In this Book
- The Canals of Mars: A Memoir
- Book
- 2010
- Published by: Michigan State University Press
The Canals of Mars is a memoir that explores and ponders "weakness," which in Gary Fincke's family was the catch-all term for every possible human flaw-physical, psychological, or spiritual. Fincke grew up near Pittsburgh during the 1950s and 1960s, raised by blue-collar parents for whom the problems that beset people-from alcoholism to nearsightedness to asthma to fear of heights-were nothing but weaknesses.
In a highly engaging style, Fincke meditates on the disappointments he suffered-in his body, his mind, his work-because he was convinced that he had to be "perfect." Anything less than perfection was weakness and no one, he understood from an early age, wants to be weak.
Six of the chapters in the book have been cited in Best American Essays. The chapter that provides the book's title, The Canals of Mars, won a Pushcart Prize and was included in The Pushcart Book of Essays: The Best Essays from a Quarter Century of the Pushcart Prize.
Table of Contents
- Beginnings
- The Ass-End of Everything
- pp. 3-10
- The Plagues
- pp. 11-20
- Home Remedies
- pp. 21-30
- The Canals of Mars
- pp. 31-38
- Look Both Ways
- pp. 39-50
- The Theory of Dog Shit
- pp. 51-58
- God
- God of Our Fathers
- pp. 61-70
- The Faces of Christ
- pp. 71-76
- The Technology of Paradise
- pp. 89-94
- Work
- Clemente Stuff
- pp. 97-108
- The Handmade Court
- pp. 109-118
- In the Bakery
- pp. 119-124
- Union Grades
- pp. 125-134
- The Theory of Stinks
- pp. 135-144
- Useful Things
- pp. 145-146
- Weakness
- Going Inside
- pp. 149-156
- Subsidence, Mine Fire, Bypass, Golf
- pp. 157-160
- Night Vision
- pp. 171-180
- Labored Breathing
- pp. 181-190
- Plummeting
- pp. 191-200
- Endings
- My Father Told Me
- pp. 203-212
- The Piecework of Writing
- pp. 213-216
- Cemeteries
- pp. 217-222
- Looking Again: An Epilogue
- pp. 223-230
- Acknowledgments
- pp. 231-232
Additional Information
Copyright
2010