Voices of the X-iled - Softcover

Wexler, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0385474490 ISBN 13: 9780385474498

Publisher: Main Street Books, 1994

Synopsis

Not long ago, Michael Wexler and John Hulme became so frustrated by the books, films, articles, and media blitzes designed to define and seduce people their age—the “twentysomething” generation—that they decided to write their own book.

Realizing they’d be doing just what they objected to—presuming to speak for their peers—they instead placed an ad in the Chicago Reader, urging young writers to send them short stories reflecting the world as they knew it. Ten days later they had received 300 manuscripts. In a few short weeks, as word of the project spread, they had more than 3,000 submissions from all over the United States.
 
Voices of X-iled is not an attempt to define a generation. It’s an opportunity for people to speak for themselves. It’s an opportunity for people to speak for themselves. It’s 20 pieces of vibrant and fiercely original fiction, adamantly free of poses and self-pity. The contributors range from established and acclaimed young writers to those being published for the first time in this collection.
 
Read the stories. Listen to the voices. Enjoy the novelty and freedom of drawing your own conclusions.

About this title

From the Publisher

Twenty-five of the most gifted young writers in America document the thoughts, experiences, and emotions of today's "twenty-something" generation in a chorus of voices that are fresh, daring, and altogether unforgettable.

From Kirkus Reviews

Two young writers from New Jersey got tired of the images of apathetic, pessimistic, cynical slackers that ``guys in their forties'' have been creating and set the record straight with a collection of short stories that offers honest snapshots of America's Generation X. They've selected stories with no agenda in mind--except that they didn't want to have an agenda, just good stories by ``some young people and what's happening in their worlds.'' All the tales demonstrate that cynicism and pessimism mix with hope, faith, passion, and principle. Often, people with every reason to give up don't. In ``Looking Out for Hope,'' Bryan Malessa's college graduate writes a powerful letter to Raymond Carver about not getting by on his minimum-wage job. And in Elizabeth Tippens's ``Back From the World,'' a broken-hearted maintenance worker, who has perversely decided not to get over the love of his life, learns that it's time to move on. In other stories, amoral drifters realize they do have principles. Dean Albarelli's Percodan-using ex-journalist poses as a supermarket security guard to bribe an equally lost shoplifter in ``Winterlude''; when they become lovers and she asks him to help her get even with her mother, he recognizes for the first time that there are limits to what he will do. And in ``Lovelock,'' Fred G. Leebron's ex-con doesn't take the obvious escape route from a one-night stand. Throughout, people are putting themselves back together after the likes of childhood abuse (Nicole Cooley's ``The Photograph Album'') and memory loss (Mitch Berman's ``Wabi''). Others are self-destructing in the false perfection of suburbia (Chris Hallman's ``Utopia Road'') or the conservative restraints of a law firm (David Foster Wallace's ``Girl with Curious Hair''). This succeeds because it doesn't read differently from any other collection of good writing. Every voice is strong, moving, and meaningful. (6 b&w linecuts, not seen) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Main Street Books
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0385474490
• ISBN 13: 9780385474498
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336