ABOUT THIS BOOK

A boxer who brings his legs with him comes to the ring with the strength and stamina to make it through every round of a tough fight. In this new collection, winner of the prestigious Drue Heinz Literature Prize, Darrell Spencer delivers fiction with just that kind of power.

Bring Your Legs with You contains nine interconnected stories set in Las Vegas. Featuring various perspectives and narrators, they are filled with unforgettable characters, including Carl T. Plugg, a sharp-dressed, smooth-talking, non-hustling pool shark; Spinoza, the philosophical day laborer with “Department of Big Thoughts” lettered on the door of his pickup; Jacob, an arrogant lawyer who learns too late the dangers of swimming with the sharks; Gus, a man who has never seen his son fight despite his insatiable fascination with the sweet science; and Jane, a woman wary of her ex-husband, but still in love enough to share her bed with him.

Above them all looms Tommy Rooke, retired prizefighter and self-employed roofer. Undefeated in the ring, Rooke walked away from boxing at the top of his game, to the confusion and consternation of his friends and family. As his father, former manager, and various other hangers-on encourage him to stage a comeback, Tommy moves through the gated communities and sun-blasted strip malls of Las Vegas, wrestling with personal choice, the caprices of fate, and the price the gods demand for our sins.

More than a book about boxing, gambling, luck, and broken dreams, <I>Bring Your Legs with You</I> delves deeply into the life of its flawed but intelligent hero, a man deeply devoted to his friends but lost in a violent world. A writer unafraid to show the connections between people, Spencer delivers a hard-hitting collection filled with rich dialogue and spare prose.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Darrell Spencer is professor of English at Ohio University. He is the author of three previous books of short stories, including Caution: Men in Trees, cowinner of the 1998 Flannery O’Connor Award.

REVIEWS

“Spencer lets his characters do the talking, and their dialogue is pitch-perfect. . . . go twelve rounds with this collection, and chances are its emotional wisdom will seem like sweet science.”

—Orlando Sentinel

“Spencer’s descriptions of Las Vegas are haunting; it’s often hard to remember which time period to place the narrative in when it’s surrounded by such an idyllic and seldom-experienced side of the city.”

—Pittsburgh Magazine

“Part of the pleasure of reading this book is Spencer’s ability to render character, to reveal the speakers’ vulnerability behind their machismo and rough edges. Readers are likely to be reduced by this book’s language—dialogue so hard-hitting you feel as if you might have toughed up just by reading it. But the emotional weight of the characters’ lives is what makes them so memorable. . . . The bewitching language and poignancy of these characters remains long after the stories are over.”

—Ohioana Quarterly

TABLE OF CONTENTS

<Spencer, Contents>
<p. vii, no folio, p. viii, cont'd or blank>
Contents
Bring Your Legs with You	000
The Sweet Science	000
World Death Care Expo, Reno, Nevada	000
How Would You Play This?	000
No One Is Going to Ask You to Sing		000
Five Times for Disorderly Conduct	000
Until Liquor Is Made Legal	000
You Missed Something Good with Hats	000
The Blues Is about Mens and Womens	000
Acknowledgments	000

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