Pieces for the Left Hand

by J. Robert Lennon

Book Overview

Finally available in the United States, a singular story collection that Time Out declared "unsettlingly brilliant"

Astudent's suicide note is not what it seems. A high school football rivalry turns absurd--and deadly. A much-loved cat seems to have been a different animal all along. A pair of identical twins aren't identical at all--or even related. A man finds his own yellowed birth announcement inside a bureau bought at auction...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1555975232
• ISBN13: 9781555975234
• Release Date: March 2009
• Publisher: Graywolf Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.0" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

Cozy anecdotes

I borrowed Pieces for the Left Hand from my professor; I’m frankly glad I did, because it wasn’t the type of stories I’d usually read. Half-pages of weird anecdotes by someone from (ew) CNY? I never thought it would be something I’d enjoy. But I did, and it makes me want to write a book like it some day. The pieces inside lull you into the quiet life of a college town, spoken to you like a grandfather reading a story to his grandchildren. Each one is mildly different, but spoken conversationally all the same. They are grounded, have a beginning and end, no matter how strange those endings may be. The stilted protagonist burning a book and a letter belonging to his neighbor, because that neighbor never returned a belt sander of his; him speaking of a family heirloom that he still keeps locked inside a storage shed. So many more anecdotes are inside. It isn’t your typical novel. It’s a collection of small tales within a small stretch of Central New York; there’s no overarching plot, and the most recurrent character is the main man himself. It’s a cozy read that helps to make you think. Or not at all, if that’s more your thing. They’re organized into different sections, something and other, but overall? They hardly relate. And, honestly, that’s what keeps me coming back to read it again and again.

100 Anecdotes

This is a great, funny collection of 100 very short stories--but as the subtitle suggests, they're more like anecdotes. The stories vary in tone and style-- a small-town sports animosity leads to violence, a lonely man accidentally shares his depression with q co-worker, and a lucid dreamer suffers a crisis of faith. The stories are are all roughly less than three pages, and some of them will say with me longer than many novels I've read--especially haunting, surreal tales such as "Heirloom" and "Twins."

Unique and engrossing

This is a collection of 100 well-written, super-short (2-3 pages) stories told from the point of view of a single narrator. Although the narrator himself is only a character in some of the stories, we get a good feel for his quirky observations about the world around him. Many of the stories are hearsay, starting off "A friend of ours knows someone..." or "There is a man who lives in town who..." They're the sort of weird human interest stories you might find in the back of a small town newspaper, though much more engaging and insightful. Each has a moral, or ironic twist, or mystery--something that's thought-provoking and makes you want to pass on, as if it's a true story you heard. And the whole collection holds together very well, creating a sort of rhythm that carries you through and leaves you wishing there were 100 more.

Eight Pieces for the Left Hand

I read eight of these gems in The Best American Short Stories of 2005. They are brilliant and at times hilarious vignettes, incisive snapshots of human nature. I can't wait to read the remaining 92!

Inspired!

Having read all of Lennon's novels I knew I would enjoy this collection. However, I wasn't prepared for the uniqueness of the ride....small tales of big issues, small issues, no issues at all but there is something about them that rings true. A great book to read aloud in bed with your favorite human.