The Blue Box - Softcover

Carlson, Ron

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1597092754 ISBN 13: 9781597092753

Publisher: Red Hen Press, 2014

Synopsis

Ron Carlson is a master of the contemporary short story. In The Blue Box, he extends that mastery to the short short story, offering us a captivating glimpse of a writer at play. With that voice of his—sharp, sensitive, and wry, brimming with good humor—Carlson inhabits one standby after another of the American pop landscape, past and present: monster flicks, action heroes, unsupervised teenagers, blogging. Coming in for special scrutiny is the world of education, in hilarious send-ups of recommendation letters, teacher evaluations, style guides, and a MOOC. Whimsical, wistful, and gently surreal, The Blue Box delights in life’s unending absurdities, and reminds us not to take anything—especially ourselves—too seriously.  

About this title

About the Author:

Ron Carlsonis the author of five story collections and six novels, including Return to Oakpine andThe Signal. His fiction has appeared inHarper s, The New Yorker, Playboy, GQ, Best American Short Stories, andThe O. Henry Prize Stories. His book of poems, Room Service: Poems, Meditations, Outcries, & Remarks, was published by Red Hen Press in 2012. His book on writing, Ron Carlson Writes a Story, is taught widely. He is the director of the writing program at the University of California at Irvine and lives in Huntington Beach, California.
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Review:

“Carlson never drops an extra word or a false phrase.”
―The Washington Post
 
“Carlson’s focus is transporting, absorbing. It shakes you from stupor, strips you down. He understands that most of us live in a world of enervating crap, whether in the cliffs of Idaho or the canyons of the city.”
―Esquire 
 
“Carlson transforms the comic junkpile of America`s waning prosperity into a livable, if harsh, landscape.”
―The Chicago Tribune
 
“His poems are conversational, extremely accessible, willfully casual and consistently funny, but also laced with a lightly worn sadness, a symptom of everyday heartache.”
―Ron Padgett
 
“Carlson’s a romantic―even when he’s writing about failings, folly and violence.”
―The Los Angeles Times
 
“Carlson writes about the natural world with convincing authority... with Ron Carlson, you really are in expert hands.”
―The New York Times Book Review
 
“Carlson captures the ordinary occurrences that define our lives.”
―Publishers Weekly

About this edition

• Publisher: Red Hen Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1597092754
• ISBN 13: 9781597092753
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 96