There are a dozen ways the American Dream can go awry in this âunrepeatable . . . tour de forceâ of short fiction from the Pulitzer Prizeâwinning author (The Washington Post Book World).
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â[With] touches of Italo Calvino, Roald Dahl, and Gabriel GarcÃa MÃĄrquezâ the Pulitzer Prize and National Magazine Awardâwinning author dazzles with his mastery of the short story and his ability to find humor and humanity in the extremes of the American way (San Francisco Chronicle).
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Using tabloid headlines for inspirationâamong them, âBoy Born with Tattoo of Elvis,â âWoman Struck by Car Turns into Nymphomaniac,â and âTitanic Victim Speaks Through WaterbedââButler moves from the fantastic to the realistic, and from the lurid to the transcendent, as he explores exile, loss, aspiration, and the search for self. Along the way, we meet a wife who uses her glass eye to spy on her cheating husband; a widow who sets herself on fire after losing a baking competition; a nine-year-old hit man; a woman who dates an extraterrestrial she met at Walmart; and a furtive and mournful JFK who survived the assassination.
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âButler peels back the sleazy veneer of the sensational to expose characters who long for love and the healing comfort of human compassionâ âUSA Today
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âRead all about it: if youâre frustrated by the way nothing much seems to happen in modern short fiction, youâll find Tabloid Dreams a whole different story.â âThe New York Times Book Review
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âThese stories are masterpieces.â âSouth Florida Sun-Sentinel
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âTabloid Dreams is full-blown American magical realism.â âBoston Review