Brief Encounters with Che Guevara: Stories - Hardcover

Fountain, Ben

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060885580 ISBN 13: 9780060885588

Publisher: Ecco Pr, 2006

Synopsis

The well-intentioned protagonists of Brief Encounters with Che Guevara are caught -- to both disastrous and hilarious effect -- in the maelstrom of political and social upheaval surrounding them. In "Near-Extinct Birds of the Central Cordillera," an ornithologist being held hostage in the Colombian rain forest finds that he respects his captors for their commitment to a cause, until he realizes that the Revolution looks a lot like big business. In "The Good Ones Are Already Taken," the wife of a Special Forces officer battles a Haitian voodoo goddess with whom her husband is carrying on a not-entirely-spiritual relationship. And in "The Lion's Mouth," a disillusioned aid worker makes a Faustian bargain to become a diamond smuggler for the greater good. With masterful pacing and a robust sense of the absurd, each story in Brief Encounters with Che Guevara is a self-contained adventure, steeped in the heady mix of tragedy and danger, excitement and hope, that characterizes countries in transition.

Through Fountain's rounded and novelistic prose, these intelligent and keenly observed stories are painted in provocative and vibrant detail across a global canvas. Brief Encounters with Che Guevara marks the arrival of a striking and resonant new voice that speaks adeptly to the intimate connection between the foreign, the familiar, and the inescapably human.

About this title

Review

"Exceptional . . . Each of these eight stories is as rich as a novel . . . Heartbreaking, absurd, deftly drawn" (New York Times)

"Fountain has the storytelling gifts to bring the world home to us and a moral compass set to true north" (Gary Shteyngart)

"Brave, intelligent fiction" (Independent on Sunday)

"The work of a very talented writer who is keenly engaged with analysing American identity in the wider world... Beyond the pleasures of Fountain's vivid image-making and fluent storytelling, his collection's great accomplishment is the depth of reality it gives the foreign settings" (Chris Power Guardian)

"It is such an unexpected joy, in this age of introspection, to discover an American writer with a global outlook" (Jim Crace, author of BEING DEAD)

"Fountain writes with sparkle and dark humour" (Daily Express)

"In this first collection the author brings the virtuosity of Greene and le Carre to tales of foreign adventures" (Boston Globe)

"Impeccable . . . an heir to Paul Theroux" (Kirkus Reviews)

"A collection of stories dealing with moral choices, with the complexity of what being decent can mean . . . It's funny. And human. There's no pretense or cleverness - it's just a beautiful book" (Boston Globe)

"Fountain prowls similar turf to that of Tom Bissell, Gary Shteyngart and even early Thomas Pynchon . . . an impressive performance from an author with a gift for reaching into the past and producing something compelling and new" (Los Angeles Times Book Review)

Book Description

A dazzling debut collection of stories from the author of BILLY LYNN'S LONG HALFTIME WALK

Edition details

• Publisher: Ecco Pr
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0060885580
• ISBN 13: 9780060885588
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 229