Galley Talk

Audrey Bullar, team leader, Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Cincinnati, Ohio

by Staff -- Publishers Weekly, 6/26/2006

Ben Fountain's Brief Encounters with Che Guevara: Stories (Ecco, Aug. 1) really blew me out of the water. These stories are absolutely jaw dropping. The cynical assessment of human nature is so beautifully balanced by the elegance of the writing. Each story is tidy and well orchestrated. Fountain can close a story—his conclusions resonate like deep satisfying chords. I thought of Waugh more than once—the first story in particular is like a neat inversion of Handful of Dust. Graham Greene comes to mind as well. The two stories without American characters—the Haitian cocaine story and the young pianist's story—are magical in their own way. There is a specificity and sure-handedness in the writing that is really tempered by a longing, a particularization of time and place, that really make them feel authentic. The voodoo goddess story was an absolute hoot, as was the very funny story of the hapless golfer in Burma. This will be a terrific handsell. I think it would make a good book club pick, too.