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Big Bad Love
Larry Brown's highly praised novel Dirty Work established him as one of the fiercest and most powerful new voices in Southern literature, a writer who understands the sorrows and joys of everyday life. That same compassionate regard for ordinary people shines on every page of Big Bad Love , whose heroes in these stories have a fatal weakness for beer, fast women, and pick-up trucks, and who find a kind of salvation in the reckless pursuit of love.
228 pages, Paperback
First published September 30, 1990
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About the author
Larry Brown
73 books654 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Larry Brown was an American writer who was born and lived in Oxford, Mississippi. Brown wrote fiction and nonfiction. He graduated from high school in Oxford but did not go to college. Many years later, he took a creative writing class from the Mississippi novelist Ellen Douglas. Brown served in the United States Marine Corps from 1970 to 1972. On his return to Oxford, he worked at a small stove company before joining the city fire department. An avid reader, Brown began writing in his spare time while he worked as a firefighter in Oxford in 1980.
Brown was awarded the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters award for fiction. Brown was the first two-time winner of the Southern Book Award for Fiction, which he won in 1992 for his novel, Joe and again in 1997 for his novel Father and Son. In 1998, he received a Lila Wallace-Readers Digest Award, which granted him $35,000 per year for three years to write. In 2000, the State of Mississippi granted him a Governor's Award For Excellence in the Arts. For one semester, Brown taught as a writer-in-residence in the creative writing program at the University of Mississippi, temporarily taking over the position held by his friend Barry Hannah. He later served as visiting writer at the University of Montana in Missoula. He taught briefly at other colleges throughout the United States.
Brown died of an apparent heart attack at his home in the Yocona community, near Oxford, in November 2004.
Larry Brown was an American writer who was born and lived in Oxford, Mississippi. Brown wrote fiction and nonfiction. He graduated from high school in Oxford but did not go to college. Many years later, he took a creative writing class from the Mississippi novelist Ellen Douglas. Brown served in the United States Marine Corps from 1970 to 1972. On his return to Oxford, he worked at a small stove company before joining the city fire department. An avid reader, Brown began writing in his spare time while he worked as a firefighter in Oxford in 1980.
Brown was awarded the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters award for fiction. Brown was the first two-time winner of the Southern Book Award for Fiction, which he won in 1992 for his novel, Joe and again in 1997 for his novel Father and Son. In 1998, he received a Lila Wallace-Readers Digest Award, which granted him $35,000 per year for three years to write. In 2000, the State of Mississippi granted him a Governor's Award For Excellence in the Arts. For one semester, Brown taught as a writer-in-residence in the creative writing program at the University of Mississippi, temporarily taking over the position held by his friend Barry Hannah. He later served as visiting writer at the University of Montana in Missoula. He taught briefly at other colleges throughout the United States.
Brown died of an apparent heart attack at his home in the Yocona community, near Oxford, in November 2004.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 169 reviews
September 2, 2015
The whole world seemed to be trying to be decent, and I seemed an indecent thing in it.*
This one was recommended to me by my pal John, who described it as "... a two evening read filled with social misfits." Though I spend most of my evenings surrounded by social misfits, I decided to give a read anyway. I'm fairly glad I did, as the book provides an excellent glimpse into what your friends, neighbors, and maybe even some of your relatives, might be getting up to behind closed doors.
Most of the stories concern basically decent men who've been kicked around by life. These are men who stay too long at the bar and find every reason why they not only need to, but deserve to cheat on their wives. Sometimes, their wives have had enough of it and have kicked the sorry sons of bitches out on their lazy asses. Yeah, we should hate these fellows, but more often than not, they are too pitiful to scorn. I credit Brown's writing talents for making the weasels tolerable.
A few of the tales are about struggling writers. In Acceptance, the quality of one man's sex life depends on whether or not he "likes" his wife's latest literary efforts. The last story, more of a novella really, is about a recently divorced man waiting for word on the short stories he has sent to publishers. Will the mail bring a big envelope containing a rejected story or will it be a letter of acceptance? And the funniest story, Discipline, is the document of a writer incarcerated for plagiarism who recounts weird, ungodly tales about torture and involuntary sex with obese women:
Why did you think they weren't going to take you out and torture you? Were you friendly with any of the guards?
