Close Is Fine

Eliot Treichel

Paperback

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Do you recommend this book?

Yes!

Like a Polaroid snapshot, this finely wrought collection of short stories gives us a brief glimpse into the quirky and complex lives of rural town inhabitants.

As the characters struggle to define their individuality and reconcile their ideals with ordinary life, we are witness to their unique self-discoveries. At times mournful and haunting, this story collection celebrates the nobility of simple life, of striving and failing without ever losing hope.

Book Details

Publisher: Ooligan Press
Publish Date: Nov 1st, 2012
Pages: 172
Language: English
Edition: undefined - undefined
Dimensions: 8.53in - 5.58in - 0.81in - 0.50lb
EAN: 9781932010459
Categories: • Family Life - General• Humorous - General• Literary

About the Author

Eliot Treichel is a native of Wisconsin, who now lives in Eugene, Oregon. He has an MFA from Bennington College and now teaches writing at Lane Community College. Eliot also works as a freelance writer, and is passionately committed to having a personal influence on his local literary community. His work has appeared in "Beloit Fiction Journal," "CutBank," "Passages North," and "Southern Indiana Review." "Close is Fine" is his first novel.

Praise for this book

I've been a fan of Treichel's fiction for years; but this book exceeded all my expectations. Close Is Fine is a beautiful, big-hearted, and hilarious collection. It features firemen, handymen, bear-wrestlers, and noble barflies, all doing the best they can. Treichel's stories wander the fields, forests, and small towns of the Midwest like an Elizabethan balladeer: steadily amassing the vital, oft-ignored literature of the ninety-nine percent.--Tyler McMahon

Pacific Northwest author Treichel debuts with a collection of short stories focused on the muted struggles of Midwestern blue collar characters to make sense of their messy, often reduced circumstances. The title story follows Tanner, a carpenter by trade, whose affair on the job with a younger woman has precipitated divorce from his wife Kirsten, a waitress. The downbeat Tanner seeks solace in erecting, with his pal Gerald, a replica howitzer. A more offbeat yarn like "Stargazer," set in 1957, concerns Walters, a shiftless bar owner, who buys his long-suffering wife, Tooty, an Electrolux vacuum cleaner for her birthday "and she loved it." Later, he trains an adopted black bear to wrestle with him in a professional stage act. Brian, a married elementary teacher in "On By," is drawn to a dogsledder named Rita. "I don't think I'll ever forget this," he says after riding on her sled, but before jumping into bed with her. The final story, "The Golden Torch," is about a widowed father and his divorced son who practice their firefighting skills while coping with their feelings of loneliness. All of these stories, with unadorned prose and universally male themes and a creeping sense of violence just ahead, offer broad appeal. A clear-eyed and perceptive debut. (Nov.)-- "Publisher's Weekly"