Description
Funny, bruising, and unexpectedly tender, Brendan Gillen’s new collection, Hang Time, reveals the fragile humanity beneath the myths of competition and control. Whether laced with surreal twists or grounded in everyday heartbreak, these stories—moving from little league dugouts and high school gyms to auto shops and monster truck rallies—remind us that “hang time” is never just about staying in the air—it’s about what it costs to come back down.Praise for Hang Time
“Sport may be a dependable touchstone for the stories in Hang Time, but beware, there’s LSD in the Gatorade. The nostalgia is spiked. Jesus Was a Cross Maker is a batter’s walk-up music, and Enya plays at the monster truck rally. A former ace pitcher tests his beliefs about fate by courting a bear attack. Skulls are unearthed by clumsy golf swings. These tense, urgent tales explore the past-your-prime turbulence of adulthood with the lush sentence-writing of Barry Hannah and the stop-short eeriness of Raymond Carver. In these pages, magic isn’t just possible—it’s necessary.” — John Brandon, author of Penalties of June (McSweeney’s Press)
“An exploration of athletics and spectacle through the lives of little-leaguers, professionals, bachelorettes with machine guns, and a tiny advertising icon, Brendan Gillen’s work is filled with tenderness and violence, both in subject and in his tight, masterful prose; he unpacks the allure of competition to reveal a core brimming with humanity—its hope and desire for connection, its physical and soul-level pain, and its infectious nostalgia. Hang Time is a knockout.”
— Emily Costa, author of Girl on Girl