No. Certainly not. They were all former editors. That was one of the requirements.
Oh, Larry must have really enjoyed writing that one. Sticks and stones may break bones, but sticking it to an editor is a writer's best revenge.
* from 92 Days
This one was recommended to me by my pal John, who described it as "... a two evening read filled with social misfits." Though I spend most of my evenings surrounded by social misfits, I decided to give a read anyway. I'm fairly glad I did, as the book provides an excellent glimpse into what your friends, neighbors, and maybe even some of your relatives, might be getting up to behind closed doors.
Most of the stories concern basically decent men who've been kicked around by life. These are men who stay too long at the bar and find every reason why they not only need to, but deserve to cheat on their wives. Sometimes, their wives have had enough of it and have kicked the sorry sons of bitches out on their lazy asses. Yeah, we should hate these fellows, but more often than not, they are too pitiful to scorn. I credit Brown's writing talents for making the weasels tolerable.
A few of the tales are about struggling writers. In Acceptance, the quality of one man's sex life depends on whether or not he "likes" his wife's latest literary efforts. The last story, more of a novella really, is about a recently divorced man waiting for word on the short stories he has sent to publishers. Will the mail bring a big envelope containing a rejected story or will it be a letter of acceptance? And the funniest story, Discipline, is the document of a writer incarcerated for plagiarism who recounts weird, ungodly tales about torture and involuntary sex with obese women:
Why did you think they weren't going to take you out and torture you? Were you friendly with any of the guards?
No. Certainly not. They were all former editors. That was one of the requirements.
Oh, Larry must have really enjoyed writing that one. Sticks and stones may break bones, but sticking it to an editor is a writer's best revenge.
* from 92 Days
May 22, 2021
Hillbilly-rotica
I really appreciated and enjoyed Brown's novel Joe. Here though, the stories seemed somewhat juvenile, the dialogue forced and the sex disgusting. I think Brown worked around some "sho-nuff" rednecks before beginning his writing career. From personal experience, I know how this can scar the somewhat sensitive soul: at 18, I worked a summer in a factory with nothing but blue collar rednecks (God bless 'em: a Southern phrase to cushion the blow) who provided me an assortment of some of the most disgusting images of sex I still cannot cast out of my mind, and at a time when I was still a virgin (a fact I obviously didn't disclose to them) and porn was unavailable (in 1983).
Reading the title story, consisting mostly of raunch in a parked vehicle, reminded me of that summer of lost innocence. I can't say the memories were fond. Brown's sex scenes are as sensual as a couple of hogs gruntin' and ruttin' around in a pen-full of slop.
Granted, it's been a while since I read this. Yet, like the amaretto that made me extremely sick on my first college road trip, just a whiff of Big Bad Love turns my stomach now.
I cannot recommend this. If you want to try a book by the late Larry Brown, a fine author in many respects, I suggest Joe or Fay.
I really appreciated and enjoyed Brown's novel Joe. Here though, the stories seemed somewhat juvenile, the dialogue forced and the sex disgusting. I think Brown worked around some "sho-nuff" rednecks before beginning his writing career. From personal experience, I know how this can scar the somewhat sensitive soul: at 18, I worked a summer in a factory with nothing but blue collar rednecks (God bless 'em: a Southern phrase to cushion the blow) who provided me an assortment of some of the most disgusting images of sex I still cannot cast out of my mind, and at a time when I was still a virgin (a fact I obviously didn't disclose to them) and porn was unavailable (in 1983).
Reading the title story, consisting mostly of raunch in a parked vehicle, reminded me of that summer of lost innocence. I can't say the memories were fond. Brown's sex scenes are as sensual as a couple of hogs gruntin' and ruttin' around in a pen-full of slop.
Granted, it's been a while since I read this. Yet, like the amaretto that made me extremely sick on my first college road trip, just a whiff of Big Bad Love turns my stomach now.
I cannot recommend this. If you want to try a book by the late Larry Brown, a fine author in many respects, I suggest Joe or Fay.
