Best Worst American: Stories

(Paperback)

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Winner of the inaugural Neukom Institute Literary Arts Award

These are the best Americans, the worst Americans. In these stories (these cities, these people) there are labyrinths, rivers, wildernesses. Voices sound slightly different than expected. There's humor, but it's going to hurt.

In "On Paradise," a petshop manager flies with his cat to Las Vegas to meet his long-lost mother and grandmother, only to find that the women look exactly like they did forty years before. In "The Spooky Japanese Girl is There For You," the spooky Japanese girl (a ghost) is there for you, then she is not.

These refreshing and invigorating stories of displacement, exile, and identity, of men who find themselves confused by the presence or absence of extraordinary women, jump up, demand to be read, and send the reader back to the earth changed: reminded from these short stories how big the world is.

Reviews

In his longest and best stories, Martinez mines both the small details and the large absurdities of life to show us our own strange world in a new way. Lincoln Michel, New York Times Book Review A master of the absurd who serves up contemporary American life in rare, blistering slices. Kelly Link, author of Get in TroubleFilled with droll, cunning, funny, and formally innovative stories that fall somewhere between stand-up comedy and literary fiction. These excellent works mark him as a writer both to read and watch. Tom BissellThese 24 wide-ranging stories are the gut-punch kind: intense, innovative tales that skew your vision for the rest of the day. Martinez writes with a sharp eye and a sharp tongue, and his characters often alone and unloved, often haunted are worthy observers of both the horrors and wonders of this world. Rebecca Makkai, author of Music for WartimeI feel sure that some smart and appreciative person will praise Juan Martinez for his skewed vision, but Martinezs view of the world is startlingly clear. Its just that the rest of us havent caught up yet. Deep and comic and deeply comic, his is a collection of wonders for any human to enjoy. Jack Pendarvis, author of Movie StarsA little out of the ordinary. . . . He takes this very unnatural environment and changes it into a landscape. Hannah TintiI loved it. Etgar KeretTwenty-four semiexistential short stories that have appeared in the likes of McSweeneys and Selected Shorts from Colombia-born writer Martinez. The author has an interesting way of injecting absurdity into everyday life and humor into the phantasmagorical in this wide-ranging, mostly engaging collection of tall tales. . . . there are also occasional moments of grace. . . . Some are just flat-out funny. . . . Martinez even makes the frightening funny. . . . promising debut collection of short stories, some unique in their execution. Kirkus Reviews
Shortlisted for the Neukom Institute Literary Arts Awards A master of the absurd who serves up contemporary American life in rare, blistering slices. Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble Filled with droll, cunning, funny, and formally innovative stories that fall somewhere between stand-up comedy and literary fiction. These excellent works mark him as a writer both to read and watch. Tom Bissell These 24 wide-ranging stories are the gut-punch kind: intense, innovative tales that skew your vision for the rest of the day. Martinez writes with a sharp eye and a sharp tongue, and his characters often alone and unloved, often haunted are worthy observers of both the horrors and wonders of this world. Rebecca Makkai, author of Music for Wartime I feel sure that some smart and appreciative person will praise Juan Martinez for his skewed vision, but Martinezs view of the world is startlingly clear. Its just that the rest of us havent caught up yet. Deep and comic and deeply comic, his is a collection of wonders for any human to enjoy. Jack Pendarvis, author of Movie Stars A little out of the ordinary. . . . He takes this very unnatural environment and changes it into a landscape. Hannah Tinti I loved it. Etgar Keret Twenty-four semiexistential short stories that have appeared in the likes of McSweeneys and Selected Shorts from Colombia-born writer Martinez. The author has an interesting way of injecting absurdity into everyday life and humor into the phantasmagorical in this wide-ranging, mostly engaging collection of tall tales. . . . there are also occasional moments of grace. . . . Some are just flat-out funny. . . . Martinez even makes the frightening funny. . . . promising debut collection of short stories, some unique in their execution. Kirkus Reviews

Author Bio

Juan Martinezs stories have been published in McSweeneys, Glimmer Train, Conjunctions, Huizache, Ecotone, TriQuarterly, and broadcast on Selected Shorts. He lives in Chicago with his family and is an assistant professor of English at Northwestern University. His website is fulmerford.com.