Gates Of Eden

Description

An exceptional set of short stories - the debut in fiction of cult film-maker Ethan Coen of the Coen Brothers. From brilliantly funny and darkly surreal pastiche, to poignantly evoked small-town lives, the stories in Ethan Coen's outstanding debut collection are instantly recognisable to anyone familiar with the award-winning Coen Brothers' films. Yet at the same time they belong in the great tradition of American fiction writing. Peopled with mobsters and hicks, and peppered with sparkling dialogue, some are delicious send-ups of genre classics by authors such as Chandler and Hammett, while others are miniatures of private desperation drawn with a humour and tenderness which places them alongside the best work of Raymond Carver. Their great achievement, however, is that they are unmistakably the work of Ethan Coen, each one meticulously crafted, exhilaratingly imaginative, breathtakingly daring and hilariously funny. Ethan Coen's first venture into writing fiction is a triumph which will be welcomed as much by lovers of great fiction as by the Coen Brothers' legions of fans.

Ethan and Joel Coen's films are Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink (Best Picture, 1991 Cannes Film Festival; two New York Film Critics Circle Awards; three Oscar nominations and one Golden Globe nomination), The Hudsucker Proxy, Fargo (nominated for seven Academy Awards, winner of two, including an Oscar for the Best Original Screenplay), The Big Lebowski, O Brother, Where Art Thou? (two Oscar nominations), The Man Who Wasn't There, Intolerable Cruelty, The Ladykillers, No Country for Old Men (four Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director), Burn After Reading, A Serious Man and True Grit (nominated for ten Oscars). Ethan Coen's stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Playboy and Vanity Fair. This collection of original stories is Ethan Coen's first book. He lives in New York.

'These stories leap off the page to assume the quality of sound in the mind...this boy can write' Richard Williams, Guardian -- Richard Williams * Guardian * 'Set in the frigid temperatures of Minneapolis and New York, the best stories in this collection depict the shabby aspirations of Americans locked in dead-end families and middle-class anxieties...Coen's stories are as good as anything in contemporary American fiction' -- Scott Bradfield * The Times Literary Supplement * 'In Gates of Eden, Mr Coen has sounded the jagged dissonance of the American experience' -- Christopher Lehmann-Haupt * The New York Times * 'A formidable writer, possessing a keen eye for the small manifestations of deep emotion' -- Stephen Amidon * The Sunday Times * 'Coen delights in juxtaposing tone, character and setting to comic and chilling effect. But what is really on display here is his startling ventriloquism, his facility with creating distinct and authentic voices. And boy, can his characters talk. Some simply want to tell a story, some need to defend themselves, and some desperately crave understanding for their crimes, although they are aware that forgiveness is an illusion and a sense of humor a necessity...his writing is affecting and evocative' -- Jay A. Fernandez * The Washington Post *