July 19, 2016
A collection of short stories that exude Bukowski's influence on Brown like beer sweat on a miserably muggy Mississippi afternoon. But unlike Bukowski, Brown is an infinitely more imaginative and gifted writer, and each of these stories about men behaving badly carries more weight than just being celebrations of methomania and misanthropy. Each of the first eight stories knowingly features what can be interpreted as a stand-in for Larry Brown (all of these boozy first-person protagonists having names that start with the letter "L") and each deals with avoiding the responsibilities of marriage, parenting and burying your dead dog by dedicated focus on such acts as drunk driving, bad sex, fishing, stalking flashers, moping around strip clubs, the occasional joint, fist fights and more drunk driving. But Brown was never a one-note writer, and the last two pieces take turns for the ambitiously metafictional. "Discipline" is a transcript of a Kafkaesque trial featuring another L-named writer incarcerated for the crime of plagiarism and forced to work on improving his writing or suffer the bizarre punishments concocted by his cruel prison guards, who all happen to be ex-editors. The last chunk of this collection is dedicated to the novella "92 Days", an eviscerating account of a struggling writer (with--once more with feeling--the same initials as the author) who destroys his marriage and abandons his kids so that he can focus all of his attention on waiting for rejection letters from publishing houses and on hazardous amounts of drinking, self-loathing and drunk driving. All in all, Brown's second collection is a bleak but humane exploration of despair paired with the desire to create.
March 16, 2023
Ok, I took one for the team. To anyone who thought an earlier club selection was too Chick Lit, sweet and fluffy, and so forth, I’d say we're even. Rifle racks in pickup trucks,beer, and women (mostly conjured up), the only think I can think of to call this is Loser Lit. ( Not wishing to call it macho man or tough guy lit ..lol)
If you weren't depressed when you started this book, you may very well be by time you're done.
This author is a married guy with three children, and has written a book called Facing The Music, which won a Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters award for literature. Well knock me over with a feather. 2 stars - Read for On The Southern Literary Trail.
If you weren't depressed when you started this book, you may very well be by time you're done.
This author is a married guy with three children, and has written a book called Facing The Music, which won a Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters award for literature. Well knock me over with a feather. 2 stars - Read for On The Southern Literary Trail.
August 3, 2015
I love Larry Brown, and I loved these short stories. He manages to make us understand and feel sorry for the losers he writes about. They mean well and have good intentions, but they just need a beer to think straight, and then another one and another, and......
These stories are funny and sad at the same time. Absolutely hilarious to the reader on the outside looking in, until you realize that there's something a little tragic in the telling.
The last story in the collection "92" seemed a bit semi-autographical, about a man with writing ambitions who couldn't seem to get published. Then I realized that all the narrators in this book had different names, but always the same initials, L.B. Maybe Larry Brown put a little of himself in all of these guys.
These stories are funny and sad at the same time. Absolutely hilarious to the reader on the outside looking in, until you realize that there's something a little tragic in the telling.
The last story in the collection "92" seemed a bit semi-autographical, about a man with writing ambitions who couldn't seem to get published. Then I realized that all the narrators in this book had different names, but always the same initials, L.B. Maybe Larry Brown put a little of himself in all of these guys.
April 26, 2008
Damn, I love Larry Brown. I just can't get over him, and everytime I remember that he's died, I mourn that I'll soon run out of things of his to read. He somehow writes stories that are at once familiar and foreign. To be honest, the people he writes about are people I would have avoided in Mississippi. I fully admit my classism and snobbery here. And he doesn't make me want to go back and become friends with them. But he does make my heart break for them. Big Bad Love is a collection of stories, all about men who are struggling with everything and spend most of their time driving around drinking beer. And in that simplicity, he creates incredibly complex characters, all of whom are shades of Brown himself. Read it if only for "92 Days", the last story in the collection, and the one that makes you appreciate every unpublished writer you've ever known.
August 11, 2015
I run hot and cold on Larry Brown, but there is some creative brilliance in 'Discipline'. I laughed out loud on a few things so I plan to follow through and read all of his work. My favorite by LB is 'Fay', a book I will probably read again some day. I thought he pushes the shock value button a little too much with this collection. As I described my thoughts earlier: "Ooops!! I stepped in some Grit!!"
March 28, 2019
Not my favorite group of short stories by Larry Brown but they're better than almost any other stories you'll read.
