Dogwalker: Stories - Softcover

Bradford, Arthur

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0375726691 ISBN 13: 9780375726699

Publisher: Vintage, 2002

Synopsis

Tender and satiric, hilarious and humane, Dogwalker plunks readers down in a land of misfits and the circumstantially strange–where one young man buys drugs from a dealer who locks his customers in a closet, while another lands a cat-faced circus freak for a roommate, and yet another must choose between his pregnant wife and the ten-pound slug he’s convinced will bring him a fortune. And throughout these stories moves a divinely inspired collection of dogs: three-legged, no-legged, dogs that sing, that talk, and that give birth to humans. Brilliant, perplexing, and moving, this is a daring debut that strolls along society’s fringes and unearths strange beauty among its misfits

About this title

From the Publisher

Advance Praise:

"Arthur Bradford is very tall, but this does not seem to have hampered his writing. His perfect, perfect stories remain in your head, much like, say, a severed torso might remain under the tracks of a train (see Bill McQuill). Please: you should read Bradford because his stories run on childlike wonder, mitigated by the many mutations of adulthood, which is how we all feel, yes? His world appears, at first, to be a happy one, where people collect large slugs from the glove compartments of wrecked cars, hoping to sell said slugs for large sums. But then something dark and slithery happens, and his simple sentences and seemingly banal observations give way to the illumination of more desperate lives and venal motivations. Always there are good people and conniving people, and the good people try hard to remain good. Also, there are mutants. Why is Arthur so fascinated by mutants? The scarred and severed? Why is he so cheerful about their plight? How can he seem so nonchalant when describing chainsaws touching skin, small men birthed by dogs? How can stories such as these be, still, so funny, so full of something like joy? These are questions we may never, ever answer. If you don't like Arthur's stories you are not my friend."

--Dave Eggers

From the Back Cover

“Funny and huge-hearted. . . . Reminds us how much smarter the back of the brain is than the front.” –Esquire

“The most outlandish and energetic writer I can think of.” –David Sedaris

“[Bradford’s] desire to talk about the heart in a way that’s not navel-gazing, but rather earnest and real, burns through. Dogwalker soars. . . .” –San Francisco Chronicle

“Anyone who’s ever wondered at the weirdness of the world will be grateful for these offerings.” —Entertainment Weekly

“Bradford conjures weird modern-Gothic worlds that obey the carnival logic of dreams. His stories are stealthily tender and strangely moving.” –Bookforum

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0375726691
• ISBN 13: 9780375726699
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 176