Stories
by Charles Johnson
Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published May 2018
192 pages
Genre: Short Stories
Publication Information
A masterful story collection - thirteen years in the making - from National Book Award winner Charles Johnson, showcasing the incredible range and resonant voice of this American treasure.
This new collection of stories from National Book Award winner Charles Johnson offers an eclectic, engaging range of narratives, tied together by Buddhist themes and displaying all the grace, heart, and insight for which he has long been known.
In "The Weave," Ieesha and her boyfriend carry out a heist at the salon from which she has just been fired - coming away with thousands of dollars of merchandise in the form of hair extensions. "Night Hawks," the titular story, draws on Johnson's friendship with the late playwright August Wilson to construct a narrative about two writers who meet at night to talk. In "Kamadhatu," a lonely Japanese abbot has his quiet world upended by a visit from a black American Buddhist whose presence pushes him toward the awakening he has long found elusive. "Occupying Arthur Whitfield," about a cab driver who decides to rob the home of a wealthy passenger, reminds readers to be grateful for what they have. And "The Night Belongs to Phoenix Jones" combines the real-life story of a "superhero" in the city of Seattle with an invented narrative about an aging English professor who decides to join him.
Spanning genres from science fiction to realism, these stories convey messages of tolerance, hope, and gratitude. With precise, elegant, and moving language, Johnson creates memorable characters and real, human struggles that have the power to enlighten and change us as we read.
"Starred Review. It's gratifying to put yourself in the hands of a veteran storyteller who knows what he's doing - and is quietly secure in what he's teaching." - Kirkus
"Starred Review. Arresting...indelible moments that show Johnson to be a master of the short form." - Library Journal
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Charles Johnson is a novelist, essayist, literary scholar, philosopher, cartoonist, screenwriter, and professor emeritus at the University of Washington in Seattle. A MacArthur fellow, his fiction includes Night Hawks, Dr. King's Refrigerator, Dreamer, Faith and the Good Thing, and Middle Passage, for which he won the National Book Award. In 2002 he received the Arts and Letters Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in Seattle.
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