If William Gay is the personification of Bob Dylan's BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME, HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED, BLONDE ON BLONDE pharma-psycho trilogy, then Larry Brown is the virtual personification of the entire discography of John Prine with a little bit of Johnny Dowd tossed in.
Nine stories plus one rambling, drunk of a novella.
I liked about half the stories and most of the novella.
I wouldn't recommend this anthology to newcomers to the writing of Larry Brown.
Sure am glad I own a copy of this thing, though.
If William Gay is the personification of Bob Dylan's BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME, HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED, BLONDE ON BLONDE pharma-psycho trilogy, then Larry Brown is the virtual personification of the entire discography of John Prine with a little bit of Johnny Dowd tossed in.
Nine stories plus one rambling, drunk of a novella.
I liked about half the stories and most of the novella.
I wouldn't recommend this anthology to newcomers to the writing of Larry Brown.
Sure am glad I own a copy of this thing, though.
August 18, 2015
3.5 These are not stories of the genteel South, ,where people are concerned with their reputations. Nope, these are crass, crude stories of those often talked about in country western songs. Pick-up trucks, driving down country roads aimlessly, some married but always on the lookout for something better and if they can't figure out an answer to the problems of their lives or they feel and unwanted emotion, why they just have another beer. Alcohol fixes everything.
Yet there was something that in these stories, or at least some of them that appealed to me, because despite their hard exteriors there is just something a little soft in their interiors. Maybe, or I hope so anyway.
Also liked how the stories ended with a little ironic humor.
My first Larry Brown, hope to read a novel of his soon.
Yet there was something that in these stories, or at least some of them that appealed to me, because despite their hard exteriors there is just something a little soft in their interiors. Maybe, or I hope so anyway.
Also liked how the stories ended with a little ironic humor.
My first Larry Brown, hope to read a novel of his soon.
August 15, 2015
3.5 stars
This was good in a Kurt Vonnegut sort of way, and while I appreciate the superb quality of writing and relevant themes, generally speaking, it's just not my favorite kind of storytelling.
I imagine this collection will hold appeal to the literary community, particularly those struggling writers out there who may relate all too well to the protagonists in a number of the stories.
Intelligent, different, and well-written. Three stars because sometimes I have a limited tolerance for certain types of blatant/in-your-face satire as well as the caricatures offered both in terms of characters and themes.
This was good in a Kurt Vonnegut sort of way, and while I appreciate the superb quality of writing and relevant themes, generally speaking, it's just not my favorite kind of storytelling.
I imagine this collection will hold appeal to the literary community, particularly those struggling writers out there who may relate all too well to the protagonists in a number of the stories.
Intelligent, different, and well-written. Three stars because sometimes I have a limited tolerance for certain types of blatant/in-your-face satire as well as the caricatures offered both in terms of characters and themes.
July 14, 2012
The short stories in this collection are entertaining, bluesy in that doo-wop way and plenty fun.
The narrator in each short story could be the same guy, likely the point: that big bad love brings out the big bad wolf in us all.
3.5 stars.
December 10, 2021
El narrador de cada una de las diez historias podría ser la misma persona, y si ahondamos algo más, podría ser el mismo Larry Brown ¿por qué si no, cada uno de estos narradores tienen nombres que empiezan por la letra L? . Todas las historias están escritas desde una primera persona que es como un mazazo por la forma en que aborda el día a día, el intento de ese hombre por entender a las mujeres, viviendo con ellas o sin ellas. Es una colección de relatos a flor de piel por como confrontan a veces el descenso a los infiernos de ese personaje central cuyas temàticas se repiten una y otra vez. Es interesante ver como funcionan estos relatos separadamente, todos tienen una cohesión independiente, pero sin embargo, una vez terminados y si tienes una visión de conjunto, se convierten en una especie de novela donde esa primera persona que narra está continuamente a la búsqueda de sí mismo, y no se encuentra, o sí…
Entre estos diez relatos, hay uno, que no es realmente un cuento, sino lo que se vendría a llamar una novella: un cuento largo o una novela corta. Se titula “92 Días” y es realmente una pequeña obra maestra donde Brown se deja la piel revelando la soledad del escritor, y el sacrificio que supone dedicarse a esto de la literatura. "92 Dias" parece una de estas muñecas rusas donde dentro de este largo relato se esconden muchas historias, autobiogtáficas y relatos insertados por el mismo autor, con lo que se convierte en una experiencia de metaficción desbordante de imaginación y de vida porque llegado un punto es dificil separar donde está el limite entre imaginación y realidad.
