Product Description

A collection of short stories.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2352742 in Books
• Published on: 1998-12-31
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 154 pages

From the Publisher
Moore's prose is sharp, his characters endearing, and his wit always on target. The twelve stories in Toothpick Men show heart, humor, and a keen eye for the ambiguity of human nature.

About the Author
Dinty W. Moore worked as a documentary filmmaker, professional modern dancer, wire service journalist, and zoo keeper. He has an MFA from Louisiana State University. He is an associate professor of English and creative writing at Penn State Altoona. He won an NEA Fellowship in fiction writing and published two previous books of nonfiction with Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, The Emperor's Virtual Clothes and The Accidental Buddhist.

Customer Reviews

A great book for the summer--or any other time!
Toothpick Men is thoughtful and entertaining, exactly the kind of book that is a great summer or beach read. The stories are quirky and short enough to read quickly, but serious enough to give you something to mull over, too. It would be a good winter book, too. The size of the MAMMOTH Press books is great, by the way: they feel comfortable and almost alive in your hands. I like the way the stories surprise you with unexpected twists and information. Just when you think you know who a narrator is and what makes him tick, Mr. Moore throws a curve ball at you. Not all the stories are equally well-done, but my only serious complaint is the emphasis on male perspectives to the exclusion of the women characters (of course the title tells you that that is going to be the case). I'd like to see a bit more depth to the female take on things, even if males or men are the focus. Overall it's a charming book and I recommend it.

A wonderful teaching tool
I have taught the book in freshman writing classes at two colleges in Sarasota, Florida: Manatee Community College and Ringling School of Art and Design. From the opening, White Birds, the students are intrigued--what do the birds symbolize, they wonder--and they continue eagerly with the stories. Moore explores the psyche of human conflict wonderfully. We held wonderful classroom discussions on things such as male and female interaction and communication, racism, assumptions, love, honesty, and how these things fit into our lives. The literature can be used to illuminate real life, and to provide a springboard for discussions of important human issues.

This is a rare example of contemporary stories that have such literary merit as to be worthy of classroom use. In addition to the human issues, the stories are staged and set nicely, and the characters are believable, even if sometimes aggravating, and use of symbolism is astounding: toothpick men, white birds, water images, and so many more.

Full, trendy stories with an unsuspected brink.
Moore's stories are contented and inviting, but they have abandoned ulterior traces, and more, to rims we hadn't suspected. Curing the daily subordinate, they visualize a parochial human being of discomfiting and sometimes enervating complexity. Moore invites us with the blackness of his laughter, his chancy hilarity. Moore's accounts show us that although one is history, this does not mean life is easy, nor gilded and assessed; but we as humans excavate utterly in the disquieting. Marvelously pursued and implied, that one only knows that history, the illumination of readers, Dinty invents ways to read and be read.