Half as Happy: stories
"Spatz writes like a dream." —Publishers Weeklyboxed review“These stories generate the quiet thrills of necessity. Being as they are ‘ruled equally by the infinitesimal and the grand,’ they resemble our own lives, reflect back to us those human circumstances in which we recognize ourselves, our own better and worse impulses, our own greater and lesser dreams. These stories will mend readers’ hearts even as they break them and that is what makes them so wonderful and rare.” —Paul Harding, author ofTinkers“Each story moves and unfolds, deepens and develops beautifully complex textures and moods, not unlike beautiful pieces of music. Spatz has a pitch-perfect ear for the language and an uncanny ability to mine the substance of his characters’ rich lives. These stories are both funny and sad, in the true and inescapable way of real life, full of elegiac beauty. A masterful collection.”—Brad Watson, author ofAliens in the Prime of Their LivesandThe Heaven of Mercury“These are beautifully-wrought, haunting stories. Spatz is a marvelous writer, with a keen eye for the secrets of the human heart.”—Dan Chaon, author ofStay Awake“Gregory Spatz’s stories search out the extraordinary complications of human relationships with great intelligence and unexpected finesse, and their resonance lingers with bell-like clarity.”—Erin McGraw, author ofThe Seamstress of Hollywood Boulevard