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FOOD CHAIN

FOOD CHAIN

$16.95Price

ISBN: 978-0-9717265-5-0

Pub Date: Spring 2004

Pages: 184


By Janet Kieffer


Imagine Joyce Carol Oates as William Burroughs and you've got Janet Kieffer, writing of losers and lost in biting prose that glitters like rhinestones. A flotsam and jetsom parade of burlesque and grotesque on the edgy side of realism.

—Marilyn Krysl


Janet Kieffer penetrates with wicked clarity and intelligence the obese middle of Middle America. Her stories literally render the American Dream in its own excess. If pigs could read they would take Food Chain as the anthem of their liberation. Ms. Kieffer's work is ruthless as satire, and irresistable as story-telling.

—Steve Katz


Janet Kieffer's imagination is wise and receptive, multi-faceted, and sharp as a marlin spike. Her stories are spare, targeted, and wittily organized as the best narrative poems of our era (by such as Frost, Merrill, Rosellen Brown or Anne Carson). Read her and smile.

—Pamela White Hadas

    Of all the elements in Food Chain—the vivid settings, the straightforward dialogue, or the plots of self-discovery—Janet Kieffer’s rogue characters prove the most enjoyable. These alcoholics and cheats, romantics and hopefuls, quietly pursue life in the face of tragedy. In this focused study of struggling rural America, Kieffer’s earthy writing reveals characters both uniquely human and part of a greater “animal picture.” Kieffer creates a world where people encounter the cycles of life as inevitably as any animal might. However, she also allows these characters’ humanity—their resolute hopefulness and cruel indifference—to distinguish them from the larger animal world.


    To Kieffer’s credit, for every character mired in helplessness or deceit, another reminds us that beauty (often a melancholy beauty) in the face of hardship remains possible. The landscapes Kieffer creates include characters who will haunt readers long after they finish this book. Ultimately, Food Chain succeeds in its characterizations, connections, and insights.

    —Sarah Huffines, Meridan


    Janet Kieffer’s short stories have appeared in literary venues in the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom, and have been finalists/nominees for such awards as Iowa and Pushcart. A BBC World Service Award winner, Kieffer writes stories which typically concern themselves with the ecology of the human condition and which often contain a satirical flavor. She lives in New Mexico.

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