“Tenía la certeza de que al menos algo de lo que escribía era bueno, era solo que que aún no había encontrado a nadie que compartiese mi visión de las cosas. Nadie con poder. Nadie que pudiera decidir si se podía publicar o no (…) Ellos no se percataban de que sus papelitos hacían que avansaran o se retrasaran las carreras literarias de la gente , de que muchos de nosotros vivíamos y moríamos con un trazo de sus boligrafos. No tenían ni idea de su poder. Nosotros erámos un vasto efluvio anónimo de autores que no habían demostrado aún su valía, y ellos recibían tal cantidad de material malo que se les hacia difícil encontrar algo que mereciera la pena entre tanta bazofia.”
https://kansasbooks.blogspot.com/2021...
Entre estos diez relatos, hay uno, que no es realmente un cuento, sino lo que se vendría a llamar una novella: un cuento largo o una novela corta. Se titula “92 Días” y es realmente una pequeña obra maestra donde Brown se deja la piel revelando la soledad del escritor, y el sacrificio que supone dedicarse a esto de la literatura. "92 Dias" parece una de estas muñecas rusas donde dentro de este largo relato se esconden muchas historias, autobiogtáficas y relatos insertados por el mismo autor, con lo que se convierte en una experiencia de metaficción desbordante de imaginación y de vida porque llegado un punto es dificil separar donde está el limite entre imaginación y realidad.
“Tenía la certeza de que al menos algo de lo que escribía era bueno, era solo que que aún no había encontrado a nadie que compartiese mi visión de las cosas. Nadie con poder. Nadie que pudiera decidir si se podía publicar o no (…) Ellos no se percataban de que sus papelitos hacían que avansaran o se retrasaran las carreras literarias de la gente , de que muchos de nosotros vivíamos y moríamos con un trazo de sus boligrafos. No tenían ni idea de su poder. Nosotros erámos un vasto efluvio anónimo de autores que no habían demostrado aún su valía, y ellos recibían tal cantidad de material malo que se les hacia difícil encontrar algo que mereciera la pena entre tanta bazofia.”
https://kansasbooks.blogspot.com/2021...
June 10, 2018
I chose this book to read for my 1000th "read" book
on Goodreads because it is one of the books that's sat on my shelves the longest unread. It survived nearly a decade of culling neglected books in my library to make room for fresher options, because I was so sure that when I finally got around to it I'd love it.
But maybe 2018 wasn't the right time for Big Bad Love. I'm not predisposed to empathy for pathetic drunk dudes hunting for (usually extramarital) tail in these times of Trump. I can be convinced into empathy for most characters by especially good writing, but Larry Brown's "Bukowski of the South" style struck me as more mordant than empathetic.
The first part of this book, a selection of short stories, is its best part. The title story was probably my favorite, and the only one where the macho humor made at the expense of the main character's wife made me laugh (the MC is sexually frustrated in his marriage because his wife's vagina is too loose; as with Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint, Brown seems in on the humor, aware that his MC is rather pathetic, and writes some really funny sentences illustrating how awful their sex life is as a result).
The second part of this book is a meta interlude about two writers being punished for copping others' style/"literary theft." It is jarring to read based on the stories that have come before it, and not very well executed. I contemplated DNFing this book after it.
The third part of the book is a novella that, despite following a story about literary theft, reeked so much of Bukowski in terms of style and ambling, aimless quality. I did feel an occasional pang of feeling, but again was mostly frustrated by the machismo.
I want it understood, though, that I love some of Bukowski's writing (I have lines from "The Laughing Heart" tattooed on me). I love other artists that are like Larry Brown in terms of writing and/or singing mostly about women and drink. Tom Waits, Howlin' Wolf? Love love love. But they also have a burning heart that I could not find in most of this collection.
