{"product_id":"meaningful-work-stories-9781573661911","title":"Meaningful Work: Stories","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWinner of FC2’s Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA stunning look at the labor of obsession and the industry of self-destruction.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn her lush, lyrical, and unflinching short fiction debut, JoAnna Novak examines the restless throb of desire amid the rote work of jobs and obligations, from the walk-ins of a New York banquet kitchen to the pier of Venice Beach. Fueled by jellyfish pad Thai and Necco wafers, Mountain Dew and Xiaolongbao, the characters in these stories defy boundaries and mores: In “MEMO 19,” a former anorectic, bored of recovery and her clerical job, invites an unparalleled act of sexual defilement and in “Rio Grande, Wisconsin,” a fleshly preteen fantasizes about Bill Murray on a family vacation to Wisconsin. Celebrating the grueling beauty of the shift and the ticking virtues of self-restraint, \u003ci\u003eMeaningful Work\u003c\/i\u003e is a pageant of formal experimentation, in fearless, glittering prose.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“An incandescent debut by an incandescent talent. The stories in \u003ci\u003eMeaningful Work\u003c\/i\u003e are truly marvelous, radiant with wit, beauty, and hard-earned truths. Novak does soul-work in these pages––you will find yourself mesmerized, thrilled, renewed.”- Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of \u003ci\u003eThe Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and This Is How You Lose Her\u003c\/i\u003e;\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Devouring, yearning, erasing, grabbing- these stories pulse with intensity and Novak’s scalpel-precise prose cuts to the core again and again. A startling and exciting collection that does not shirk from pretty much anything.”- Aimee Bender, author of \u003ci\u003eWillful Creatures and The Girl in the Flammable Skirt\u003c\/i\u003e;\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“I can’t remember the last time I had as much fun reading a new collection of stories as I did JoAnna Novak’s \u003ci\u003eMeaningful Work\u003c\/i\u003e. Every sentence is delectable- an appropriate word choice, given that Novak writes so gorgeously about food. (When you read these, make sure you have something good to eat at hand. They will make you hungry.) Acerbic, touching, graceful, and eccentric, \u003ci\u003eMeaningful Work\u003c\/i\u003e pays homage to Donald Barthelme and Grace Paley, even as it adds a fresh, unique, inimitable voice to our national literary conversation.”- David Leavitt, author of \u003ci\u003eShelter in Place\u003c\/i\u003e;\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“In \u003ci\u003eMeaningful Work\u003c\/i\u003e, JoAnna Novak shows us what this world makes us swallow: shit jobs and Hostess Snowballs, the nuclear family, our own fulvous tongues. Language-glutted, her starveling girls and hollowed mothers gag on everything and nothing. Novak spreads it: a mangled smorgasboard of harms. This is a book of jagged mouthfuls, of candy-shell sentences with hot, gloppy cores. There’s no purging it. Read and the stories stay with you, like cuts rubbed with Sharpie in the fat of your heart.”- Joanna Ruocco, author of \u003ci\u003eDan\u003c\/i\u003e.","brand":"The University of Alabama Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51041447772503,"sku":"9781573661911","price":15.26,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781573661911.jpg?v=1750950316","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/meaningful-work-stories-9781573661911","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}