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We're All in This Together

A Novella and Stories

By Owen King

(2)

| Hardcover | 9781582345857

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Book Description

Imaginative, gripping stories and a funny, poignant novella set in Maine after the 2000 presidential election make up this exciting literary debut.

Owen King is a writer interested in the choices we make when we're most conflicted. A young husband must decide whether or not to commit aContinue

Imaginative, gripping stories and a funny, poignant novella set in Maine after the 2000 presidential election make up this exciting literary debut.

Owen King is a writer interested in the choices we make when we're most conflicted. A young husband must decide whether or not to commit a ghoulish crime; a baseball player in a fantastic 1930s Coney Island is assailed by the guilt of an illicit romance; a nineteenth-century itinerant dentist finds himself snowed in with a group of trappers for a long evening of primitive surgery and laughing gas reveries. Whether they're set in the past or the present, tinged with the macabre, the solemn, or the absurd, all of the stories in this collection carry the weight of real emotion and revelation and showcase King's impressive versatility.

In his novella, King tells the story of George, the teenage son of a single mother, and the only grandson of a family of union organizers in Maine. George's grandfather Henry, obsessed with the outcome of the 2000 election, has planted a giant billboard of homage to Al Gore in his front yard that he suspects has been defaced by the paperboy, now a sworn enemy. Meanwhile, George's mother is about to marry Dr. Vic, who, besides being possessed of an almost royal obliviousness, may even have voted for George W. Bush. George is a nervous accomplice to his grandfather's increasingly unhinged behavior, and a righteous adversary at war with his mother over her marriage. George's struggle is a funny and moving parallel for our times: How will we fight? All together, or all alone? Funny, insightful, and always entertaining, We're All in This Together launches the career of an extraordinarily talented writer.

Critics

  • We're All in This Together By Owen King

    The seeds of one writer's inspiration Writer Owen King makes his fiction debut this summer with the publication of We're All in This Together , a collection that includes the novella of the title and four short stories. Ranging from serious to hilari ... (read full critics)

    bookpage published on Fri, 10 Sep 2010

1 Review

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  • Difficult task, to say what I think of this book.
    Objectively, it is not bad. Not great, but definitely not bad.
    But somehow it left a sore taste in my mouth. Not the sore taste you get when you read a well-written, involving bitter story - although the stories here are indeed bitter.
    It is just tha ... (continue)

    Difficult task, to say what I think of this book.
    Objectively, it is not bad. Not great, but definitely not bad.
    But somehow it left a sore taste in my mouth. Not the sore taste you get when you read a well-written, involving bitter story - although the stories here are indeed bitter.
    It is just that... it is difficult to get into Owen King's narration.
    Whereas the novella that gives the title to the collection is purposefully pointless (after all it does tell the story of a 15-year-old who seems to have no steady points of reference in his life), the short stories seem... wobbly. "Snake", for instance, is OK. Not amazing but OK. But "My Second Wife" is a bit too oddball to allow the reader to "get into it". "Wonders", the baseball-related one, is quite good until the final, disappointing twist, and "Frozen Animals" seems kinda pointless...
    Still, Owen King's style is great, with just the right amount of details to allow the reader to understand exactly what he means but without spoon-feeding ready-made images...
    Would I advise a friend to read this?
    Probably I would. As long as my friend doesn't expect adventure and amazement.

    Is this helpful?

    Marco Piva said on Jul 1, 2010 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

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