Close Is Fine
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Winner of the 2013 Wisconsin Library Association Literary Award
Like a Polaroid snapshot, this finely wrought collection of short stories gives us a brief glimpse into the quirky and complex lives of rural town inhabitants. As the characters struggle to define their individuality and reconcile their ideals with ordinary life, we are witness to their unique self-discoveries. At times mournful and haunting, this story collection celebrates the nobility of simple life, of striving and failing without ever losing hope.
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"The gleeful destruction of this collection's first pages is an early warning that you're entering a world like no other. Not just a world where a car battery might be thrown through a storm window for fun, but one where "I think I have issues with your thought process" is usually meant as a kind of compliment. The stories of Close Is Fine could not be so funny if they weren't also so sad, and their energy is always tempered by a narration of sharp reflection and clear, sure-footed prose. This is what I admire most about the book—the tension between the intelligence and control of the storytelling and the mistakes, the lack of control in the actions of the characters he tells us about. These are consistently provocative stories, stories of a very high order."
- Peter Rock, Author of My Abandonment and The Unsettling
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