What do you think?
Rate this book
I Carry A Hammer In My Pocket For Occasions Such As These (American Readers Series) by Tognazzini, Anthony (2007) Paperback
"Reading Anthony Tognazzini is like having a surprise party thrown in your honor on every page. I Carry A Hammer In My Pocket For Occasions Such As These turns cartwheels, plants daisies, and sings love songs in honor of all that is strange, sad, serious, and sublime about being alive."-Myla Goldberg, author of Bee SeasonI Carry A Hammer In My Pocket For Occasions Such As These is a collection of fifty-seven pieces that range in length from compressed paragraphs to ten-page stories. Characters, voices, and surreal scenarios are unified in a playful vision of the world sustained by metaphor, memory, cartoon, tragedy, love story, and song.Speed and brevity are a large part of the collection's design. In a culture where attention spans are shorter and more fractured, the need for a literature for the subway and the waiting room-something to resonate in the smaller gaps of our lives-is emerging. To this end, I Carry A Hammer In My Pocket For Occasions Such As These is quick, colloquial, and comic, yet challenges readers to think. It offers-at a glance-a journey into a fictional world that is poetic and narrative, fantastic and familiar, accessible and adventurous."The Difference"Although I was never an early riser, my father always counseled me to rise with the sun. "Early bird gets the worm!" he told me. "Sure," I said, "but the worm who sleeps late, lives."Anthony Tognazzini lives in New York City, where he makes his living as a teacher and freelance journalist. His awards include an AWP Award, an Academy of American Poets prize, a Greer Artist Foundation Fellowship, and a Hemingway Fellowship.
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
Paperback
First published April 1, 2007
1 person is currently reading
40 people want to read
About the author
Anthony Tognazzini
4 books18 followersPress about the book:
I Carry A Hammer In My Pocket For Occasions Such As These is a collection of 57 pieces that range in length from compressed paragraphs to 10-page stories. Its characters, voices, and surreal scenarios are unified in a playful vision of the world that is equal parts metaphor, memory, cartoon, tragedy, love story, and song.
Speed and brevity are a large part of the collection’s design. In a culture where attention spans are shorter and more fractured, media is dominated by quick cuts and sound bites, and American schedules are fuller and faster, the need for a literature for the subway and the waiting room—-something to resonate in the smaller gaps of our lives—-is emerging. To this end, I Carry A Hammer In My Pocket for Occasions Such As These is quick, colloquial and comic, yet challenging and highly reflective. It offers readers-—at a glance—-a journey into a fictional world that is poetic and narrative, fantastic and familiar, accessible and adventurous.
"With gorgeous and distinct sentences, Tognazzini gives us little clips of life-- whimsical, painful, brief, deep; there are some real gems in here-- phrases and moments I read and reread-- profundities in delicate packages. A true treat of a book."
--Aimee Bender, author of The Girl in the Flammable Skirt
"Anthony Tognazzini's work is a topological, literary wonder-- How can texts which are so short be so deep and full of meanings?"
--Etgar Keret, author of The Nimrod Flipout
“Reading Anthony Tognazzini is like having a surprise party thrown in your honor on every page. I Carry A Hammer in My Pocket For Occasions Such As These turns cartwheels, plants daisies, and sings love songs in honor of all that is strange, sad, serious, and sublime about being alive.”
--Myla Goldberg, author of Bee Season
"The short short's lineage may be continental, but Anthony Tognazzini in his debut collection writes in pure American--laconic in tone, yet fast-paced, quick-witted, street-smart, and not, thankfully, above, when the occasion occasionally presents itself--and Tognazzini makes sure that it does--smart-assed."
--Stuart Dybek, author of The Coast of Chicago
I Carry A Hammer In My Pocket For Occasions Such As These is a collection of 57 pieces that range in length from compressed paragraphs to 10-page stories. Its characters, voices, and surreal scenarios are unified in a playful vision of the world that is equal parts metaphor, memory, cartoon, tragedy, love story, and song.
