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Driving the Heart: And Other Stories
A stunningly elegant and highly original debut collection of stories at once dark and poignant, funny and bleak.
The story "Thief" begins: "When my mother removed her shirt in front of third-period honors English, I was in the classroom next door taking a test." Her reason--her students were reading The Awakening and she had stopped taking her medication. The battle against self-destruction, the struggle to transform loss into meaning, and the difficulty of connecting with others, especially those closest to our hearts, are part of what make up these beautifully crafted and, in turns, incisively humorous and deeply wrenching stories.
In the title story, a man who transports organs for transplants breaks in a trainee and ruminates on his sometimes futile life-and-death existence. In "Dog Lover," a son has a quiet but smoldering battle of wills with his blind Vietnam-vet father over the fate of their dying dog. In "Sadness of the Body," an adolescent boy spends a deliriously hot summer with his alcoholic uncle and the uncle's young girlfriend, and observes the sometimes surreal schism between the body and the mind. Brown plumbs the hearts and minds of characters trying to make sense of their lives. He is a new and exquisitely talented voice in American fiction.
Driving the heart --
Animal stories --
Thief --
The naked running boy --
Head on --
Detox --
The coroner's report --
Hydrophobia --
Halloween --
Afterlife --
The submariners --
Sadness of the body --
The dog lover
The story "Thief" begins: "When my mother removed her shirt in front of third-period honors English, I was in the classroom next door taking a test." Her reason--her students were reading The Awakening and she had stopped taking her medication. The battle against self-destruction, the struggle to transform loss into meaning, and the difficulty of connecting with others, especially those closest to our hearts, are part of what make up these beautifully crafted and, in turns, incisively humorous and deeply wrenching stories.
In the title story, a man who transports organs for transplants breaks in a trainee and ruminates on his sometimes futile life-and-death existence. In "Dog Lover," a son has a quiet but smoldering battle of wills with his blind Vietnam-vet father over the fate of their dying dog. In "Sadness of the Body," an adolescent boy spends a deliriously hot summer with his alcoholic uncle and the uncle's young girlfriend, and observes the sometimes surreal schism between the body and the mind. Brown plumbs the hearts and minds of characters trying to make sense of their lives. He is a new and exquisitely talented voice in American fiction.
Driving the heart --
Animal stories --
Thief --
The naked running boy --
Head on --
Detox --
The coroner's report --
Hydrophobia --
Halloween --
Afterlife --
The submariners --
Sadness of the body --
The dog lover
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
224 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 1999
42 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 22, 2009
The title story has got to be one of the best short stories in the past 20 years.
July 30, 2010
I really enjoyed the 13 first person narratives that make up Brown's first collection. Though all the stories are told by male narrators and are similar thematically--several deal with drug use/addiciton, fathers waiting to be shipped out to Vietnam, fathers returning damaged (or not at all)and the aftermath--each story feels fresh.
I admire how Brown is able to pack so much into each of these stories, not only about the narrator, but about other characters as well. It's difficult (at least for me) to have a first person story be about more than the narrator. Clearly, this is not a problem for Brown.
Most of the stories in this collection are on the long side, and at times the plot lines are a bit convoluted and complicated. While the inclination might be to want them cut down, I never felt that any of the stories got out of hand (or away from Brown), and I'm sure that upon closer rereading what intitially seemed complicated and perhaps unnecessary, would ultimately prove to be well crafted and essential to the story.
I admire how Brown is able to pack so much into each of these stories, not only about the narrator, but about other characters as well. It's difficult (at least for me) to have a first person story be about more than the narrator. Clearly, this is not a problem for Brown.
Most of the stories in this collection are on the long side, and at times the plot lines are a bit convoluted and complicated. While the inclination might be to want them cut down, I never felt that any of the stories got out of hand (or away from Brown), and I'm sure that upon closer rereading what intitially seemed complicated and perhaps unnecessary, would ultimately prove to be well crafted and essential to the story.
July 4, 2007
Old professor-- great book.
Read
July 27, 2011I love this intense smart collection of short stories. I was riveted.
Want to read
December 24, 2012I read the title story of this book already in a magazine and was quite impressed. Looking forward to reading the rest!
February 27, 2014
Turning into one of my favourites of all time.
Yep. Easily top 3. Wow. Thank you, Jason Brown!
Yep. Easily top 3. Wow. Thank you, Jason Brown!
December 6, 2014
ميتونم به جرئت بگم يكي از بهترين هاي پنج سال اخير بود.
July 26, 2011
moderately interesting and the writing is fine. Subject matter worth the read
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews