In this Book
- Last Known Position
- Book
- 2008
- Published by: University of North Texas Press
- Series: Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction
summary
Most of the nine stories in Last Known Position were written upon James Mathews’ return from combat deployment to the Middle East with the D.C. Air National Guard. Life under fire provided the author with both dramatic events and a heightened sense of observation, allowing him to suggest the stress of combat as the driving factor behind extreme yet believable characterization and action. Military experiences and settings cause certain human elements and truisms to emerge more profoundly and dramatically. These stories portray desperate characters driven to make desperate choices. Always on the edge of a dark and unpleasant reality, Mathews’ characters survive by embracing fantasy, humor, violence, and sometimes redemption. Each story bears its own brand of hopeless quirkiness. Four teenagers on an army base steal a grenade and are stalked by a parade horse. A drifter returns home to rob the grandparents who raised him. A national guardsman faces a homicidal superior officer in Iraq on the eve of war. An elderly man worries that his wife’s new house guests are unrepentant cannibals. Always tense, sometimes ridiculous, and never dull, Last Known Position brings the reader to places unknown before and unforgettable after.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Acknowledgments
- pp. ix-x
- 1. Grenade
- pp. 1-24
- 3. The Fifth Week
- pp. 57-63
- 5. Strong Arm
- pp. 83-97
- 6. Seven Rifles at Dawn
- pp. 98-123
- 8. Cannibals in the Basement
- pp. 139-166
- 9. Our Deepest Sympathies
- pp. 167-175
Additional Information
ISBN
9781574413724
Related ISBN(s)
9781574412529
MARC Record
OCLC
763157832
Pages
192
Launched on MUSE
2012-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No