What do you think?
Rate this book
Your Life Idyllic
The characters in these stories think too much. It’s why they suffer. In Your Life Idyllic, Walt Whitman’s “I contain multitudes” is a curse, as the mostly blue collar Detroiters of these stories wrestle with the rich, uncomfortable nuances of the “examined life” while the turmoil of bar fights, bill paying, family estrangement, and detox hurtle them towards enlightenment.
Praise for Your Life Idyllic:
“A stunning debut of startling power and vision. I found myself recalling the thoughts and feelings I had entertained when I first read Ray Carver, Richard Ford, Jayne Anne Phillips, and Thom Jones. I believe Bernier’s book belongs on the shelf next to these aforementioned wonderful and important writers. Bernier tells stories of struggle and survival in the lives of ordinary, marginalized people, vividly capturing their sense of stubborn, even heroic striving. These are beautifully achieved stories, wrought in a prose crafted and contoured with a kind of sculptor’s touch, evoked in crystal-bright incidents which bend neither to sentiment nor easy bitterness. Indeed, it is this muscular lyricism with its intense, edgy, dangerous pleasure that sets him apart as a new voice to be reckoned with.” — Chuck Kinder, author of Honeymooners: A Cautionary Tale and Snakehunter
“These mighty stories of Detroit give us a great soul struggling up from ruin, full of grace, courage, and a hopeful heart. No one knows the city better than Bernier, and no one writes about it with anything like his tender and glorious savagery.” — Michael Byers, author of Percival’s Planet and The Coast of Good Intentions
“The stories in Craig Bernier’s Your Life Idyllic are brimming with straight-up Detroit authenticity. Full of bowlers, boozers, truckers, and factory rats, not to mention Madonna-loving, yoga-practicing blacksmiths, these characters are Motor City to the bone. Equal parts grit, spirit, anger, pride, and intelligence. Read this homeboy. Bernier writes as if his life depended on it. I have a feeling that it did.” — Michael Zadoorian, author of The Leisure Seeker and The Lost Tiki Palaces of Detroit
Craig Bernier A jack-of-all-trades, Craig has supported his writing with occupations both professional and menial ranging from college instructor to line cook, technical writer to bartender, carpenter to dishwasher, kennel cleaner, sailor, and pizza delivery. Work is a key theme in his stories and Detroit the premier setting for that. Craig's writing has appeared in numerous journals and Your Life Idyllic recently won the St. Lawrence Book Award. Originally from New Haven, Michigan, Craig is a US Navy veteran. He is a graduate of Wayne State University in Detroit and was the Jacob K. Javits Fellow at the University of Pittsburgh from 2002 to 2005 where he earned his M.F.A. Home is Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania (a stone’s throw from Pittsburgh).
Praise for Your Life Idyllic:
“A stunning debut of startling power and vision. I found myself recalling the thoughts and feelings I had entertained when I first read Ray Carver, Richard Ford, Jayne Anne Phillips, and Thom Jones. I believe Bernier’s book belongs on the shelf next to these aforementioned wonderful and important writers. Bernier tells stories of struggle and survival in the lives of ordinary, marginalized people, vividly capturing their sense of stubborn, even heroic striving. These are beautifully achieved stories, wrought in a prose crafted and contoured with a kind of sculptor’s touch, evoked in crystal-bright incidents which bend neither to sentiment nor easy bitterness. Indeed, it is this muscular lyricism with its intense, edgy, dangerous pleasure that sets him apart as a new voice to be reckoned with.” — Chuck Kinder, author of Honeymooners: A Cautionary Tale and Snakehunter
“These mighty stories of Detroit give us a great soul struggling up from ruin, full of grace, courage, and a hopeful heart. No one knows the city better than Bernier, and no one writes about it with anything like his tender and glorious savagery.” — Michael Byers, author of Percival’s Planet and The Coast of Good Intentions
“The stories in Craig Bernier’s Your Life Idyllic are brimming with straight-up Detroit authenticity. Full of bowlers, boozers, truckers, and factory rats, not to mention Madonna-loving, yoga-practicing blacksmiths, these characters are Motor City to the bone. Equal parts grit, spirit, anger, pride, and intelligence. Read this homeboy. Bernier writes as if his life depended on it. I have a feeling that it did.” — Michael Zadoorian, author of The Leisure Seeker and The Lost Tiki Palaces of Detroit
Craig Bernier A jack-of-all-trades, Craig has supported his writing with occupations both professional and menial ranging from college instructor to line cook, technical writer to bartender, carpenter to dishwasher, kennel cleaner, sailor, and pizza delivery. Work is a key theme in his stories and Detroit the premier setting for that. Craig's writing has appeared in numerous journals and Your Life Idyllic recently won the St. Lawrence Book Award. Originally from New Haven, Michigan, Craig is a US Navy veteran. He is a graduate of Wayne State University in Detroit and was the Jacob K. Javits Fellow at the University of Pittsburgh from 2002 to 2005 where he earned his M.F.A. Home is Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania (a stone’s throw from Pittsburgh).
169 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2014
2 people are currently reading
139 people want to read
About the author
Craig Bernier
1 book9 followersA jack-of-all-trades, Craig has supported his writing with occupations both professional and menial ranging from college instructor to line cook, technical writer to bartender, carpenter to dishwasher, kennel cleaner, sailor, and pizza delivery. Work is a key theme in his stories and Detroit the premier setting for that. After serving for many years as a writing instructor at Duquesne University and a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, Craig returned to the trades were he works as a carpenter for IATSE Local 489.