Now I'm off to listen to "Anywhere I Lay My Head," because the feeling I get listening to that song is the feeling I hoped to get from Big Bad Love and did not!
on Goodreads because it is one of the books that's sat on my shelves the longest unread. It survived nearly a decade of culling neglected books in my library to make room for fresher options, because I was so sure that when I finally got around to it I'd love it.
But maybe 2018 wasn't the right time for Big Bad Love. I'm not predisposed to empathy for pathetic drunk dudes hunting for (usually extramarital) tail in these times of Trump. I can be convinced into empathy for most characters by especially good writing, but Larry Brown's "Bukowski of the South" style struck me as more mordant than empathetic.
The first part of this book, a selection of short stories, is its best part. The title story was probably my favorite, and the only one where the macho humor made at the expense of the main character's wife made me laugh (the MC is sexually frustrated in his marriage because his wife's vagina is too loose; as with Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint, Brown seems in on the humor, aware that his MC is rather pathetic, and writes some really funny sentences illustrating how awful their sex life is as a result).
The second part of this book is a meta interlude about two writers being punished for copping others' style/"literary theft." It is jarring to read based on the stories that have come before it, and not very well executed. I contemplated DNFing this book after it.
The third part of the book is a novella that, despite following a story about literary theft, reeked so much of Bukowski in terms of style and ambling, aimless quality. I did feel an occasional pang of feeling, but again was mostly frustrated by the machismo.
I want it understood, though, that I love some of Bukowski's writing (I have lines from "The Laughing Heart" tattooed on me). I love other artists that are like Larry Brown in terms of writing and/or singing mostly about women and drink. Tom Waits, Howlin' Wolf? Love love love. But they also have a burning heart that I could not find in most of this collection.
Now I'm off to listen to "Anywhere I Lay My Head," because the feeling I get listening to that song is the feeling I hoped to get from Big Bad Love and did not!
August 30, 2015
This collection was a mixed bag for me. I thought many of the stories in Part 1 were a bit repetitive and unnecessarily crude. The stories have a consistent theme of the narrator, who seems out of luck and love, trying to find himself, happiness or meaning in life. However, many times he tries to find it at the bottom of a can of Old Milwaukee. Some have said there is a bleakness, which I agree, but I think Brown writes it in a more of comically grim sort of way. A few notable stories that I did enjoy: “The Apprentice” was quite funny. It deals with the narrator describing his wife as an aspiring writer who wants to be published. She is constantly asking him to critique her manuscripts, which he hates to do. There are a few funny bits in the story. One part is when the narrator asks his wife if she read “Moby Dick”, to which she replies: “No, I but I saw it on the late movie. Gregory Peck and all them. Did that come from a book?” I also thought the story “Sleep” was a good one, where the narrator reflects on life and philosophizes.
I liked the longer works, “Discipline” and “92 Days”, in parts 2 and 3, better than the shorter pieces. “Discipline” was a sort of spoof, satire, with a man on “trial” for committing the sin of plagiarizing well-known authors. It really shifts the entire mood to a much lighter tone after reading part 1. I felt the best in the collection was 92 Days, as I think it pulls together the central themes of all the works: struggling with life, trying to find happiness, aspiring to get published. It has a mix of humor and pathos that really ties the entire collection together.
I’m sure that many in this collection could be the basis of a country song in a smoky bar.
This was my first Larry Brown book. I might check out some of his other stuff.
I liked the longer works, “Discipline” and “92 Days”, in parts 2 and 3, better than the shorter pieces. “Discipline” was a sort of spoof, satire, with a man on “trial” for committing the sin of plagiarizing well-known authors. It really shifts the entire mood to a much lighter tone after reading part 1. I felt the best in the collection was 92 Days, as I think it pulls together the central themes of all the works: struggling with life, trying to find happiness, aspiring to get published. It has a mix of humor and pathos that really ties the entire collection together.
I’m sure that many in this collection could be the basis of a country song in a smoky bar.
This was my first Larry Brown book. I might check out some of his other stuff.
