Paradise Dance: Stories

By Michael Lee

Book Overview

"Michael Lee's short stories have a rare quality. They are tough, hard-bitten, and surprisingly sensitive to the nuances that motivate behavior in people we assume too quickly are without nuance. What a good read "--Norman Mailer

Michael Lee is a New England literary treasure--and until now, a secret. An original voice from the working-class outskirts of Boston, Lee's standing-room-only readings have been delighting audiences for twenty years. Leapfrog is proud to be the first to collect his poignant and hilarious stories about Nam vets, waitresses, mediocre professors, middle managers, fathers and sons; people who are having a hard time of it, but who cling for dear life to that which holds them up: their sense of humor and a few fleeting moments of love. With equal parts sadness and belly laugh, a trace of Raymond Carver mixed with Dave Barry, Lee fulfills the time-honored ingredient for a good read: make 'em laugh, make 'em weep

"In Michael Lee's stunningly crafted stories, we find people who suffer few illusions as to how they've lost their way, people on the cusp of making peace with all that will never be, yet who still yearn for one good kiss, one true triumph, one moment of lasting grace. Lee's vision is full of compassion, forgiveness, and hope, but is also unsparing in its veracity made all the more symphonic with humor: a tender humor that does not mask the wounds here, but tends to them. This is an important and memorable collection."--Andre Dubus III

Marketing Plans: - Author tour: NYC, New England and NY State - Coop Available - Advertising in key literary and trade magazines

Michael Lee is a Senior Editor at The Cape Cod Voice and a former editor of Miami Magazine. He received his MFA from Emerson College and lives on Cape Cod.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0967952069
• ISBN13: 9780967952062
• Release Date: August 2002
• Publisher: Leapfrog Press
• Length: 220 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

The Answers to Life's Lessons Are in the Moment

Michael Lee captures the heart's hidden emotions of our day to days most ordinary and mundane interludes. Each and every personwho reads this book will look with new insight into their lives and those closest to them. This collection of short stories is a must read.

More, Mr Lee, More!

The stories in this collection by Michael Lee come at you with a humor and humanity that to this reader's mind and heart tell the story of American manhood today. These are stories about guys with heart trying hard to preserve their good humor and what dignity a world that could mostly care less allows them. There are no literary posturings here, just literature at its quiet, touching, funny, enjoyable best. This would be a great gift for just about any man between the ages of 25 and 70 -- and for any woman who wants a glimpse of how we tick! The only bad thing about this book is that it ends. More, Mr Lee, more!

Touchingly Absurd

Mike Lee's ability to turn a phrase is akin to the joy that newly washed windows bring: sudden clarity to unexpected views.People come first in Lee's world, and he introduces some beauts and some beauties. From Frankie and Bobby in Oklahoma to "Nola" Bowden, all of his characters express their innermost thoughts whether we're ready or not.Lee is able to describe feelings many of us have shared in language that is crisp and direct, but applied in circumstances that few, if any, could claim to share. Neither the plight of budding entrepeneurs in the XXX sports market, nor the happiness of an immobile street performer in Paris tickled a neuron of identification with me, but the desperate need to succeed or simply to be the first in one's family to be happy are so fundamental that each of us is able is pick off a piece of such longing to consume and reflect on."Paradise Dance" is an eclectic package of disparate characters brought to the edge by a handful of emotions. Where the hell is Albright , Massachusetts anyway?

PARADISE DANCE

"PARADISE DANCE" IS A GREAT READ!LAUGHED, CRIED AND WAS DEFINITELY MOVED.LEE'S GRASP OF HIS CHARACTERS AND THE CHALLENGES THEY ENCOUNTEREXHIBITS AN ADEPT UNDERSTANDING OF THE QUIET NOBILITY THAT RESIDESIN THE HUMAN CONDITION.THE BEST COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES I'VE READ THIS SEASON.LEE HAS THE GOODS!

What do James Carrol, Andres Dubus III, Norman Mailer and..

Michael Lee all have in common? They all appear somewhere in Michael Lee's Paradise Dance. OK, OK, it's a stretch, but the facts are still darn impressive. Carrol-(winner of National Book Award) wrote the foward to this book. Dubus III and Mailer-Recommended the book on the book sleeve. So who is Michael Lee? Michael is a talented author from Cape Cod, Massachusetts. His hard hitting and often humorous stories take place in the fictitious working class town of Albright, MA. One thing you should know is that people like the Clevers, the Andersons, the Bradys, the Wilsons, and the Partridge's don't appear in this collection. Certainly if they lived in Albright, you won't meet them in this excellant collection. The folks you meet in Albright are the regular, unhappy souls, he would find in any normal American working class town. You will find out their stories, their strange behaviors, their interesting hobbies (Adult XXX,mini-golf anyone?), and their deep dark wishes. The stories are well written, short, bittersweet and punchy. You get to know the people from Albright individually in each story, and then Lee will take you to the next scene, the next story. Using the town as the common thread works wonderfully here and in my humble opinion, Micheal Lee will be a man on the literary move, a force to be reckoned with.