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Corpus Christi
by Bret Anthony Johnston


10.0

based on 7 reviews
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based on 2 votes
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Short stories that all take place in the town of Corpus Christi, Texas.

Random House, 272 pages
06/15/2004
$23.95

ISBN: 140006211X

Fiction
Short Stories

All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...

LA Weekly Michael Hoinski

This novella of sorts is achingly beautiful, if a bit overwhelming when coupled with Johnston's already absorbing accounts of marginalized persons personifying the Middle American blues.

Library Journal Cheryl L. Conway

Johnston's evocative descriptions of events, feelings, and Corpus Christi itself connect readers to his characters and their dilemmas and reactions to tragedy. [15 May 2004, p. 118]

Los Angeles Times Mark Rozzo

The 10 stories that make up Bret Anthony Johnston's auspicious debut collection attempt to map Corpus Christi, Texas, and its environs, "where the heat is wet and exhausting, and the land feels as wide open as the ocean." It's hurricane country, and Johnston's exquisitely drawn men and women are riders on the storm, coping with an iffy emotional landscape that mirrors Corpus Christi's own, where the past is too easily washed away and the ocean has no memory. [11 July 2004, p.R9]

Publishers Weekly

In his promising debut collection, Johnston travels through time and across socioeconomic divides to present a series of nuanced portraits of middle-aged, middle-American loneliness in all its permutations.

Boston Globe DeWitt Henry

These stories are relentlessly sober, large-hearted, and intense. In their pathos, to quote C.S. Lewis on Chaucer, "every fluctuation of gnawing hope, every pitiful subterfuge of the flattering imagination, is held up to our eyes without mercy" ("The Allegory of Love"); and yet their effect is spiritually bracing. We are human to the last.

Booklist Marta Segal

The high point of this collection is the three stories spread throughout the book that together form a novella and a complete picture of a touching mother-son relationship. Each individual story overcomes its tragic subject matter to deliver an honest and nonpatronizing view of the mainly lower-middle-class characters. However, trying to read these stories in one sitting may require an antidepressant. [May 1 2004, p. 1545]

Kirkus Reviews

Lugubrious reading, more like workshop exercises than glimpses of real life.

The average user rating for this book is 10.0 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Sarah P gave it a10:
These stories are amazing! After reading them, I felt like I lived in Corpus Christi myself. Bret has a way of making you a part of the story, it is as if I have always known these characters and yet don't want to know them because of the heartache they have to go through. I was simply awestuck at the detail and emotions of these characters. Amazing. I highly recommend people read these stories. they will change you perspective on family, love, loss, your life as a whole.

Rebecca J gave it a10:
Intense, thoughtful stories of fmaily love and loss.

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Corpus Christi by Bret Anthony Johnston

Corpus Christi
by Bret Anthony Johnston