Product Description

Since publishing his first collection in the eighties, John J. Clayton has continued to write "powerful stories of urban life in America, of life often enough among Jews who carry their exile and their wilderness within them. The prose is powerful, an impressive mixture of sinuous sentences--which one reads as if one overhears thoughts. All of these characters are bruised. They are often enough triumphant, though, even if locked into mortal flesh, because they have an astonishing belief in the spirit." (Fredrick Busch)

We are pleased to be publishing the definitive collection of Clayton's remarkable stories. Included are two previously published collections, Bodies of the Rich and Radiance: Ten Stories, together with a selection of previously uncollected stories, and a large collection of new stories, Wrestling with Angels, plus an introduction to his work by the author.

Clayton has been published in nearly all major literary magazines and has been reprinted in The Pushcart Prize anthologies and volumes of Best American Short Stories and O Henry Prize Stories.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1456050 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 616 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Clayton's new stories, gathered here with the stories from earlier collections Bodies of the Rich and Radiance, show a steady, assured hand, delivering an exceptional and gratifying body of work. Cambridge Is Sinking! typifies his early writing, where young, menschy hippies reluctantly let go of their politics and community in the face of day-to-day struggles, ruminating on jobs, graduate degrees and rich uncles as they try to find direction. As Clayton's early characters turn away from their idealism, his later ones turn toward a larger search for meaning and often toward the divine. (In his author's preface, Clayton writes I hope for Jewish and non-Jewish readers; but I speak as a Jew.) In History Lessons Daniel Rose takes his young son to the neighborhood where he grew up, uncovering a considerable sense of loss (endemic to Clayton's stories) and a great divide between the father and son. Failed marriages, bitter children and terminal patients mark many of the tales: in The Contract, Max pores through holy books while his wife, Natalie, succumbs to cancer; the family finds comfort in the prayers' familiarity, but their meanings remain obscure. Clayton repeatedly explores a limited set of situations and emotions, but he is a master of his material. (Sept.)
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Review
"...a poignancy that comes from an intense sensitivity to the quiet suffering that most often goes unexpressed in the rush of daily life." -- Kirkus Reviews

"Clayton sees his reluctant Jewish prophets as wildly lucid, drunk on spirituality in a secular world.... Writing with compassion, simplicity and power, Clayton adjusts their visions just enough so they can find the way home." -- The New York Times

Having begun with tales of young love, marriage and divorce, Clayton's stories end their collection with professional, secularized adults having workaday revelations and dropping the hallowed names of Hasidim "Reb Yitzchak" and "Reb Menachem" (among others) as if they're water cooler co-workers or old friends from grad school -- at first just visiting, then here to stay.- -- The Jewish Daily Forward

From the Back Cover
Since publishing his first collection in the eighties, John J. Clayton has continued to write "powerful stories of urban life in America, of life often enough among Jews who carry their exile and their wilderness within them. The prose is powerful, an impressive mixture of sinuous sentences--which one reads as if one overhears thoughts. All of these characters are bruised. They are often enough triumphant, though, even if locked into mortal flesh, because they have an astonishing belief in the spirit." (Fredrick Busch)

We are pleased to be publishing the definitive collection of Clayton's remarkable stories. Included are two previously published collections, Bodies of the Rich and Radiance: Ten Stories, together with a selection of previously uncollected stories, and a large collection of new stories, Wrestling with Angels, plus an introduction to his work by the author.

Clayton has been published in nearly all major literary magazines and has been reprinted in The Pushcart Prize anthologies and volumes of Best American Short Stories and O Henry Prize Stories.