The Wonders of the Invisible World - (Vintage Contemporaries) by David Gates (Paperback)

About the Book

The author of the highly acclaimed novels "Jernigan" and "Preston Falls" offers up a mordantly funny collection of short stories about the bargains we make with ourselves to continue the high-wire act of living meaningful lives in late 20th century America.

Book Synopsis

The author of the highly acclaimed novels Jernigan (Pulitzer Prize Finalist) and Preston Falls (National Book Critics Cirlce Award Finalist) offers up a mordantly funny collection of short stories about the faulty bargains we make with ourselves to continure the high-wire act of living meaningful lives in late twentieth-century America.

Populated by highly educated men and women in combat with one another, with substance abuse, and above all with their own relentless self-awareness, the stories in The Wonders of the Invisible World take place in and around New York City, and put urbanism into uneasy conflict with a fleeting dream of rural happiness. Written with style and ferocious black humor, they confirm David Gates as one of the best-and funniest-writers of our time.

Review Quotes

"Nimbly crafted ...rendered with meticulous emotional detail and an astringent sense of the absurdities and self-indulgences of contemporary life." -The New York Times

"[Gate's stories] have something for which many fiction writers would be willing to make a pact with any sort of devil-utter authenticity." -The Boston Globe

"A ture heir to both Raymond Carver and John Cheever." -New York

About the Author

David Gates lives in New York City and in Granville, New York.