Head

by William Tester

"People speak of stories and novels as being ‘plot-driven,’ or, say, ‘voice-driven.’ If anything, Tester’s stories are fear-driven. There is, in these stories, fear of women—each jittery flirtation an agony of nervous desire—fear of a cruel stepfather who routinely endangers his stepsons, fear of one’s prospects. There is fear of the very act of speech, given the narrator’s ruinous stutter. Yet it is the resulting clumsiness—the missteps, the need so great—that seduces us in ways some smooth operator could not."—Amy Hempel

The eleven gorgeous stories in Head are remarkably varied in setting and cultural context: a bullying cattleman forces his two stepsons to lay fence in a Florida swamp; a haunted gay drifter hooks up with a rich young Italian in the shadow of the Vatican. Like Harold Brodkey’s manic protagonists, William Tester’s characters seem constantly poised on a psychic edge. Head contains some of the most daring and genuinely erotic writing in contemporary literature.

William Tester is a native of Charleston and North Florida, and is the author of the novel Darling, published by Alfred A. Knopf (1992). He has degrees from Syracuse and Columbia Universities, and is the recipient of the NEA Fellowship for Fiction, the Hob Broun Prize, the PEN Syndicated Fiction Award, and grants from the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the Constance Saltonstall Foundation. He teaches creative writing at Virginia Commonwealth University and lives in Richmond, Virginia.

200 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2000

Reviews

[Heidi Bakk-Hansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has been sitting on my shelf for around 15 years. So I finally read it, and at first I thought, well, this is some guy's first collection of stories, and maybe it's a little overwrought and... forgettable. But about half way through, I found some gems, and I felt like I was glad I'd kept this for so many years, and glad I read it. It seemed really to remind what it might be like for a young man to be thinking about what it means to be on the edge of desperation, what it means to be lost and searching. It's a touch Kerouac, a bit Neil Cassady, with another third of young Bukowski.

[Clem Paulsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short book but not a small one.

Eleven extraordinary stories. An infinite palette in rendering a wavering line between trepidation and panic. Characters packaged under pressure: society matron, men alone either running toward or away, fathers and sons.

Utterly engrossing. This guy is amazing.

[Elvia · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are exceptionally composed short stories. Central male figures, most of them pathetic. I love this deep, dark, twisted book. It resonates with me, especially the first story about the barbed wire fence. Let's just say I walked around with that story for a good, long time, and I love when that happens. I want to call William Tester and tell him how I feel, but that would probably freak him out.

[Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

Odd and delightful stories.

[Sarabande Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finalist of the 2001 Independent Publisher Book Award

[Jamison Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written story collection, but none of them particularly grabbed me.