Winner of FC2’s Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize.
A stunning look at the labor of obsession and the industry of self-destruction.
In her lush, lyrical, and unflinching short fiction debut, JoAnna Novak examines the restless throb of desire amid the rote work of jobs and obligations, from the walk-ins of a New York banquet kitchen to the pier of Venice Beach. Fueled by jellyfish pad Thai and Necco wafers, Mountain Dew and Xiaolongbao, the characters in these stories defy boundaries and mores: In “MEMO 19,” a former anorectic, bored of recovery and her clerical job, invites an unparalleled act of sexual defilement and in “Rio Grande, Wisconsin,” a fleshly preteen fantasizes about Bill Murray on a family vacation to Wisconsin. Celebrating the grueling beauty of the shift and the ticking virtues of self-restraint, Meaningful Work is a pageant of formal experimentation, in fearless, glittering prose.
- ISBN10 1573661910
- ISBN13 9781573661911
- Publish Date 30 August 2021
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Publisher The University of Alabama Press
- Imprint Fiction Collective Two
- Format Paperback
- Pages 224
- Language English