Light without Heat
192 pages, 6 x 9
42 illus.
Paperback
Release Date:07 Mar 2012
ISBN:9781573661669
Matthew Kirkpatrick’s debut, Light without Heat, is an inventive, surprising collection of short stories full of odd, marginal characters rendered with surreal humor and lyrical, often beautiful language.
Formally playful, these stories take the shape of biographies, instructions, glossaries, and diagrams, all ultimately in the service of depicting characters with emotional intensity.
Stories in the collection explore the flawed nature of memory, workplace malaise, the isolation of home, and the last throes of ending love. No two stories in Light without Heat are the same, yet all of them work toward sharing human experience in new, innovative ways.
‘Matthew Kirkpatrick loves words and images and the crazy chemistry between them. Reading Light without Heat is like watching a circus act where humans fling themselves gorgeously from increasingly fantastic heights: you think uh-oh and wowee and yes yes yes.’—Noy Holland, author of What Begins with Bird
‘Matthew Kirkpatrick’s new book is outstanding. The stories in Light without Heat are taut, formally inventive forays into the soft, fragile core of families. Kirkpatrick’s language is sharp and severe, but beneath the disciplined voice is a writer looking to reveal the most difficult feelings. An extraordinary debut by an ambitious new writer.’—Ben Marcus, author of The Flame Alphabet
Matthew Kirkpatrick’s fiction has appeared in the Notre Dame Review, Web Conjunctions, DIAGRAM, and elsewhere. He lives in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Different Distances 1
Instructions 13
Light Without 15
Pennsylvania 39
The Saddening 41
Crystal Castles 47
Pineal Gland 61
Throw Him in the Water 63
Nevada 77
The Celebrations 79
The Most Amazing Attic 93
The AuralSec Story, A Corporate History,
Chapter 7: Our Dependable Grampy 97
Animal Attacks 113
Glossary 115
The Board Game Monopoly 123
The Sodding 141
Pastoral 143
Iceland 151
Some Kirkpatricks 153
Acknowledgments 177
Instructions 13
Light Without 15
Pennsylvania 39
The Saddening 41
Crystal Castles 47
Pineal Gland 61
Throw Him in the Water 63
Nevada 77
The Celebrations 79
The Most Amazing Attic 93
The AuralSec Story, A Corporate History,
Chapter 7: Our Dependable Grampy 97
Animal Attacks 113
Glossary 115
The Board Game Monopoly 123
The Sodding 141
Pastoral 143
Iceland 151
Some Kirkpatricks 153
Acknowledgments 177
