Cover of Third Class Superhero

Third Class Superhero

Charles Yu experiments with form and genre to explore the stories we tell ourselves while navigating contemporary life. In "Third Class Superhero," a would- be good guy must come to terms with the darkness in his heart. A couple living in the Luxury Car Commercial subdivision in "401(k)" are disappointed when their exotic vacation turns into a Life Insurance/Asset Management pitch. The author struggles to write the definitive biography of his mother in "Autobiographical Raw Material Unsuitable for the Mining of Fiction." In these and other stories, Yu's characters run up against the conventions and parameters of their artificial story lines while tackling the terrifying aspects of existence: mothers, jobs, spouses, the need to express feelings.

Read more

Heartbreaking, hilarious, smart, and surprising, Third Class Superhero marks the arrival of an impressive new talent.

Audience
adult
Length
short · 173 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked Third Class Superhero? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked Third Class Superhero. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Mothers & Other Monsters: Stories Shares short stories, science fiction, fiction
  2. I Don't Know Timmy, Being God is a Big Responsibility Shares short stories, science fiction, fiction
  3. Pixel Shares short stories, science fiction, fiction
  4. Five Shares short stories, fiction, science fiction

“People who read Third Class Superhero tend to reach for these next.”

  1. Fountain of Age: Stories
  2. Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology
  3. The Baum Plan for Financial Independence and Other Stories
  4. HebrewPunk

“If you want more of the same (science fiction), start with these.”

  1. Confido
  2. Hold-Time Violations
  3. The Old Soul
  4. Evidence

“If it was the short stories that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. The Perimeter
  2. Epicac
  3. They Also Serve
  4. Friend Request

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Hannahwhere
  2. The Royal Woods
  3. Smoke River
  4. How Proust Can Change Your Life