Speed and brevity are a large part of the collection’s design. In a culture where attention spans are shorter and more fractured, media is dominated by quick cuts and sound bites, and American schedules are fuller and faster, the need for a literature for the subway and the waiting room—-something to resonate in the smaller gaps of our lives—-is emerging. To this end, I Carry A Hammer In My Pocket for Occasions Such As These is quick, colloquial and comic, yet challenging and highly reflective. It offers readers-—at a glance—-a journey into a fictional world that is poetic and narrative, fantastic and familiar, accessible and adventurous.
"With gorgeous and distinct sentences, Tognazzini gives us little clips of life-- whimsical, painful, brief, deep; there are some real gems in here-- phrases and moments I read and reread-- profundities in delicate packages. A true treat of a book."
--Aimee Bender, author of The Girl in the Flammable Skirt
"Anthony Tognazzini's work is a topological, literary wonder-- How can texts which are so short be so deep and full of meanings?"
--Etgar Keret, author of The Nimrod Flipout
“Reading Anthony Tognazzini is like having a surprise party thrown in your honor on every page. I Carry A Hammer in My Pocket For Occasions Such As These turns cartwheels, plants daisies, and sings love songs in honor of all that is strange, sad, serious, and sublime about being alive.”
--Myla Goldberg, author of Bee Season
"The short short's lineage may be continental, but Anthony Tognazzini in his debut collection writes in pure American--laconic in tone, yet fast-paced, quick-witted, street-smart, and not, thankfully, above, when the occasion occasionally presents itself--and Tognazzini makes sure that it does--smart-assed."
--Stuart Dybek, author of The Coast of Chicago
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 7, 2007
Anthony Tognazzini’s stories show an acceptance of calamity, a knowledge that what we prepare for may never come, but something shockingly unexpected very well might. And throughout his stories, sometimes very much coming as a surprise, there are moments of pure empathetic humanity, where Anthony gives us characters simply longing for a better life.
His stories explode the artificiality of social graces and the necessity of violating them to get at the rich, rewarding or scary stuff that life offers us. There’s a desire to not be caught in automatic action and reaction, but to be vividly present, awake. Sometimes he does it by having his characters react tangentially to their prompts, never quite meeting the situation head-on, but finding novel ways of engaging their fellow actors, their surroundings.
There’s a mounting sense of desperation at the heart of many of the stories in “I Carry a Hammer for Occasions Such As These” Anthony’s vivid imagery and twists of language and meaning reflect the fracturing of personalities; the breaks in communication between neighbors, lovers, family members. His well-honed sense of the absurd serves both to heighten the emotional blows when they come, and also to highlight the preposterous and ridiculous moments that life constantly presents us. The stories, written with the economy and force of poetry, are both dream-state and hard-reality, and much of the joy in reading them is the constant subtle shifting between one and the other. But no matter how unusual the image--and I prefer the term original--Anthony always keeps us in the physical realm, rooted in sensation.
Most of the stories are short, some shockingly so. But whether they be a three-sentence story like the clear and utterly concise “The Difference,” or rich, extended stories like the violent, erotic and heartbreaking ‘Gainesville, Oregon--1962,” Anthony shows a skill and ability to take us along for whatever the length of the story, like a jazz musician who can play a pithy, classic melody, or can stretch out and blow, always riveting our attention.
Reading Anthony Tognazzini’s bracingly original work is a complete pleasure, both an escape and an opportunity to dig in deep to something worthwhile. In one of the last pieces in “I Carry a Hammer…” “Found Story,” he writes “I found this gift…and I so much want you to have it.”
His stories explode the artificiality of social graces and the necessity of violating them to get at the rich, rewarding or scary stuff that life offers us. There’s a desire to not be caught in automatic action and reaction, but to be vividly present, awake. Sometimes he does it by having his characters react tangentially to their prompts, never quite meeting the situation head-on, but finding novel ways of engaging their fellow actors, their surroundings.
