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Title: Cold Snap by Thom Jones ISBN: 0-316-47257-3 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: 01 June, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (10 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Probably the best short story writer out there today
Comment: I came across this book first and then moved back to 'Pugilist at Rest,' which many people cite as the better book. This one is at least as good, and may be slightly better. Great short stories are harder to write than novels, and that is why there are so few noteworthy books out there today. But Jones is fantastic and in complete control of his work. If there were more writers like this, I would probably stop reading overdrawn novels completely and only read short stories.
I once loaned this book to a friend who needed to find some short stories to use as models for form, etc. for school, and crossed out 3 of the 10 titles in the table of contents as probably suitable for skipping. While every collection like this will have its high points, 7 out of 10 seem to be must-read hits to me, and you are looking for too much in a short story collection if you expect more than that - even Hemingway's collections have their duds thrown in.
Rating: 2
Summary: Unbalanced Collection of Stories
Comment: This collection of stories offers nothing new in the landscape of contemporary fiction. There is nothing unique in the prose, just the raw stuff you'd find in Tim O'Brien or Ellen Gilchrist. The title story is the only one I liked. I especially hated the one told from the perspective of an Australian, it detracts from the main themes too much. There are better choices, like Rick Moody or Annie Proulx.
Rating: 5
Summary: Outstanding
Comment: Like _Pugilist At Rest_ which preceded it, _Cold Snap_ is an excellent work and should be considered and one of the most consistently outstanding collection of stories in contemporary American fiction.
Jones is an author who writes about what he knows. He is a former marine and an ex-boxer, and therefore marines and boxers feature largely in his stories. Jones' disappointing follow-up, _Sonny Liston Was a Friend of Mine_, unfortunately shows that this is not a formula with unlimited longevity. This collection, however, works splendidly.
I have a great appreciation for Jones' authenticity. He gets it right. The closing story "Dynamite Hands" is a masterpiece. Not a word out of place, a perfectly crafted gem. Jones depicts perfectly the complexity of boxing, and manages to successfully capture an amazing range of emotions in and out of the ring.
Another notable standout is "Way Down Deep in the Jungle" about a New Zealand doctor on an aid mission in Africa, and his unlikely companion: a pet baboon. Surrounded by death, AIDS, corruption, and despair, the baboon (vilified by the native staff) is his sole distraction.
Not pretty stuff, much of what you will find here; _Cold Snap_ is a blend of death, drug abuse, suicide, and various other dark elements of the human condition. But somehow Jones manages to craft some likeable characters and put them into situations which shed some light on our humanity. An excellent book.
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Title: Sonny Liston Was a Friend of Mine by Thom Jones ISBN: 0316472409 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: 12 January, 2000 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Pugilist At Rest: Stories by Thom Jones ISBN: 0316473049 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: 04 May, 1994 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Among the Missing by Dan Chaon ISBN: 0345441613 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 29 January, 2002 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Jesus' Son : Stories by by Denis Johnson ISBN: 0060975776 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 15 December, 1993 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Seek : Reports from the Edges of America & Beyond by Denis Johnson ISBN: 0060930470 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 19 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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