"This is prime American fiction--tough, generous, and open-eyed."
--ALYSON HAGY
Mark Maynard's debut collection of linked short stories examines the characters of a town whose means and meanings are eroding away. In Grind, a homeless man wins the jackpot--and a large stack of pancakes ("Jackpot"); a prison inmate trains a horse toward life beyond the gates ("Penned"); a truck driver with the IQ of a child drives his empty rig up and down the interstate as an homage to his dead mother ("Deadheading"); a topless teen sunbathes on her roof as fighter planes careen overhead ("Sirens"); a grieving woman stores her breast milk behind the frozen peas ("Letdown"); and a pawnshop owner catalogues his wares by the natures of their violent pasts ("Trading Up"). In these stories, pleasure is cheap, heartbreak is a given, the past is dwindling away and the future is unsettlingly uncertain.
Industry Reviews
"Throughout the volume's eight tenuously linked tales, lives and fortune are lost, and the city of Reno emerges as a locus of shattered souls. Maynard's debut collection bursts with idiosyncratic characters...packs a strong emotional punch...is strangely entertaining."
--Publishers Weekly "In Grind, Maynard reveals a world the Nevada tourism board would rather you didn't see...A debut collection of stories that perfectly captures the seediness, desperation and sense of loss permeating the hot desert world of Reno."
--Shelf Awareness
"[Grind has] plenty of those characters who make a visit to the environs of Reno both an exciting potential and an illicit affair...This is a Northern Nevada book."
--Reno News & Review
"Mark Maynard's Reno is so sleazily appealing, so filled with convict cowboys, wild horses, racing pilots, truckers, snow bums, eco-terrorists, tattoo conventions, pawnshops and jackpots that you emerge from reading Grind dazed by this author's empathy for neglected quarters of humanity. You feel gritty all over--and more alive."
--Carolyn Cooke, author of Daughters of the Revolution
"The characters in these stories are as beautiful and broken as the desert itself. Mark Maynard explores the stony truths of lost lives with an unflinching eye for detail, an insider's sense of the place and its people, and an honest compassion. The heartbreaks here are real, as are the moments of uncommon grace and hard-won redemption."
--Kim Barnes, author of In the Kingdom of Men
"Mark Maynard's Grind is chock full of men and women who are desperate with want and full of spirit. Pawnbrokers. Truckers. Casino shills. Prison inmates. They're all here, and they're all gloriously alive. This is prime American fiction--tough, generous, and open-eyed."
--Alyson Hagy, author of Boleto Throughout the volume s eight tenuously linked tales, lives and fortune are lost, and the city of Reno emerges as a locus of shattered souls. Maynard s debut collection bursts with idiosyncratic characterspacks a strong emotional punchis strangely entertaining.
Publishers Weekly
In Grind, Maynard reveals a world the Nevada tourism board would rather you didn t seeA debut collection of stories that perfectly captures the seediness, desperation and sense of loss permeating the hot desert world of Reno.
Shelf Awareness
[Grind has] plenty of those characters who make a visit to the environs of Reno both an exciting potential and an illicit affairThis is a Northern Nevada book.
Reno News & Review
Mark Maynard s Reno is so sleazily appealing, so filled with convict cowboys, wild horses, racing pilots, truckers, snow bums, eco-terrorists, tattoo conventions, pawnshops and jackpots that you emerge from reading Grind dazed by this author s empathy for neglected quarters of humanity. You feel gritty all overand more alive.
Carolyn Cooke, author of Daughters of the Revolution
The characters in these stories are as beautiful and broken as the desert itself. Mark Maynard explores the stony truths of lost lives with an unflinching eye for detail, an insider's sense of the place and its people, and an honest compassion. The heartbreaks here are real, as are the moments of uncommon grace and hard-won redemption.
Kim Barnes, author of In the Kingdom of Men
Mark Maynard's Grind is chock full of men and women who are desperate with want and full of spirit. Pawnbrokers. Truckers. Casino shills. Prison inmates. They're all here, and they're all gloriously alive. This is prime American fictiontough, generous, and open-eyed.
Alyson Hagy, author of Boleto
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