Michigan State University Press, 2010 eISBN: 978-1-60917-211-4 | Paper: 978-0-87013-880-5 Library of Congress Classification PS3556.I457Z46 2010 Dewey Decimal Classification 813.54
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
The Canals of Mars is a memoir that explores and ponders "weakness," which in Gary Fincke's family was the catch-all term for every possible human flaw-physical, psychological, or spiritual. Fincke grew up near Pittsburgh during the 1950s and 1960s, raised by blue-collar parents for whom the problems that beset people-from alcoholism to nearsightedness to asthma to fear of heights-were nothing but weaknesses.
In a highly engaging style, Fincke meditates on the disappointments he suffered-in his body, his mind, his work-because he was convinced that he had to be "perfect." Anything less than perfection was weakness and no one, he understood from an early age, wants to be weak.
Six of the chapters in the book have been cited in Best American Essays. The chapter that provides the book's title, The Canals of Mars, won a Pushcart Prize and was included in The Pushcart Book of Essays: The Best Essays from a Quarter Century of the Pushcart Prize.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Gary Fincke is the Charles B. Degenstein Professor of English and Creative Writing at Susquehanna University, Director of the Writers' Institute at Susquehanna University, and won a 2003 Flannery O'Connor Prize. Fincke has also won the 2003 Ohio State University Press/The Journal Poetry Prize, and the George Garrett Fiction Prize in 2003. Fincke has also won two Pushcart Prizes.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Beginnings
The Ass-End of Everything
The Plagues
Home Remedies
The Canals of Mars
Look Both Ways
The Theory of Dog Shit
God
God of Our Fathers
The Faces of Christ
Say It
The Technology of Paradise
Work
Clemente Stuff
The Handmade Court
In the Bakery
Union Grades
The Theoryof Stinks
Useful Things
Weakness
Going Inside
Subsidence, Mine Fire, Bypass, Golf
Alcohol
Night Vision
Labored Breathing
Plummeting
Endings
My Father Told Me
The Piecework of Writing
Cemeteries
Looking Again: An Epilogue
Acknowledgments
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Michigan State University Press, 2010 eISBN: 978-1-60917-211-4 Paper: 978-0-87013-880-5
The Canals of Mars is a memoir that explores and ponders "weakness," which in Gary Fincke's family was the catch-all term for every possible human flaw-physical, psychological, or spiritual. Fincke grew up near Pittsburgh during the 1950s and 1960s, raised by blue-collar parents for whom the problems that beset people-from alcoholism to nearsightedness to asthma to fear of heights-were nothing but weaknesses.
In a highly engaging style, Fincke meditates on the disappointments he suffered-in his body, his mind, his work-because he was convinced that he had to be "perfect." Anything less than perfection was weakness and no one, he understood from an early age, wants to be weak.
Six of the chapters in the book have been cited in Best American Essays. The chapter that provides the book's title, The Canals of Mars, won a Pushcart Prize and was included in The Pushcart Book of Essays: The Best Essays from a Quarter Century of the Pushcart Prize.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Gary Fincke is the Charles B. Degenstein Professor of English and Creative Writing at Susquehanna University, Director of the Writers' Institute at Susquehanna University, and won a 2003 Flannery O'Connor Prize. Fincke has also won the 2003 Ohio State University Press/The Journal Poetry Prize, and the George Garrett Fiction Prize in 2003. Fincke has also won two Pushcart Prizes.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Beginnings
The Ass-End of Everything
The Plagues
Home Remedies
The Canals of Mars
Look Both Ways
The Theory of Dog Shit
God
God of Our Fathers
The Faces of Christ
Say It
The Technology of Paradise
Work
Clemente Stuff
The Handmade Court
In the Bakery
Union Grades
The Theoryof Stinks
Useful Things
Weakness
Going Inside
Subsidence, Mine Fire, Bypass, Golf
Alcohol
Night Vision
Labored Breathing
Plummeting
Endings
My Father Told Me
The Piecework of Writing
Cemeteries
Looking Again: An Epilogue
Acknowledgments
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE