A Night at the Y: A Collection of Short Stories - Softcover

McBrearty, Robert Garner

4.33

9 ratings by Goodreads

9781880284360: A Night at the Y: A Collection of Short Stories

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1880284367 ISBN 13: 9781880284360

Publisher: Daniel & Daniel Publishers, 1999

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Wild, funny, touching and full of crackling dialogue, Robert Garner McBrearty's stories turn the intensity of real life up a notch:
-- A soap opera star turns a set into a real-life melodrama.
-- A reformed drinking, whoring, foulmouthed horsethief and bank robber achieves New Age enlightenment.
-- A hot spring oasis is the source of a man's newfound sanity -- or is it insanity?

In McBrearty's talented hands, this exaggerated reality makes life seem much more hilarious and heartbreakingly real. Previously published in distinguished literary magazines, these stories are about people caught at the moment of life change. Each compelling character struggles with major issues: the struggle to hold down two jobs, hold on to love, keep a grip on reality. And then there's the toughest tussle of all -- the choice to be a responsible citizen or a heroic hellraiser who runs with the bulls.

Written with wit and true grit, McBrearty's stories take readers from the city to the open country, from Texas to California. What readers adore most about McBrearty's stories is that, no matter where they are set, real people live there -- out loud.

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From the Publisher:

McBREARTY'S DEBUT COLLECTION COMBINES HUMOR AND COMPASSION TO CELEBRATE MOMENTS OF CHANGE

"The modern-day Walter Mittys of these 12 humorous stories, McBrearty's debut, shuffle carefully from their humdrum existences into wider, more exhilarating, and often quite humorous worlds. The quirky, self-dramatizing characters in these entertainingly wry selections make good progress toward redemption, or at least manage to laugh in the face of their anxieties."

A Night at the Y is the debut collection of a fine talent with a great balance between hilarity and empathy for the human condition. These twelve stories, all previously published in distinguished literary magazines, appear to be about real-life situations, except that the reality has been turned up a notch. Or skewed. In any case, in the process of exaggeration, these people and situations have become, in a sense, all the more real.

In one story a mother and brother arrive at a new-age spa to rescue a man who's either found or lost his sanity, and in the process they all (including an oily guru) reinterpret the slippery lessons of life. In a mock comic western, a reformed drinking, whoring, foulmouthed horsethief/bank robber rediscovers his true identity. In many of the stories the struggle is between two sides of a man--the conscientious husband or father who takes care of business versus the heroic hellraiser who ran with the bulls in Mexico.

These stories are wild, funny, touching, full of crackling dialogue and major-league issues like the difficulty of holding onto jobs, love, life, and sanity. They're about people in the moment of change. The settings range all over the map, from urban to rural, from Texas to California; but wherever these stories are set, real people live there, out loud.

From the Back Cover:

Wild, funny, touching, and full of crackling dialogue, Robert Garner McBrearty's stories turn the intensity of life up a notch, making reality seem much more hilarious and heartbreakingly real. His characters struggle with major issues: the struggle to hold down two jobs, hold on to love, and keep a grip on sanity, and the choice to be a responsible citizen and family man or a heroic hellraiser who runs with the bulls.

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