Dangerous Men

Geoffrey Becker

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Geoffrey Becker's Dangerous Men was selected by Charles Baxter as the winner of the fifteenth annual Drue Heinz Literature Prize. His manuscript was selected from nearly three hundred submitted by published writers.

In these tightly drafted stories, Becker creates a wide variety of distinct voices, peculiar characters, and odd stettings, with tantalizing emphasis on lonliness, loss, and the ever-present struggle to find one's place in the world. \u201cIt was wrong to think that our presence would linger on, though it was to this notion that I realized I'd been grasping all along, \u201d the music-student narrator of \u201cDangerous Men\u201d says after an evening involving drugs, a fight, and a car accident, \u201cthe idea that in some way we were etching ourselves onto the air, leaving shadows that would remain forever.\u201d

Many of the pieces incorporate music into the storyline. Music is a gathering point in his characters' misfit lives. In \u201cMagister Ludi, \u201d a seventeen-year-old girl meets up with an older local guitarist whom her younger brother has invited over to their house when their parents are gone, and plays him for her own ends: \u201cShe makes Riggy drive right through the center of town, hoping that someone will see them - one of her friends, or one of her parents' friends even, it doesn't matter. She just likes the idea of being spotted in this beat-up car alongside someone so disreputable.\u201d

In \u201cErin and Malcom, \u201d a bass player with an injured hand who still lives with his estranged wife, a singer, and her pet ferret, finds out how out of tune his life really is: \u201cSomething has gone wrong - he could see it in the way she looked at him over her morning bowl of cereal, and the way she didn't as she peeled herself out of her Lycra pants and leopard shirts at night.\u201d

Yet, even when the music seems quiet, there are tales of choice and happenstance. \u201cEl Diablo de La Cienega, \u201d set in New Mexico, is about a boy who accepts the challenge of a mysterious figure to a game of basketball, for very high stakes indeed. Charles Baxter - one of America's great story writers - calls the story \u201ca small masterpiece. It has formal perfection, like a folktale. I thought it was wonderful.\u201d

With leaps from the funny to the sad and the revelatory, these amazing stories explore dreams and longing with remarkable insight and imagination. These are stories you will not forget.

Book Details

Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
Publish Date: Oct 15th, 1995
Pages: 176
Language: English
Edition: undefined - undefined
Dimensions: 9.10in - 5.70in - 0.60in - 0.60lb
EAN: 9780822962496
Categories: • Short Stories (single author)

About the Author

Geoffrey Becker has worked as a tax preparer, an academic adviser, and a customer service representative for a musical electronics company. His short stories have appeared in many literary magazines, including Crazyhorse, The Colorado Review, and The North American Review. He is the recipient of a number of awards; including a James Michener grant, a PEN Syndicated Fiction Prize, and an NEA fellowship.

Praise for this book

Becker's clear prose and quirky sense of humor can often make his anguished, lonely characters appealing, almost likeable--which is why this collection will reward a careful reading.-- "Choice"

Writing like this doesn't call attention to itself. Instead, it quietly goes about its work, building that dense texture of private associations that yields characters a reader feels the author 'knows.' This is a realism of close focus, observantly tracking the ways people chart their own predicaments, using odd tools picked up here, there and everywhere along the way of their lives.-- "New York Times Book Review "

Geoffrey Becker's title Dangerous Men covers a book of tough, studiously polished, short studies of subjects ranging from compulsive male violence, posturing in both sexes, nostalgie de la boue, and failure, to a close relationship between sisters.-- "English Studies"

Using language as deceptively simple as his narrators, Becker approaches complex themes of power, love, and loss as a guide rather than dictator, allowing the reader's imagination to fill in the full picture. But he also undercuts his stories with humor. His is the comedy of clever observation and bizarre juxtapositions.-- "Times Literary Supplement"

Becker narrates in a blunt, thickly detailed style. Many of his stories have endings that go beyond closure, opening outward as a character moves toward what's next.-- "The Antioch Review"

Becker has produced a finely crafted work, creating stories to transport the reader into other times and places. Throughout the collection of eleven stories, Becker assumes the voices of men and women of different ages, different backgrounds, and with different stories to tell. Becker's ability to bring these stories to life in unique, and his work will inspire young writers who want to learn the craft of storytelling.-- "Academic Library Book Review"

In smooth, careful prose, [Becker] delineates his ethnically diverse characters with lucid empathy and renders moments of their lives taut and compelling.-- "Publishers Weekly"