National Treasures

(Paperback)

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Description

A powerful and poignant portrait of the America we don't usually see - sharp, poetic and brilliantly written. A man puts pieces of his life up for auction. An antique chess set played with a troubled brother ($99.99), number plates from a crashed stolen car ($20), Chuck Taylor trainers worn in a riot in Seattle ($8.99). Along with a short description, he tells their stories, how they fit into the tapestry of his life. In National Treasures men and women measure out their lives in tattoos, sharpened fragments of a moose's hoof, autumn leaves, scribbled phone numbers, the red eyes of a heron. This is the America we never see - it's not in the movies, or on the news. National Treasures is about people trying to get by and get on. These can be tough lives of tough love and tough luck but they are full of poignancy and intensity, and Charles McLeod writes about them thrillingly.

Reviews

A portrait of America in all its breadth, across regions, classes, races, religions. Charles McLeod knows the whole country through its ill-fitting parts and people. All through this book, there are moments of wild candor and insight that crack the surface of daily life -- Salvatore Scibona, author of The End
Charles McLeods writing is very special crisp and rhythmical, sometimes almost poetic -- William Leith * Evening Standard *
well-researched -- Christena Appleyard * Daily Mail *

Author Bio

Charles McLeod's fiction has appeared in publications including Conjunctions, DOSSIER, Five Chapters, The Gettysburg Review, The Iowa Review, The Pushcart Prize- Best of the Small Presses, and on Salon; he is also the author of the novel American Weather. A Hoyns Fellow at the University of Virginia, he has also received fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and San Jose State University, where he was a Steinbeck Fellow.