Read
October 27, 2011Hated it. While I appreciate Brown's writing (he is a good writer), his stories are filled with beer, sex, and bars, and his characters are all unhappily married and seem to be getting sadder and more depressed by the page. The stories were just too bleak, and I kept hoping something, anything, would turn around, but it didn't. I think when a writer reaches that point when he cannot do anything for his characters, he should not be writing that story, but Brown keeps going, people keep dying, marriages keep falling apart, and there's just more sex and beer. I will admit that Brown has a great way of portraying the people he writes about. I knew from reading these stories that they were based on him or people he had met because he never seems to look down on these men who shirk responsibilty and parenting to get wasted and have sex, but instead seems to emphathize with them and their struggles with being published. In that respect, Brown is a great writer. I personally just don't enjoy the content.
Want to read
July 18, 2007I won this book in a breakup-letter-writing contest. It's signed, in pencil. Who signs in pencil? Amateur! But ok, it might be good, and I have a nagging goal of reading the books I own. This one is at my parents' house... one of these days, I guess.
August 24, 2021
This is the perfect title for this book of short stories. Big Bad Love. That's what it's about. Even though parts of it were disgusting to me, the book was real. I know these people, and have been them. I laughed and I cried, even on my third time through.
Thanks to Pat Knight for this gift.
Thanks to Pat Knight for this gift.
November 23, 2014
This was one of the better short stories collections I ever read. All of the stories are linked together with similar themes. For the most part the collection reads as a loose narrative telling the tales of some very amusing and complex characters set in rural Mississippi (director Arliss Howard incorporated this idea into his film adaption of one of the book's stories).
The highlights include a guy that complains that a certain part of his wife's body is way too big for his liking or the story of the town weirdo flashing women by the dumpster. Then there are the middle-of-the night-side-of-the-road-half-inside-the-car-half-outside-of-the-car-impulsive love making scenes, those are great.
The only story that seems a bit out of place is the one about a man on trial for plagiarism. It is hilarious and reads more like Vonnegut and seems like the odd one out here. The character has been sentenced to 5 years, where he is forced to write. As part of his punishment he must have sex, blindfolded and with his nose plugged, with a grossly obese, unkempt woman. Amazing.
However, my most enjoyment from the novel was reading the story about Leon Barlow in "92 Days" and his struggles to get published, stay sober, get money, and ward off his ex-wife. I couldn't help but feel I was getting a rather revealing glimpse into Larry Brown's pre-published days.
The highlights include a guy that complains that a certain part of his wife's body is way too big for his liking or the story of the town weirdo flashing women by the dumpster. Then there are the middle-of-the night-side-of-the-road-half-inside-the-car-half-outside-of-the-car-impulsive love making scenes, those are great.
The only story that seems a bit out of place is the one about a man on trial for plagiarism. It is hilarious and reads more like Vonnegut and seems like the odd one out here. The character has been sentenced to 5 years, where he is forced to write. As part of his punishment he must have sex, blindfolded and with his nose plugged, with a grossly obese, unkempt woman. Amazing.
However, my most enjoyment from the novel was reading the story about Leon Barlow in "92 Days" and his struggles to get published, stay sober, get money, and ward off his ex-wife. I couldn't help but feel I was getting a rather revealing glimpse into Larry Brown's pre-published days.
November 28, 2012
I debated whether or not to give this collection of short stories 3 or 5 stars, and though I ended up with 4, it's certainly not what it deserves. Separately, each of these stories has earned closer to 5 in my book, but as they're collected, they seem to run together. When Big Bad Love is read as a whole it's difficult to decipher one from the other. Don't get me wrong, Brown is a fantastic writer with strong characters and a terrific ear for dialogue, but if you're planning on picking up this collection, make sure you give yourself enough time in between stories to shake off the grim and grimy places Larry Brown takes you.
September 21, 2011
Larry, Larry, Larry. Who in the heck were you? These stories are dark and written in first person and they are all about people that I know I certainly wouldn't want to be good friends with. These stories aren't the best thing I've read by the late Mr. Brown - but I miss him so. So I'm willing to read whatever's left out there that I haven't yet read.
July 2, 2007
This collection was my introduction to Larry Brown, and has remained one of my favorite books for a long time now. If you like rural settings and gritty, down on their luck men who struggle to make their way in the world, especially with women, you'll like this book.
