Bring Your Legs with You

Fiction & Literature, Short Stories
Cover of the book Bring Your Legs with You by Darrell Spencer, University of Pittsburgh Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Darrell Spencer ISBN: 9780822978800
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press Publication: October 31, 2004
Imprint: University of Pittsburgh Press Language: English
Author: Darrell Spencer
ISBN: 9780822978800
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
Publication: October 31, 2004
Imprint: University of Pittsburgh Press
Language: English

A boxer who brings his legs with him comes to the ring with the strength and stamina to make it through every round of a tough fight. In this new collection, winner of the prestigious Drue Heinz Literature Prize, Darrell Spencer delivers fiction with just that kind of power.

Bring Your Legs with You contains nine interconnected stories set in Las Vegas. Featuring various perspectives and narrators, they are filled with unforgettable characters, including Carl T. Plugg, a sharp-dressed, smooth-talking, non-hustling pool shark; Spinoza, the philosophical day laborer with “Department of Big Thoughts” lettered on the door of his pickup; Jacob, an arrogant lawyer who learns too late the dangers of swimming with the sharks; Gus, a man who has never seen his son fight despite his insatiable fascination with the sweet science; and Jane, a woman wary of her ex-husband, but still in love enough to share her bed with him.

Above them all looms Tommy Rooke, retired prizefighter and self-employed roofer. Undefeated in the ring, Rooke walked away from boxing at the top of his game, to the confusion and consternation of his friends and family. As his father, former manager, and various other hangers-on encourage him to stage a comeback, Tommy moves through the gated communities and sun-blasted strip malls of Las Vegas, wrestling with personal choice, the caprices of fate, and the price the gods demand for our sins.

More than a book about boxing, gambling, luck, and broken dreams, Bring Your Legs with You delves deeply into the life of its flawed but intelligent hero, a man deeply devoted to his friends but lost in a violent world. A writer unafraid to show the connections between people, Spencer delivers a hard-hitting collection filled with rich dialogue and spare prose.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

A boxer who brings his legs with him comes to the ring with the strength and stamina to make it through every round of a tough fight. In this new collection, winner of the prestigious Drue Heinz Literature Prize, Darrell Spencer delivers fiction with just that kind of power.

Bring Your Legs with You contains nine interconnected stories set in Las Vegas. Featuring various perspectives and narrators, they are filled with unforgettable characters, including Carl T. Plugg, a sharp-dressed, smooth-talking, non-hustling pool shark; Spinoza, the philosophical day laborer with “Department of Big Thoughts” lettered on the door of his pickup; Jacob, an arrogant lawyer who learns too late the dangers of swimming with the sharks; Gus, a man who has never seen his son fight despite his insatiable fascination with the sweet science; and Jane, a woman wary of her ex-husband, but still in love enough to share her bed with him.

Above them all looms Tommy Rooke, retired prizefighter and self-employed roofer. Undefeated in the ring, Rooke walked away from boxing at the top of his game, to the confusion and consternation of his friends and family. As his father, former manager, and various other hangers-on encourage him to stage a comeback, Tommy moves through the gated communities and sun-blasted strip malls of Las Vegas, wrestling with personal choice, the caprices of fate, and the price the gods demand for our sins.

More than a book about boxing, gambling, luck, and broken dreams, Bring Your Legs with You delves deeply into the life of its flawed but intelligent hero, a man deeply devoted to his friends but lost in a violent world. A writer unafraid to show the connections between people, Spencer delivers a hard-hitting collection filled with rich dialogue and spare prose.

More books from University of Pittsburgh Press

Cover of the book Chaos, Violence, Dynasty by Darrell Spencer
Cover of the book Inevitably Toxic by Darrell Spencer
Cover of the book How to Play a Poem by Darrell Spencer
Cover of the book Primer by Darrell Spencer
Cover of the book Wild Hundreds by Darrell Spencer
Cover of the book City of a Hundred Fires by Darrell Spencer
Cover of the book In Praise of Falling by Darrell Spencer
Cover of the book Victorian Literature and the Physics of the Imponderable by Darrell Spencer
Cover of the book Philosophical Inquiries by Darrell Spencer
Cover of the book Animal Eye by Darrell Spencer
Cover of the book The Essential Etheridge Knight by Darrell Spencer
Cover of the book After Human Rights by Darrell Spencer
Cover of the book The Foundations of Scientific Inference by Darrell Spencer
Cover of the book Toward a Civil Discourse by Darrell Spencer
Cover of the book Noose and Hook by Darrell Spencer
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy