Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives

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Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives In this his first collection of stories since his celebrated award winning Last Days of the Dog Men Brad Watson relates the brutality of human experience with unique genius and tenderness delving

In this, his first collection of stories since his celebrated, award winning Last Days of the Dog Men, Brad Watson relates the brutality of human experience with unique genius and tenderness, delving into the lives of ordinary characters stricken by loneliness, longing, frustration, and the lure of better worlds.In harmonious prose, Watson writes about every kind of domestIn this, his first collection of stories since his celebrated, award winning Last Days of the Dog Men, Brad Watson relates the brutality of human experience with unique genius and tenderness, delving into the lives of ordinary characters stricken by loneliness, longing, frustration, and the lure of better worlds.In harmonious prose, Watson writes about every kind of domestic discord In Vacuum, three young brothers make trouble when they call on the seedy neighborhood doctor to cheer up their underappreciated mother Originally published in The New Yorker, Visitation follows a down and out, divorced father as he spends a weekend with his son at a California motel A husband shoots himself in the foot in The Terrible Argument, letting down not only his wife but his dog as well In the masterful title novella, a freshly married, disastrously mismatched, and expectant young couple are visited by an unusual pair of inmates from a nearby insane asylum, who just might be or might as well be aliens from another planet.Brad Watson writes with such an all seeing, six dimensional view of human hopes and inadequacies that his talent must come from another planet With wry humor and otherworldly grace, he reminds us how alien we humans really are to each other and to ourselves.

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Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives

  1. Librarian Note There is than one author in the database with this name.Brad Watson teaches creative writing at the University of Wyoming, Laramie His first collection, Last Days of the Dog Men, won the Sue Kauffman Award for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts Letters his first novel, The Heaven of Mercury, was a finalist for the National Book Award, and his Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives was a finalist for the PEN Faulkner Award for Fiction.

761 Reply to “Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives”

  1. I loved Brad Watson s previous book of short stories, Last Days of the Dog Men Stories The stories in this book don t quite measure up to the ones in that book some of them seem almost experimental in nature Divorce and men trying to reconnect with their estranged sons during limited visitation hours are popular themes There re also a few about men trying to understand women Hell, I am one, and I don t understand them Watson really seems to shine when he s writing about children The first story [...]

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  3. T he inexplicable everyday, the oddness of being, the senseless belonging to this and not that This line, from the story Alamo Plaza, seems to sum up the outlook of the disaffected characters in Brad Watson s Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives.I picked this book up thinking it would be similar to the quirky hipster tales of Kelly Link, Karen Russell or Aimee Bender, so I was surprised to find a collection that shared in common with the subtle, disquieting stories of Raymond Carver That being sa [...]

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  4. It s really so good The last novella long story in the collection is so brilliant, and I liked all the other stories too, for their elements of pimento cheese, spinsters, southern drunkenness, loneliness, sex, love, sadness, fried chicken, swearing The things I always like to read about.

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  5. This was not the book but a short story from the book by the same name I saw it on Kindle for 99 cents and thought I was buying the complete book But the story was worth 99 cents, so no complaint other than I now have to find the book In this story a couple of 17 year old teenagers have a torrid romance and, of course, the girl gets pregnant They live in one of those rural southern towns where there is little opportunity to get out It is the 50 s They elope during the summer after their junior y [...]

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  6. I first read one of the story, Vacuum, in a recent issue of Granta Liked the story and was eager to read the collection when it was eventually published Vacuum, by turns funny, sad, bittersweet, is a highlight of the collection So much is all too familiar in the story of the brothers their mom is tired, overwhelmed by her life they sense something is wrong, and try in their naive and immature way to make thing alright again The image of them sitting on the couch, watching cartoons while the mom [...]

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  7. Brad Watson s collection of short stories ache with confusion and loneliness, and the result is akin to a lucid dream Each of his stories recall the recent past, a pre internet stillness that amplifies his characters disconnect While I enjoyed this collection, I finished with some uncertainty over what I d just read Not every story stuck with me, but the ones that did have made me curious to seek out Watson s other work My full review can be found on Glorified Love Letters.

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  8. A sample of stories with such well developed characters, I felt as though I could see through them, around them and right into their lives Every story rang true This is a collection of haunting stories that delves in the lives of ordinary people stricken by loneliness, longing and the lure of a better world I look forward to reading of Brad Watson.

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  9. One scene of the Mom screaming about how hard she works as she vacumms in front of her 3 boys watching a loud tv, had me in stitches They can t hear her distress but react by first trying to woo back their old maid with dirt, because she likes dirt, and then consults the local doctor Brad Watson is so psychologically astute and great writer Been both that mom and one of those kids.

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  10. Thoroughly enjoyed each and every story Fantastic character development, the likes of which I haven t read in ages After liking but not dearly loving Miss Jane, I am so glad I kept reading Can t wait for and to catch up in reverse next Last Days of the Dog Men

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  11. This brilliant, darkly comic, sometimes sad, always imaginative and inventive story collection is unlike any I ve ever read Watson is a humanist of the first order, and also a truly original fiction writer.

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  12. Brad Watson s collection of short stories are the slightly off centre, disturbing territory so beloved by David Lynch and there are some real gems in here Standouts for me are Alamo Plaza, The Visitation and Terrible Argument Suburbia in decay is something American writers do well, constructing a people adrift, washed up in a place where something is just not quite right and there is little they can do about it These are well written with spare, direct style Getting four stars and easily.

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  14. I love short stories in general, and these are no exception They take you through all the emotions, joy, sorrow, fear, revulsion, laughter and poignancy, in a few short pages.

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  16. The long title story tipped this from 2 to 3 starsfor me and now I ll search out his first collection, Last Days of the Dog Men.

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  17. Brad Watson s Aliens Serves Up Despair, with a Side of HumorAliens in the Prime of Their Livesby Brad WatsonW.W Norton and Company, 268 pages, 23.95In Brad Watson s new story collection, Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives, most of the families crumble, some almost as quickly as they form Watson grew up in Mississippi, has taught creative writing at the University of Wyoming since 2005, and sets most of his stories in the American South Although family disintegration is a common subject for short [...]

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  18. A Flash of Something Interesting Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives by Brad WatsonW W Norton CompanyNew York, 2010Short Powerful Enigmatic These are words that could readily describe Brad Watson s collection of short stories, Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives Having previously published a finalist for the National Book Award, The Heaven of Mercury, and Sue Kaufman Award winning Last Days of the Dog Men, there is no doubt that Watson is a heavyweight in short and flash fiction This latest piece [...]

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  19. Brad Watson s third book of fiction, Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives, is a pleasant, slow evisceration There are few of the roughest human experiences possible that Watson does not cover, from the aftermath of romantic relationships in Visitation, to unwanted pregnancy in Water Dog God, and the death of a sibling in Alamo Plaza Yet Watson s talent for capturing character makes each story necessary, and each heartbreak a trainwreck the reader cannot disregard.The novella Aliens in the Prime of [...]

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  20. This book is seriously impactful The stories are so unique, yet they all focus on a life that is so real to us all Life thrown in front of us and present with pretty words, and harsh ones It is reality, the way we don t want to see it, imperfect The reason I took away a star is not because I did not enjoy this book I just have not reached the prime of my life I am still young and I don t know what it feels like to be older, to look back on your twenties and wish for other things, for change I am [...]

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  21. I read about three quarters of the stories in this collection over the past year and as I don t plan to finish it, decided I would write a review now.The stories in the collection could most easily be characterized as modern southern gothic Their subjects are deeply dysfunctional families in deeply dysfunctional situations and often in deep pain I started it a year ago and some of them are quite memorable My back almost hurts thinking back to the boy who jumped off his roof onto a rocking horse [...]

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  22. Brad Watson is clearly an accomplished writer, but other than the title story, Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives clearly the best in the collection, the darkly funny Vacuum, and the very disturbing but memorable Water Dog God, these stories just didn t click with me or add up to much It s not that they don t accurately capture life and human nature they do that with laser focus and excellent attention to detail, but the overall purpose seems only to highlight that which is appalling, depressing [...]

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  23. Okay, disclaimer I had Brad Watson as a creative writing professor for several years back in my undergraduate days With that in mind, this collection of short stories was a really emotional ride for me A lot of the stories focus on the disintegration of relationships, and as a guy with a divorce only three years in his past, the details in these stories and the amount of incredible poetry and sadness Watson brings to his material really hit home There s maybe one or two stories in here that didn [...]

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  24. This is one of the best titles in a long time, and these short stories are each memorable I wouldn t want to meet any of the characters, or live their often bleak lives, but I love Watson s use of language Here s an example She was prone these days to wake in the middle of the night as if someone had called to her while she d slept A kind of fear held her heart with an intimate and gentle suppression, a strange hand inside her chest She was terrified Soft and narrow strips of light slipped throu [...]

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  25. I would place Brad Watson s collection of short stories under the title of speculative fiction While many of the stories happen in our known world, they frequently take on mystical qualities not quite magical realism, but something new, fascinated with the sort of mythology humans have created for themselves of aliens and dreams The title story uses aliens to represent the what ifs of life and is utterly heartbreaking Watson uses many different techniques and achieves giving each story its own d [...]

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  26. I ve known Brad Watson for a while, so I m not likely to be neutral on the topic of this book My favorite stories Vacuum, Visitation, Water God Dog, and Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives Yet it is a bit foolish to think of one story above another in this finely tuned collection Each piece should be savored for its humor, its dark shadows, the big hearted failures of its characters And they should be read as the faces in a large family are read with care LAST DAYS OF THE DOG MEN is a classic Her [...]

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  27. My new favorite genre may be the short story I have read several great collections over the last year Watson s collection did not disappoint, although I felt some were better than others and a couple just didn t seem complete Many left you wanting , which is what a good short story should do Watson has the ability to describe a scene with simple, concise prose His characters and settings are all Southern to the core.

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  28. Brad Watson writes quite solid prose and he delivers again with this collection of short stories There are some great pieces of writing in this collection, but it was hard for me to get past the fact that these stories are basically a collection of pieces that have been published in journals and magazines over the last few years As it is, there s really nothing else there to really hold them together and my overall opinion of these stories, in sum, suffers for that.

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  29. This was one of those books you can t put down Not the best read if you are looking for happy endings, but some of the best writing I have come across in a while For me it goes down to 4 stars only because of the usage of one word, one I am not comfortable with when used by certain people I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes short stories, I predict you will love this collection.

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  30. Brad Watson is a master of short fiction, totally in control of his language and characters But while I loved some stories, others were slower going Quirky at times, but real, always engaging The title piece Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives was the best of the bunch, full of surprises and heartache, as are many of these stories If you re in to short fiction this one is definitely worth a read.

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