Emporium: Stories
by Adam Johnson
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Description
The "remarkable" (The New Yorker) debut story collection by the author of The Orphan Master's Son (winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize) and the story collection Fortune Smiles (winner of the 2015 National Book Award) An ATF raid, a moonshot gone wrong, a busload of female cancer victims determined to live life to the fullest--these are the compelling terrains Adam Johnson explores in his electrifying debut collection. A lovesick teenage Cajun girl, a gay Canadian astrophysicist, a teenage show more sniper on the LAPD payroll, a post-apocalyptic bulletproof-vest salesman--each seeks connection and meaning in landscapes made uncertain by the voids that parents and lovers should fill. With imaginative grace and verbal acuity, Johnson is satirical without being cold, clever without being cloying, and heartbreaking without being sentimental. He shreds the veneer of our media-saturated, self-help society, revealing the lonely isolation that binds us all together. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
Adam Johnson is a great writer. Having just won the National Book Award for "Fortune Smiles", he joins rarefied status as a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner. This book is his first and consists of short stories. He deals with the usual issues of growing up, feeling alienated, dealing with parents and kids, but he does it in a creative setting. He has a story about a 15 year teen sniper that works in Silicon valley shooting terrorists that go after software companies. This is a backdrop to his coming of age and dealing with a first love. Another story is a wild creative romp about Canada developing a moon shot in the early sixties. The writing is a great and he is very entertaining. It is easy to see from this first output show more how he developed into one of our best writers. Check him out. show less
This felt like a pale George Saunders imitation to me - very few of the stories really engaged me at all.
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Author Information
10+ Works 6,095 Members
Adam Johnson is currently a Jones Lecturer at Stanford University. He lives in San Francisco. Adam Johnson was born on July 12, 1967 in South Dakota. He received a BA in journalism from Arizona State University in 1992, a MFA from the writing program at McNeese State University in 1996, and a PhD in English from Florida State University in 2000. show more He is a writer and associate professor in creative writing at Stanford University. He founded the Stanford Graphic Novel Project. He is the author of several books including Emporium and Parasites Like Us. He won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2013 for The Orphan Master's Son and National Book Award for Fiction in 2015 for Fortune Smiles: Stories. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Awards and Honors
Awards
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Emporium: Stories
- Original publication date
- 2002
- Dedication
- to the boxy loop of youth
- First words
- When I reach the rooftop, I pull the dustcovers off my rifle scope and head for a folding chair leaned up against an air-conditioning unit -- right where I left it the last time I was here.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)He's just driving down the street, and he's got no idea, no clue at all.
- Blurbers
- Shacochis, Bob; Carlson, Ron; Egan, Jennifer; Saunders, George; Butler, Robert Olen
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 177
- Popularity
- 184,052
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.61)
- Languages
- English, French, German, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 8
- ASINs
- 2