March 14, 2015
This book removed the top of my head. Larry Brown is incredible. So much emotional power it's a little ridiculous. I'm pretty bummed this is the last of his fiction that I haven't read. The good news is that his writing is so good it deserves multiple re-reads.
May 3, 2019
Du bon bon bon ! Dans une période aussi surchargée ce recueil fut mon refuge.
February 16, 2020
I’ve enjoyed several of Larry Brown’s great country noir novels more than this collection of short stories. In Part One of this book, there is a sameness to a lot of the narrators and their uneasy discontent interchangeable from one story to the next, men in superficial sexual relationships who drink to escape dull and unsatisfying lives. There is some fine dark humor here, but I thought the stories mostly come across as sketches based on similar ideas rather than finished works. In Part Two, the author is humorously on trial for writing indiscretions, but my favorite section of the book was the longer and more fully developed story/novella that comprises Part Three, it has a similar theme and protagonist as the shorter stories in the first part but I found it much more compelling. I think this book is worth a read for fans of the author who are interested in exploring his earlier work.
August 21, 2024
This was a great book of short stories. Thank you Rob for the recommendation.
Very real characters, unpretentious writing. Just real life.
I loved the wit and real people. My top favorites were the title story Big Bad Love and Old Soldiers. But they were all worth a read. Discipline was my least favorite, but 9 outta 10 ain't bad. 😁
Very real characters, unpretentious writing. Just real life.
I loved the wit and real people. My top favorites were the title story Big Bad Love and Old Soldiers. But they were all worth a read. Discipline was my least favorite, but 9 outta 10 ain't bad. 😁
December 13, 2024
Men drink beer, objectify women, and are sad as a product of these things.
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June 12, 2025My first dive into Larry Brown’s worlds. I dug a lot of it, but in particular the very last story, 92 Days. Brown’s power is in how concisely he can get to the nerve of a feeling in a single sentence. Short and concise.
September 7, 2023
This book will drive a fist deep into your stomach and make you grateful you can feel.
October 27, 2025
It’s the same story like 9 times. Still a fun read, and I relate to the white trashness of it all.
May 12, 2007
Brown's stories, all save for one written in the first-person, feature wonderfully authentic narrative voices. As a transplanted Southern male, the rhythms and dictions of Brown's narrators were nearly enough to give me flashbacks. However, the narrators were largely undifferentiated; they bled into one another, and the voice that had seemed so singularly wonderful when I read the first story felt somewhat threadbare by the time I finished the closing novella.
These stories are also sunk deep within the Southern oral tradition—so much so, in fact, that not all of them seem to work as printed literature. The plots of most of the stories are episodic, and the writing is weighted heavily toward exposition over scene. The strongest stories in the collection—"Sleep" and the novella "92 Days"—are the ones that buck this trend.
In all, though, I'd recommend Big Bad Love on the strength of its narrators' voices alone. "My dog died," the title story's narrator tells us at the story's opening. "I went out there in the yard and looked at him and there he was, dead as a hammer. Boy, I hated it. I knew I'd have to look around and see about a shovel. But it didn't look like he'd been dead long and there wasn't any hurry, and I was wanting a drink somewhat, so I went on out a little further into the yard to see if my truck would crank and it would, so I left." And even though the story that follows doesn't completely cohere, it's a simple pleasure just to sit back and let this deep-fried Southern men speak.
These stories are also sunk deep within the Southern oral tradition—so much so, in fact, that not all of them seem to work as printed literature. The plots of most of the stories are episodic, and the writing is weighted heavily toward exposition over scene. The strongest stories in the collection—"Sleep" and the novella "92 Days"—are the ones that buck this trend.
In all, though, I'd recommend Big Bad Love on the strength of its narrators' voices alone. "My dog died," the title story's narrator tells us at the story's opening. "I went out there in the yard and looked at him and there he was, dead as a hammer. Boy, I hated it. I knew I'd have to look around and see about a shovel. But it didn't look like he'd been dead long and there wasn't any hurry, and I was wanting a drink somewhat, so I went on out a little further into the yard to see if my truck would crank and it would, so I left." And even though the story that follows doesn't completely cohere, it's a simple pleasure just to sit back and let this deep-fried Southern men speak.
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