See You in Paradise

Description

Bizarre, darkly funny and disconcerting, this collection of stories explores the surreal that lurks in everyday life. Deftly blending the everyday at its most uncanny with smatterings of sci-fi, these fourteen stories probe moments when family members move apart, or drift back together, when dreams crumble and convictions falter, moments when suddenly things fall in to place from a new perspective. A Japanese Hibachi grill rekindles a wife's passion for her husband and for revenge. A family take weekend trips to other worlds through a magic portal. Dan Larsen, recently drowned, is brought back to life and makes trouble for the group of friends who'd prefer he hadn't. Ellen invites friends, and her ex-husband, to a memorial party for Buster, a family pet who hasn't died. Written with Lennon's characteristic deadpan humour these stories catch you off guard and leave you wondering just how much peculiarity the world is capable of absorbing.

J. Robert Lennon is the author of seven novels, including Familiar and Castle, and two short story collections. His fiction has appeared in the Paris Review, Granta, Harper's Magazine, the New Yorker and the LRB. He lives in Ithaca, New York and teaches writing at Cornell University.

To say that J. Robert Lennon writes speculative fiction is like suggesting that Tom Waits is known primarily for a couple of toned-down love songs. Dark, dazzling and reeling with a constant undertow of dangerous unpredictability, See You in Paradise is a brilliant return to the short story by one of the great masters of eerie domestic dystopia. In Lennon's world, anything can happen-and does -- Tea Obreht These are wonderful, fearsome stories, and I read each with a growing sense of unease and delight. J. Robert Lennon is a master of the dark arts -- Kelly Link J. Robert Lennon is a dazzling stylist - gifted with a manic turn-of-phrase, a splendidly aberrant sense of humour -- Douglas Kennedy * The Times * Lennon's writing contains enough electricity to light up the country -- Ann Patchett One of the best American novelists at work today -- Sigrid Nunez Praise for Familiar Robert Lennon's beautifully written new novel bristles with menace and suspense - a terrific and disturbing read * Daily Mail * This highly convincing nightmare reads like a thriller; Lennon is painfully truthful about grief and parenthood * Times * Tight in focus as well as in construction...an otherworldly narrative * Evening Standard * These stories are funny and moving, endlessly inventive and charmingly absurd. J. Robert Lennon can do anything on the page -- Jess Walter J. Robert Lennon finds the uncanny hidden in the every day. His dark, subversive stories are both hilarious and unnerving. See You in Paradise is smart, inventive and full of the fascinating particularities of various wayward humans -- Dana Spiotta