There’s a mounting sense of desperation at the heart of many of the stories in “I Carry a Hammer for Occasions Such As These” Anthony’s vivid imagery and twists of language and meaning reflect the fracturing of personalities; the breaks in communication between neighbors, lovers, family members. His well-honed sense of the absurd serves both to heighten the emotional blows when they come, and also to highlight the preposterous and ridiculous moments that life constantly presents us. The stories, written with the economy and force of poetry, are both dream-state and hard-reality, and much of the joy in reading them is the constant subtle shifting between one and the other. But no matter how unusual the image--and I prefer the term original--Anthony always keeps us in the physical realm, rooted in sensation.
Most of the stories are short, some shockingly so. But whether they be a three-sentence story like the clear and utterly concise “The Difference,” or rich, extended stories like the violent, erotic and heartbreaking ‘Gainesville, Oregon--1962,” Anthony shows a skill and ability to take us along for whatever the length of the story, like a jazz musician who can play a pithy, classic melody, or can stretch out and blow, always riveting our attention.
Reading Anthony Tognazzini’s bracingly original work is a complete pleasure, both an escape and an opportunity to dig in deep to something worthwhile. In one of the last pieces in “I Carry a Hammer…” “Found Story,” he writes “I found this gift…and I so much want you to have it.”
December 28, 2018
Tognazzini creates by building absurdity upon interesting structures. I liked his innovation of form, especially the stories built upon voicemail and a numbered list. His use of dialogue, however, was interesting and apt in a few instances, but the irrelevance of it made me scan over it in most stories. It had the odd effect (effective probably only in short pieces) of making the dialogue more about the act of speaking, the buildup of emotion to a state or instinctive inclination to speak, rather than the words spoken themselves. His plot choices shaped his stories with a hopeless kind of melancholy. It was certainly an interesting read but not worth a return, I think.
June 8, 2018
Full disclosure, Anthony Tognazzini and I were great friends in High School so this review is totally and unabashedly biased. But I seriously adored this collection of short stories. 100% top shelf writing. At turns profoundly morose, often scary, then very, very funny. Deep and poignant, silly, and clever. Erudite and streetwise. There’s a lot going on here.
That one story he wrote in Honors English, though...that thing was total crap.
That one story he wrote in Honors English, though...that thing was total crap.
October 25, 2008
Rather interesting. Absurd and sad and witty and poignant, but in ways where I either thought, "Oooh, nice!" or "Hmm. MAYBE I get it." In many places it has the air in which things seem so important but the meaning, though almost attainable, remains elusive, as seems to be the method of many prose poets. But the writing is spectacular. "Lint" was one of my favorites. Also "Same Game."
"The built-in reflector on the girl's sneaker gleamed. She said, 'I'm going to be brave in ways you won't recognize.' Then she pocketed her racquetball and ran away from me."
"The built-in reflector on the girl's sneaker gleamed. She said, 'I'm going to be brave in ways you won't recognize.' Then she pocketed her racquetball and ran away from me."
December 23, 2010
Tognazzini taught me how to write dialogging. I studied with him in New York in 2004. He's probably a better instructor than writer but I like this little book. These are micro stories that are perfect for reading on the train or during your lunch break. The book would also be a good gift for the person who commutes by rail or transit.
January 12, 2016
The short stories "I Carry A Hammer In My Pocket For Occasions Such As These" are searching and contemplative, full of wit and honesty, each written with a wild and singular voice. I admire the author's ability to craft deeply nuanced writing, containing humor and tragedy, dark and light, always balancing bathos and pathos.
March 24, 2010
Imaginative, fresh and always snapping the reader out of reality in the best way, "Hammer" stands as an achievement in the art of flash fiction and poetic prose. I really enjoyed this collection of stories. :)
May 31, 2014
I ordered the book after discovering it in "Poets and Writers" and was immediately captivated by the brevity, frankness, honesty of Tognazzini's brilliance on every page. A real treat, must-read, literary gem--underrated.
February 20, 2008
Wildly inventive & very funny stories.
Want to read
January 21, 2015I have to read it, with a title like that!
March 19, 2008
Loved it. There's a huge sense of play in these stories and I totally love play.
Read
November 28, 2008See my notes on this great collection at Snow*Vigate at http://www.snowvigate.com/review.php.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews