Good People

Description

"Lopez has the ability to give the reader whiplash with his unconventional and bewitching stories." -Los Angeles Times "Robert Lopez is the master of deadpan dread, of the elliptical koan, of the sudden turn of language that reveals life to be so wonderfully absurd. Always with Lopez, the voice is all his-enchanting, surprising, at times devastating." -JESS WALTER, author of Beautiful Ruins "Robert Lopez's strange, incantatory, visionary stories reveal the mysteries behind the ordinary world. You lift your head from this book and it's as if a third eye has been opened." -DAN CHAON, author of Await Your Reply and Stay Awake "Nothing is funnier than unhappiness," claims Samuel Beckett. To this, we add: nothing is funnier than unhappiness with a heavy dose of amorality, as we learn from Robert Lopez's unforgettable Good People. In these twenty stories, a motley cast of obsessive, self-deluded outsiders narrate their darker moments, which include kidnapping, voyeurism, and psychic masochism. As their struggles give way to the black humor of life's unreason, the bleak merges with the oddly poetic, in a style as lean and resolute as Carver or Hemingway. Treading the fine line between confession and self-justification, the absurd violence of threatened masculinity, and the perverse joy of neurosis, Lopez's stories reveal the compulsive suffering at the precarious core of our universal humanity. Robert Lopez is the author of two novels, Part of the World and Kamby Bolongo Mean River, and the story collection Asunder. He lives in Brooklyn.

David Lindsay-Abaire is the Pulitzer-winning author of Rabbit Hole, which was made into a feature film. He is the author of Good People, Fuddy Meers, Wonder of the World, A Devil Inside and Kimberly Akimbo, as well as the book and lyrics to Shrek the Musical. He has written the screenplays for Rabbit Hole, Rise of the Guardians and Oz: The Great and Powerful. Born in South Boston, he now lives in Brooklyn.

"A lyrical and understanding chronicler of people who somehow become displaced within their own lives. . . . Mr. Lindsay-Abaire has shown a special affinity for female characters suddenly forced to re-evaluate the roles by which they define themselves." The New York Times "Lindsay-Abaire's complex characters illustrate the difficult choices people will make to achieve their ambitions or retain their own sense of pride, along with the importance of luck in escaping poverty. By the end of the play, the near impossibility of always being 'good people' is searingly apparent." Jennifer Farrar, Associated Press "A lyrical and understanding chronicler of people who somehow become displaced within their own lives. . . . Mr. Lindsay-Abaire has shown a special affinity for female characters suddenly forced to re-evaluate the roles by which they define themselves."-The New York Times "Lindsay-Abaire's complex characters illustrate the difficult choices people will make to achieve their ambitions or retain their own sense of pride, along with the importance of luck in escaping poverty. By the end of the play, the near impossibility of always being `good people' is searingly apparent." -Jennifer Farrar, Associated Press