Coup de Foudre, by Ken Kalfus
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Coup de Foudre, by Ken Kalfus
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The explosive new collection by the celebrated author of Thirst and PEN/Faulkner Award finalist Pu-239 and Other Russian Fantasies, Coup de Foudre is the kind of groundbreaking work of literary invention Ken Kalfus’s fans have come to expect. The book is anchored by the full text of the provocatively topical title novella that appeared in Harper’s, a sometimes farcical, ultimately tragic story about the president of an international lending institution accused of sexually assaulting a housekeeper in a New York hotel. Recalling recent news events with irony and compassion, Kalfus skewers international political gridlock and the hypocrisies of acceptable sexual conduct.
Coup de Foudre is an explosive collection--the kind of groundbreaking work of literary invention Ken Kalfus’s fans have come to expect. The book is anchored by the provocatively topical title novella that appeared inHarper’s, a sometimes farcical, ultimately tragic story about the president of an international lending company accused of sexually assaulting a housekeeper in a New York hotel. Recalling recent news events with irony and compassion, Kalfus skewers international political gridlock and the hypocrisies of acceptable sexual conduct. In "The Moment They Were Waiting For," a murderer on death row casts a spell granting the inhabitants of his city the foreknowledge of the dates they will die. In "v. The Large Hadron Collider," a judge distracted by the faint possibility of an adulterous affair must decide whether to throw out a nuisance lawsuit that raises the even fainter possibility that the entire earth may be destroyed. “The Un-” is a nostalgic story of a young writer’s struggles as he tries to surmount the colossal, heavily guarded wall that apparently separates writers who have been published from those who have not.
Varying boldly in theme, setting, and tone, the stories in Coup de Foudre share Kalfus’s distinctive humor and intellect, inextricably bound with high literary ambition.
Coup de Foudre, by Ken Kalfus- Amazon Sales Rank: #1228231 in Books
- Brand: Kalfus, Ken
- Published on: 2015-05-12
- Released on: 2015-05-12
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.48" h x .98" w x 5.79" l, 1.00 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 288 pages
Review
“Spectacular . . . Presents a moving exploration of the ambiguous nature of reality, storytelling, and the passage of time.” ―New York Times Book Review
“[Coup de Foudre] showcases a dazzling versatility of style and imagination . . . devotees and newcomers alike will be richly rewarded by the author's impressive display here of rhetorical inventiveness and ingenious ideas.” ―Booklist
“Can you call a Guggenheim Fellow and a National Book Award Finalist unheralded? Maybe not, but underheralded Ken Kalfus most certainly is. With Coup de Foudre, he's written as varied and exciting a collection as any you're likely to find, a wild array of stories and novellas made whole by the artfulness of his prose, the bravery of his tactics, and the empathy and honesty of his gaze.” ―Kevin Brockmeier, author of The Illumination
“Ken Kalfus keeps you teetering between 'this is weird' and 'exactly right!' The strange worlds he brilliantly creates are oddly familiar and make you laugh and think and hope for more. He is an original with the gift of getting inside people.” ―Mark Kurlansky, author of City Beasts
“Ken Kalfus' exuberant fictions about scamps, fumblers, and modern day rogues comes as a relief--so THIS is how they think. Kalfus cracks the human personality code with Coup de Foudre. Yet another of the author's literary accomplishments, chock full of clear-eyed portraits in an entertaining and experimental vein.” ―Amity Gaige, author of Schroder
“It is impossible to stay detached from a Ken Kalfus story. No matter how unsettling their predicaments, the characters in this striking collection are rendered so fully and precisely that we can feel the force of their desires and understand their panic and confusion. Whether the subject is sexual assault, an eerie curse cast on a community, the act of reading, or even gingivitis, these fictions are infused with the force of lived experience.” ―Joanna Scott, author of De Potter's Grand Tour
“Ken Kalfus's story, Coup de Foudre, is a brilliant fictional account of the incident [in which Dominique Strauss-Kahn was charged with sexually assaulting a hotel maid], framed as a cringe-making letter of apology.” ―The Globe and Mail
“In the title novella, Kalfus, a National Book Award and PEN/Faulkner Award finalist, riffs entertainingly on the outlaw sexual proclivities of a financial titan reminiscent of Dominique Strauss-Kahn.” ―The Forward, "12 Books We're Looking Forward to in 2015"
“Provocative explorations into contemporary culture.” ―BookReporter.com
“[A] portrait of wild energy . . . Excellent . . . Any serious reader . . . should be excited to read the work of a writer with Kalfus' talent . . . Read Coupe de Foudre to see firsthand why his writing is so highly regarded.” ―The Philadelphia Inquirer
“Kalfus's stories . . . roll in like thunder . . . Together they create a pensive and wistful atmosphere. Kalfus blends science and philosophy to create whimsical, off-kilter worlds only slightly different from our own and in which entire universes are born--slanted but familiar. A playful and poignant collection of fiction that masterfully toes the line between comic and tragic.” ―Shelf Awareness
“Audacious . . . Makes you want to cry--with laughter . . . The stories are sharply original; he can be cool, hip, tragic . . . Witty, unsettling, sometimes weird, they sing from the page with intelligence, humour and style.” ―The Spectator
