About this item
Highlights
- "A distinctive voice and an offbeat worldview...All of these stories take place in Coen Brothers Land, a parallel universe similar to our own--except it's weirder, funnier, and better edited.
- Author(s): Ethan Coen
- 272 Pages
- Fiction + Literature Genres, Short Stories (single author)
Description
About the Book
In this national bestseller now in paperback, a contract kill is botched when the hit man phones his boss for further instructions on a wire-tapped phone; a private investigator tangles with a thug and has an ear bitten off; and middle-aged man beheads his wife, then calmly offers an explanation of how she drove him to do it.Book Synopsis
"A distinctive voice and an offbeat worldview...All of these stories take place in Coen Brothers Land, a parallel universe similar to our own--except it's weirder, funnier, and better edited." -- New York Times Book Review
The fiction debut of one of the most distinctive filmmakers working today, Ethan Coen.
In Gates of Eden, Ethan Coen exhibits on the printed page the striking, twisted, yet devastatingly on-target vision of modern American life familiar from his movies. The world within the world we live in comes alive in fourteen brazenly original tragicomic short stories--from the Midwest mob war that fizzles due to the principals' ineptness to the trials of a deaf private eye with a blind client to a fugitive's heartbreaking explanation for having beheaded his wife, alarming in that it almost makes sense.
From the Back Cover
In Gates of Eden, Ethan Coen exhibits on the printed page the striking, twisted, yet devastatingly on-target vision of modern American life familiar from his movies. The world within the world we live in comes alive in fourteen brazenly original tragicomic short stories--from the Midwest mob war that fizzles due to the principals' ineptness to the trials of a deaf private eye with a blind client to a fugitive's heartbreaking explanation for having beheaded his wife, alarming in that it almost makes sense.
Review Quotes
"Often funny, sometimes disturbing...Mr. Coen has sounded the jagged dissonance of the American experience." -- Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times
In Gates of Eden, the co-creator of such films as Fargo and Blood Simple delivers blackly humorous and often unsettling vignettes...All the Coen brother's trademarks are here...funny...compelling stories." -- USA Today
"A distincitive voice and an offbeat worldview...All of these stories take place in Coen Brothers Land, a parallel universe similar to our own--except it's weirder, funnier, and better edited." -- New York Times Book Review
"The discriminating viewer who enjoyed [Coen's] distinctive and quirky films will like the equally unconventional Gates of Eden. Coen delights in juxtaposing tone, character, and settin to comic and chilling effect." -- Washington Post
"Hilarious...wittily absurd...entirely appealing." -- Publishers Weekly
"A thoroughyl enjoyable collection of stories filled with [Coen's] trademark snappy dialogue and casual gore." -- Harper's Bazaar
"At once addictively grotesque and infectiously heartwarming...Coen's characters are infused with palpable energy and vivid quirks. From the sagas of a mischievous kid to a man who gets paradise ripped out from under him, his portraits are as sharp on paper as on film. Even the darkest personal moments radiate moxie, soul, and humor." -- Elle
"Engaging...passionate...entertaining." -- Booklist
"Coen's stories are clever, eccentrically funny, and uniquely twisted...the writing is strong and effective...Highly recommended." -- Library Journal
"The deadpan, playfully grave tone throughout...is amusingly consistent." -- Kirkus Reviews