The Man Back There
Encyclopedia
The Man Back There, David Crouse
David Crouse
David Crouse is a short story writer and teacher. Crouse's work explores issues of identity and alienation, and his stories are populated with characters living on the fringes of American society. The Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction was awarded to him in 2005 for his first collection of...
's second collection of short fiction, was awarded the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction in 2007. Selected by judge Mary Gaitskill
Mary Gaitskill
Mary Gaitskill is an American author of essays, short stories and novels. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, Esquire, The Best American Short Stories , and The O. Henry Prize Stories .-Life:Gaitskill was born in Lexington, Kentucky...
, the collection is a nuanced portrayal of nine very different—but also very similar—men living on the margins of society.
Andre Dubus III
Andre Dubus III
Andre Dubus III is an American novelist and writer of short stories. He is a member of the faculty at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.-Early life and career:...
, author of the best-selling House of Sand and Fog
House of Sand and Fog (novel)
House of Sand and Fog is a 1999 novel by Andre Dubus III. It was selected for Oprah's Book Club in 2000 and was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction.-Plot:...
, says of The Man Back There, "In this virtuoso collection of stories, David Crouse guides us directly to where the shadow lies - the disorienting loss, the surprising heartache, the forgotten wound - those inevitable areas of the psyche we all share and through which only truth, illuminatedwith a such a light touch here, can deliver us; The Man Back There and Other Stories is the work of the real thing."
In her introduction to The Man Back There, Gaitskill writes simply, "I chose these stories because they made me feel...." The reader of David Crouse
David Crouse
David Crouse is a short story writer and teacher. Crouse's work explores issues of identity and alienation, and his stories are populated with characters living on the fringes of American society. The Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction was awarded to him in 2005 for his first collection of...
's collection is bound to agree, but the reasons are not easily explained. Crouse crawls inside the heads of a dozen male protagonists and tells us how they think. They are not always likeable. They are often losers—their thoughts hurry ahead or dawdle behind, disconnected from what little action occurs around them.
And yet, somehow, we wince for the dog-catcher who crashes his ex-wife's Thanksgiving dinner in "The Castle on the Hill." We sympathize with the latch-key kid who pillages toys in a dead boy's closet in "Time Capsule." And in "The Long Run," we find it hard to condemn a ninety-two-year-old senator trying to salvage his career after his ex-wife publishes a scandalous tell-all book about his life.
In this deceptively quiet collection, the truth is something that simmers up through what is not said. A hero is a man who saves himself from himself, who placates his temper with self-awareness and, most importantly, self-forgiveness. The Man Back There is a feat of empathy and razor sharp vision.