Synopses & Reviews
However similar the existential suffering of his characters, DeMarinis expertly probes the contours of their condition. You simply can't move your eyes from the page.-Mark Smirnoff,
The New York Times Book ReviewApocalypse Then asks what remains, when life goes on long enough for the explanations of youth-sex, ambition, immortality-to lose expedience. In delightfully wry, agile prose, DeMarinis taps stores of novelty and freshness in close-at-hand themes. His characters are cursed with a bleak awareness of time's passage, yet are unable to embrace the changes and the challenges that might offer escape. They try alcohol, they try travel, and (most of all) they try off-limits love. They find themselves in harm's way, or put themselves there-but in life, as the title story states, sometimes the worst doesn't happen. Despite the world's insecurities, the most common drama of all is not of apocalypse now, but of apocalypse deferred; the pain of living is having to wait it out.
Stories in Apocalypse Then sound notes of redemption, as in Birds of the Mountain West, when a man who goes to comfort his friend, a suicidal drunk, recalls seeing birds intoxicated on fermented berries. Then, at sunset, the mob of wasted waxwings settled in a single tree and faced the setting sun, trilling long plaintive notes for the dying of the light-a fine feathered choir of happily pious drunks. . .
Apocalypse Then is an unforgettable contribution to the literature of real life, with a meaning close to home.
Rick DeMarinis is theauthor of six novels. The Year of the Zinc Penny was a 1989 New York Times Notable Book. Borrowed Hearts, his definitive short story collection, includes stories from his three previous collections, together with his new work prior to this volume.
Review
"However similar the existential suffering of his characters, DeMarinis expertly probes the contours of their condition. You simply can't move your eyes from the page." Mark Smirnoff, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"Rick DeMarinis has long been one of my favorite writers; wherever he has cast his gaze, he has taught me something new about the way he sees things." Robert Olen Butler
Synopsis
Apocalypse Then asks what remains, when life goes on long enough for the explanations of youth-sex, ambition, immortality-to lose expedience. In delightfully wry, agile prose, DeMarinis taps stores of novelty and freshness in close-at-hand themes. His characters are cursed with a bleak awareness of time's passage, yet are unable to embrace the changes and the challenges that might offer escape. They try alcohol, they try travel, and (most of all) they try off-limits love. They find themselves in harm's way, or put themselves there-but in life, as the title story states, sometimes the worst doesn't happen. Despite the world's insecurities, the most common drama of all is not of apocalypse now, but of apocalypse deferred; the pain of living is having to wait it out.
Stories in Apocalypse Then sound notes of redemption, as in Birds of the Mountain West, when a man who goes to comfort his friend, a suicidal drunk, recalls seeing birds intoxicated on fermented berries. Then, at sunset, the mob of wasted waxwings settled in a single tree and faced the setting sun, trilling long plaintive notes for the dying of the light-a fine feathered choir of happily pious drunks...
Apocalypse Then is an unforgettable contribution to the literature of real life, with a meaning close to home.
Synopsis
Despite the worlds insecurities, the most common drama of all is not of apocalypse now, but of apocalypse deferred; the pain of living is having to wait it out. In Apocalypse Then, DeMariniss characters try alcohol, they try travel, and (most of all) they try off-limits love. They find themselves in harms way, or put themselves there—but in life, as the title story states, "sometimes the worst doesnt happen."
Synopsis
New collection of stories from a writer whose "art...is of a very high order"--Russell Banks in New York Times
About the Author
Rick DeMarinis is the author of six novels. The Year of the Zinc Penny was a 1989 New York Times Notable Book. Borrowed Hearts, his definitive short story collection, includes stories from his three previous collections, together with his new work prior to this volume.