One-Hundred-Knuckled Fist

Stories

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Pub Date Sep 01 2016 | Archive Date Sep 01 2016

Description

Rare voices in fiction, the lives of the working class consume this collection. Winner of the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction, One-Hundred-Knuckled Fist brings to life the narratives of midwestern blue-collar workers. In these sixteen stories, author Dustin M. Hoffman invites readers to peek behind the curtain of the invisible-but-ever-present “working stiff” as he reveals their lives in full complexity, offering their gruff voices—so often ignored—without censorship.

The characters at the heart of these stories work with their hands. They strive to escape invisibility. They hunt the ghost of recognition. They are painters, drywall finishers, carpenters, roofers, oil refinery inspectors, and hardscapers, all aching to survive the workday. They are air force firemen, snake salesmen, can pickers, ice-cream truck drivers, and Jamaican tour guides, seething forth from behind the scenes. They are the underemployed laborers, the homeless, the retired, the fired, the children born to break their backs. One-Hundred-Knuckled Fist initiates readers into the secret nightmares and surprising beauty and complexity of a sweat-stained, blue-collar world.

Rare voices in fiction, the lives of the working class consume this collection. Winner of the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction, One-Hundred-Knuckled Fist brings to life the narratives of...


Advance Praise

“Who would have thought that stories about work could contain such magic, such music, such imaginative universality, so many desperadoes who cling to their jobs as madly as winos to their bottles? Dustin M. Hoffman has made a dazzling debut.”—Jaimy Gordon, author of the National Book Award–winning Lord of Misrule

“Heartfelt and humorous and always keen to the ways our working lives serve to reveal our more personal hopes and dreams. I won’t soon forget these stories, which thrilled and moved me page after page.”—Matt Bell, author of Scrapper

“Utterly unique and so very important.”—Donald Ray Pollock, author of The Devil All the Time and Knockemstiff

“Who would have thought that stories about work could contain such magic, such music, such imaginative universality, so many desperadoes who cling to their jobs as madly as winos to their bottles?...


Available Editions

EDITION Paperback
ISBN 9780803288546
PRICE $19.95 (USD)

Average rating from 7 members


Featured Reviews

This isn't normally a book I would have picked up, but I'm loving it. Short stories about working-class men that are bittersweet and memorable. The prose flows with rhythm and is filled with strong metaphors, imagery and interesting descriptions. These are stories about men (and a couple of women) who want to provide for themselves and their loved ones, no matter what the work requires of them. So many people and jobs that you don't think about on a regular basis, telling their stories and sharing their lives between the pages of this book.

Icecream Dream was one of my favorite stories from the book. One of the quotes from the story... "Life is full of lemon givers, and a smart man takes his fate and makes more than just complacent lemonade."

Lots of good reading.

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This was a fun and quick read. A look inside the lives of blue collar workers, not just from the outside, but from someone who was right there with them. I really enjoyed this title. Exciting points of views.

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