Craig's writing has appeared in numerous national literary journals and his collection of short fiction titled Your Life Idyllic won the St Lawrence Book Award from Black Lawrence Press. It is available from Amazon, Black Lawrence, Small Press Distribution, or your local bookseller.
Originally from New Haven, Michigan, Craig is a Navy veteran who served in Desert Storm and Desert Shield as well as aboard numerous Pacific Fleet combatants. He is a graduate of Macomb Community College, Wayne State University in Detroit, and was the National Jacob K. Javits Fellow from 2002-05. His lives a stone's throw from Pittsburgh, in a small house he restored in Wilkinsburg, PA.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 1, 2015
As a writer, this book of short stories made me jealous. It was gritty and poetic which turns out to be an intoxicating blend. "The Manual of Heavy Drinking,"is my favorite piece because it's unlike anything else I've read. Craig Bernier uses his fiction to reproduce the emotional impact an experience – by using words to tour the five senses during what may seem like usual situations. He marries logic with emotion and chooses language that reveals characters and conflict. There are no wasted words. I think the best description of this book is authentic.
March 24, 2015
This is a terrific collection of gritty stories set (mostly) around Detroit, dealing with (mostly) workers affected by the economic downturn and changes in the auto industry. Some of the stories are pretty bleak, others hold out hope some hope--but not much. But they're all hard-driving and entertaining.
My full review here: Review of Your Life Idyllic at Best New Fiction
My full review here: Review of Your Life Idyllic at Best New Fiction
April 21, 2015
These short stories perfectly evoke their characters and setting. Like Raymond Carver's short stories, they are about blue collar, down-and-out workers leading gritty lives. Just instead of the west coast, they depict Detroit. There is a little hope, a moderate amount of substance abuse, and a lot of insight into the deep inner workings of people. Despite typographical errors in this edition, the writing is beautiful - richly detailed yet with an authentic voice.
March 1, 2022
Heartfelt and searing. Wasn't until I was near the end that I realized the characters had been getting progressively older, like it's moving through life from different perspectives, all unified by their collective orbit, some elliptical and some deteriorating, around the city of Detroit and its own strange trip between fortune and destitution.
Those perspectives will linger on in my memory for quite some time I feel.
Those perspectives will linger on in my memory for quite some time I feel.
November 20, 2019
I started this in 2014, and I'm sad to say that I put it on the shelf for five years. I'm thrilled that I went back to it, because this is a fantastic collection of short stories.
December 10, 2014
I received a promotional copy through the First Reads program.
Nine stories, ranging in length from ten to twenty-seven pages. Seven are set in or near Detroit; one in a vague somewhere; one in Southern California.
The stories are well-constructed. Accessible, readable, smooth plots, believable dialogue, etc. Bernier is aware of the problems in the world and puts human faces on them. But he also has a sense of humor.
It gets a bit redundant - reading about problem after problem. It creates the effect of the parts seeming better than the whole. But that's my only general complaint. As for the specific stories, the only one that falls flat is "Lucky Star". Though I think the ending of "The Chief" is a bit weak.
"The Manual of Heavy Drinking" is excellent. Simultaneously witty and serious, re-readable, and not like the others. "An Affliction of Starlings" tugs at the heart strings with its portrayal of a divorced man and his teen-age daughter.
Nine stories, ranging in length from ten to twenty-seven pages. Seven are set in or near Detroit; one in a vague somewhere; one in Southern California.
The stories are well-constructed. Accessible, readable, smooth plots, believable dialogue, etc. Bernier is aware of the problems in the world and puts human faces on them. But he also has a sense of humor.
It gets a bit redundant - reading about problem after problem. It creates the effect of the parts seeming better than the whole. But that's my only general complaint. As for the specific stories, the only one that falls flat is "Lucky Star". Though I think the ending of "The Chief" is a bit weak.
"The Manual of Heavy Drinking" is excellent. Simultaneously witty and serious, re-readable, and not like the others. "An Affliction of Starlings" tugs at the heart strings with its portrayal of a divorced man and his teen-age daughter.
May 6, 2015
Muscular is a thing in Midwestern prose. There’s a long tradition. Craig Bernier’s sentences are governed by this identifiable cadence. But it’s the stories, how they are governed. Craig Bernier wants his stories to make sense to you. One might think that is something all storytellers aspire to do, but it’s not. There is a great risk that too many of our story writers refuse to take: to say what they mean, to write about real people no one else notices. And to make a beauty of that risk. Where is a kind of why. Bernier knows this. Lucky for us.
September 5, 2014
The characters and stories in Your Life Idyllic are sure to linger in the mind, as Craig Bernier takes us through a series of moments -- beautiful and violent, heartfelt and heartbreaking, unsettling and profound. The struggles of these characters will resonate in ways unexpected, and the ending of each story will leave you with an insight, an unsheltered sense of truth. Highly recommended for those who seek to find truthfulness through fiction.
May 31, 2015
Fine short-story collection set mostly in blue-collar Detroit and environs. Bernier writes spare, muscular prose about everyday people in common but wrenching situations -- a guy taking his brother to rehab, divorced dads struggling to connect with their kids. But there's also a lot of humor here (ex-Detroiter Madonna shows up in one funny story) and a lot of insight into lives of quiet, and not-so-quiet, desperation.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews