Tunneling to the Center of the Earth: Stories (P.S.)

Kevin Wilson's Characters Inhabit A World That Moves Seamlessly Between The Real And The Imagined, The Mundane And The Fantastic. Grand Stand-in Is Narrated By An Employee Of A Nuclear Family Supplemental Provider -- A Company That Supplies Stand-ins For Families With Deceased, Ill, Or Just Plain Mean Grandparents. And In Blowing Up On The Spot, A Young Woman Works Sorting Tiles At A Scrabble Factory After Her Parents Have Spontaneously Combusted. Southern Gothic At Its Best, Laced With Humor And Pathos, These Wonderfully Inventive Stories Explore The Relationship Between Loss And Death And The Many Ways We Try To Cope With Both. Grand Stand-in -- Blowing Up On The Spot -- The Dead Sister Handbook: A Guide For Sensitive Boys -- Birds In The House -- Mortal Kombat -- Tunneling To The Center Of The Earth -- The Shooting Man -- The Choir Director Affair (the Baby's Teeth) -- Go, Fight, Win -- The Museum Of Whatnot -- Worst-case Scenario. Kevin Wilson. An Ecco Book. Includes P. S. Insights, Interviews & More... The stories in Kevin Wilson’s collection are populated by the strange and the fascinating: “Grand Stand-In” is narrated by an employee of the Nuclear Family Supplemental Provider-a company that supplies “stand-ins” for families with deceased, ill, or just plain mean grandparents. The young boy in “Birds in the House” is assigned the task of judging a bizarre origami contest, in which his father and uncles are competing for his grandmother’s estate. And in “Blowing Up On the Spot” the story singled out by Ann Patchett for Ploughshares, a young woman works sorting tiles at a Scrabble factory after her parents have spontaneously combusted. Kevin Wilson’s characters inhabit a world that moves seamlessly between the real and the imagined, the mundane and the fantastic. Southern gothic at its best, laced with humor and pathos, these wonderfully inventive stories explore the relationship between loss and death and the many ways we try to cope with both. Title Page......Page 3 Dedication Page......Page 4 Epigraph Page......Page 5 Contents......Page 7 Grand Stand-In......Page 9 Blowing Up on the Spot......Page 35 The Dead Sister Handbook: A Guide for Sensitive Boys......Page 53 Birds in the House......Page 64 Mortal Kombat......Page 81 Tunneling to the Center of the Earth......Page 101 The Shooting Man......Page 113 The Choir Director Affair (The Baby’s Teeth)......Page 127 Go, Fight, Win......Page 137 The Museum of Whatnot......Page 178 Worst-Case Scenario......Page 199 Acknowledgments......Page 215 About the Author......Page 217 Credits......Page 218 Copyright Notice......Page 219 About the Publisher......Page 220 Title from PDF title page (viewed on June 16, 2009).