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ReviewsFountain's confidence in taking on real world problems is matched by his reluctance to pontificate or judge., Superb debut story collection... Fountain knows the Third World; he [writes] with a precision that suggests firsthand knowledge., Fountain ... gets his message across without forsaking characterization and vivid descriptiveness. . .a revealing view of the human condition., ...Fountain's stories reach for a broader engagement...This book is a step in the right direction., In this first collection the author brings the virtuosity of Greene and le Carre to tales of foreign adventures., Short-story collections don't come much better than this. Brief Encounters With Che Guevara offers pointed prose, nimble revelation..., ...the ambition and global outlook of Fountain's fiction marks a welcome addition to the literature produced in our state., He imbues each narrative with an understanding of international politics and conflicts, and the sticky moral complexities involved., Ben Fountain writes the kind of stories that Robert Louis Stevenson, Joseph Conrad and Graham Greene used to write., 'Ben Fountain...blew me out of the water. These stories are absolutely jaw-dropping.'(Audrey Bullar, team leader, Jospeh-Beth Booksellers, Cincinnati, Ohio, for PW's Galley Talk), ... Fountain chooses just the right details, metaphors, similes and descriptions...life rendered in sentences seem[s] as life lived., Ben Fountain takes readers all over the world, navigating the alleys of the human soul with an expert's hand., Ben Fountain writes the kind of stories that Robert Louis Stevenson, Joseph Conrad and Graham Greene used to write...|9780060885601|, Fountain has the storytelling gifts to bring the world home to us and a moral compass set to true north., It is such an unexpected joy, in this age of introspection, to discover an American writer with a global outlook.
SynopsisWinner of the PEN/Hemingway Award * A National Bestseller "An exceptional story collection." -- New York Times Book Review The well-intentioned protagonists of Brief Encounters with Che Guevera --including a disillusioned NGO worker, the wife of a special operations officer, and an obssessed ornithologist--are caught, to both disastrous and hilarious effect, in the maelstrom of political and social upheaval surrounding them. With masterful pacing and a robust sense of the absurd, each story is a self-contained adventure, steeped in the heady mix of tragedy and danger, excitement and hope, that characterizes countries in transition. An intelligent and keenly observed collection, Brief Encounters with Che Guevera marks the arrival of a striking and resonant new voice that speaks adeptly to the intimate connection between the foreign, the familiar, and the inescapably human., Winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award * A National Bestseller "An exceptional story collection." --New York Times Book Review The well-intentioned protagonists of Brief Encounters with Che Guevera--including a disillusioned NGO worker, the wife of a special operations officer, and an obssessed ornithologist--are caught, to both disastrous and hilarious effect, in the maelstrom of political and social upheaval surrounding them. With masterful pacing and a robust sense of the absurd, each story is a self-contained adventure, steeped in the heady mix of tragedy and danger, excitement and hope, that characterizes countries in transition. An intelligent and keenly observed collection, Brief Encounters with Che Guevera marks the arrival of a striking and resonant new voice that speaks adeptly to the intimate connection between the foreign, the familiar, and the inescapably human., The well-meaning protagonists of Brief Encounters with Che Guevara are caught--to both disastrous and hilarious effect--in the maelstrom of political and social upheaval surrounding them. Ben Fountain's prize-winning debut speaks to the intimate connection between the foreign, the familiar, and the inescapably human.