“Kalfus's range is formidable and his standout pieces brim with gimlet-eyed observations, dazzling ideas and well-crafted characters whose exploits and predicaments flit between comedy, tragedy and downright absurdity . . . Coup de Foudre is a tour de force.” ―Financial Times
About the Author Ken Kalfus is the author of three novels, Equilateral, A Disorder Peculiar to the Country, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, and The Commissariat of Enlightenment. He has also published the story collections Thirst and Pu-239 and Other Russian Fantasies, the latter a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and the basis for the HBO film Pu-239. Kalfus recently received a Pew Fellowships in the Arts award and a Guggenheim fellowship. He lives in Philadelphia.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. Another Excellent Book from Mr. Kalfus By Bookish2 This is such an intelligent, exciting, and politically astute collection of stories. Kalfus has a big mind and it is in evidence in each of these finely wrought, lyrically written stories. The title story is of novella-length and is told from the point of view of French politician and former World Bank executive Dominique Strauss-Kahn; the narrative chronicles the events leading up to and following his fateful encounter with a member of the NYC Sofitel housekeeping staff. A beautifully well-written, subtle and compulsively readable story. This book is for any reader who wishes to immerse her-/himself into, as noted above, the work of a big mind.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. A master of the short story form... By FictionFan Ken Kalfus has become one of my favourite writers since I first read Equilateral, his brilliantly written take on the Mars sci-fi story. His collection of short stories about Soviet Russia, PU-239 and Other Russian Fantasies, confirmed my first impression, while also letting me know that he is a true master of the short story form. So I was primed to love this new collection, which consists of a novella and 15 short stories. And I'm pleased to say that the book lived up to, perhaps exceeded, my high expectations.The novella-length title story, Coup de Foudre, is a barely disguised imagining of the recent Dominique Strauss-Kahn scandal (when the leader of the International Monetary Fund and possible candidate for the French Presidency was accused of having sexually assaulted a chamber-maid in a Manhattan hotel room). In Kalfus' hands, it becomes a compelling examination of a man so intoxicated by power and his own superiority that he feels he is above the common morality. Landau, the Strauss-Kahn figure, narrates the story in the form of a letter to the maid. There is much here about the then political situation, with Greece teetering on the brink of financial meltdown and a real possibility of a domino effect across large parts of Europe; and, in his arrogance, Landau believes only he can save Europe and his downfall is Europe's also. But monstrous though Kalfus paints him, we also see his concern in principle for the poor and less advantaged of the world. He recognizes the maid's positional weakness as an immigrant who lied to get entry to the US to escape from a country where women are still treated abominably and where female genital mutilation is still routinely practised, and is sympathetic to her situation, while not allowing that sympathy to interfere with fulfilling his own desires.The story is extremely sexually explicit, but not pruriently. Rather, Kalfus is drawing parallels between economic and political power and sexual power, and the single-minded egotism that seems so often to be the driver behind both. I admit I felt uneasy, as I always do, about the morality of writing a story so obviously concerning real people still living. Not for Strauss-Kahn's sake, I hasten to add, but I did wonder about the re-imagining of the maid's story. Although depicted clearly as the victim, there are aspects of the story that made me feel as if it almost represented another level of assault, and I wondered whether she had been asked for and given permission to have her story told in this way. One could certainly argue that the salacious details of the story have already been so hashed over in the public domain that it can't matter. But somehow I still feel it does. Despite that reservation, I found the story well written, psychologically persuasive and intensely readable.Fortunately the rest of the collection didn't affect me with the same kind of internal conflict. Some of the other stories are also based on real-life events but not with the same kind of personalisation and intimacy of this first one. Some have a political aspect to them, while others have a semi-autobiographical feel, and there's a lot of humour in many of them. There are several that would be classed, I suppose, as 'speculative fiction' – borderline sci-fi – but with Kalfus it's always humanity that's at the core, even when he's talking about parallel universes, dead languages or even cursed park benches! There are some brilliantly imaginative premises on display here, along with the more mundane, but in each story Kalfus gives us characters to care about and even the more fragmentary stories have a feeling of completeness so often missing from contemporary short story writing.This is a great collection which would be a perfect introduction to Kalfus. Occasionally shocking, hugely imaginative, full of warmth and humour and extremely well written, every story in the book rated at a minimum of four stars for me, with most being five. Highly recommended.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. The title novella is brilliant. Reminds you of Tom Wolfe but it's sharper By City Girl The title novella is brilliant. Reminds you of Tom Wolfe but it's sharper, more keenly realized. Kalfus is a wildly inventive and versatile writer. I always look forward to his books.
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