Discovering the World

by Jeffrey Vasseur and Thomas Jeffrey Vasseur

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0865547181
• ISBN13: 9780865547186
• Release Date: May 2001
• Publisher: Mercer University Press
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.13 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Southern Fried Soul

The South is an area that intrigues me as it is so different from the urban centers and foreign ports where I grew up. Vasseur's voice speaks eloquently of the New South and the Mississippi Delta area. His world travels and non-academic life and work experiences give him an insight that couples well with his erudition. Vasseur writes each character with a parental attitude that he loves them in spite of their flaws and that he loves them because of their virtues. He can mine those virtues well. Each story is compelling in its' own way and each story tells us a little moral tale which compels the reader to look inward. I found myself rereading sevgeral stories before I went on to the next. This author writes with an optimism about daily life; that is refreshing to me. There is no air of ennui in these stories. No been there, done that, seen it all attitude that many short story writers have.

A Southern Boy

It is surprising that the reviews so far are from non-Southernerns. This collection speaks so eloquently of the new genre of Southern male writers. Vasseur is like a young Faulkner in that he defines his characters, their limitations, and their dreams in such borad strokes that I think that I know someone who is almost exactly like any one of the central characters. The rich guy with the sports car, the pretty "blonde" wife, the airplane, and the alcohol problem exists in almost every small southern town in which I lived in childhood. Every kid on our baseball team liked being singled out for attention by the team's sponsor and I kind of envied the author's character when he went flying with him. I know a thousand Jimmies who end up in the hospital two or three times before they figure out that some hard luck is their own fault and that their "destiny lies in the stars" only some of the time. The hardworking people who make their own chances and mishaps are not a cliche in the South and this author knows that. He loves his characters for what they are.Although I have recently left the South, these stories are everyday reality to me. You can have your Don De Lillo and your Richard Power but I want a Southern boy whose ears listen to what people are saying and whose imagination colors the circumstances of everyday life with blacks, grays, and some bright colors. I will buy another copy to send to my son whose Mama took him from the South when he was two. He could never understand why Boston was dull to me when I visited. I think that this book will let him in on the secret life of the New South. He may understand his old man better and if he reads carefully enough, he may understand a little more about life's pains and glories.

Day by Day by a Southern Writer

When one of my girlfriends suggested that I read this collection of short stories and a novella, I went to my bookstore and started reading a story about a Mom and Dad with a rebellious daughter. Thomas Jeffrey Vasseur wrote me. He, a middle aged man, understood the mind of a female rebel with parents who were really, really into each other. My girlfriend bought the book for someone else as a present but decided to read a story while she was waiting. She was hooked by the story of a couple and their reactions to losing their first born. She said that she cried as she recalled a loss. She marked a passage as she read so the present became a present to herself. This author understands the impact of daily life and how it shapes us for the big challenges. He seems not to be bored with the routine events of life. The cover says that he is writing a novel. I hope it comes out soon.

Discovering a New Voice

A friend who seldom reads short stories called me to recommend this book. She actually raved about it and Barbra is not the sort who waxes enthusiastic about this genre of writing. A poet and a historian, she valued this book for many reasons and after buying my own copy, I understand why. I felt like a participant in these tales. I wanted to know more about each central character. I wanted Robert Fitzgerald and Barry Pruitt to talk to me about Viet Nam. This guy can write!

Delivering Light: A New World

How many books do you know can tempt fate, carry human drama on the head of a pin or inside the blooming rose of an exploding star? Thomas Jeffrey Vasseur's varied collection of stories, DISCOVERING THE WORLD, is the kind of book that makes you feel uncomfortably at home, even when the characters or scenery bear no real resemblance to your own every day life...whether in California, Vietnam, the Far East waters, or in an open field in Kentucky, we are somehow re-living a familiar story; the author's ease and intimate language makes us eager participants in every story. This book takes the kind of risks university workshops hope to inspire. We believe in the characters and we want more. We are constantly surprised, but never overwhelmed by Vasseur's need to say something. There's a voraciousness to the book's stunning range of subjects, yet the author's voice keeps it grounded to the past and present world, this world in which we find there remains an endless need to discover. DISCOVERING THE WORLD spreads out before us "like a lush, but not limitless jungle...which concealed much beauty, probably more pain..."