on the edge of existence; told in an unflinching manner that will change how you think about writing. Jarman forces the reader to ask Why? in a way to define meaning instead of what. If I was a writer, reading this collection would be dangerous, which is exactly why this collection and its author are essential reading.