My Life in Heavy Metal: Stories

The memorable title story introduces David, an El Paso music critic on the "late-eighties hair bands" circuit who cheats on his longtime college girlfriend with an unassuming YMCA lifeguard. "Because we were a morning paper, I had to bang out my copy by midnight. I operated on a template involving an initial bad pun, a lengthy playlist--adjective, adjective, song title--and a description of the lead singer's hair." Almond hilariously captures the flirty, stylized banter and drinks-after-work breeziness of office life in "Geek Player, Love Slayer." He spins this bittersweet story from a female, first-person perspective as a thirtysomething reporter at an alternative weekly finds an unlikely obsession in the oddly alluring Lance, the paper's overconfident systems administrator ("How did Computer Guy become the Lifeguard of the decade?"). In another standout story, "How to Love a Republican," a doomed cross-party affair plays out against the 2000 presidential election.

Readers should take note of this solid debut and stay on the lookout for more from Almond--he's a sharp and surprisingly sensitive writer with plenty of stories to tell. --Brad Thomas Parsons

---

All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Funny Poignant Writing on Love and Sex, 2007-11-09
A fresh and witty writer, Steve Almond proves he can tell compelling stories about modern life. His perspectives on sex and dating are very funny - mainly becaue everyone can related to them. His writing is similar to Nick Hornby at his edgiest, and at times reminded me of something from the movie "Swingers." Also reminds me of the new independent film "Time and Tide" starring Chris Heltai.


1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

Interesting and insightful short story collection..., 2006-02-20
I had no idea what to expect when I picked up My Life in Heavy Metal, but the premise of short stories centered on love, sex and relationships and its many foibles seemed interesting. This is a very quirky and earnest collection that made me laugh and reminded me what it was like to be naive and inexperienced when it came to love and sex during my teens and early twenties. But it also deals with the aforementioned issues with older characters as well. The stories spoke to me as well as entertained me. My favorite stories are "How to Love a Republican," "Run Away, My Pale Love," "Geek Player, Love Slayer," "The Pass," and "Pornography." All of the stories center on relationships and the protagonists are all flawed in some way or another. "Geek Player, Love Slayer" is the best story of the bunch, in my opinion. I was able to identify with the female protagonist and the story is poignant to boot. So, if you like short stories that deal with love and sex angst, then you will love My Life in Heavy Metal. Steve Almond is a talented author and I look forward to reading more of his stuff.


4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

Diverse short story collection, 2006-02-01
Steve Almond's short-story collection opens with a first-person narrative about a recent college grad, out on his own writing heavy metal show reviews for a local newspaper while he's torn between two girls. I was instantly won over by this man who refused to attend his live-in girlfriend's best friend's wedding because it was on the date of not just any show, but the Guns N' Roses show. Any 80's music fan could understand that decision! Given the title of the book, I assumed this story was autobiographical and more of the same would follow. Imagine my surprise to meet a brash 33-year old female narrator in the second story, at which point I realized this was a story collection, not a series of personal essays.

All of Almond's stories focus on relationships--on cheating, on unrequited love, on Don Juan bar hoppers who have a new girl every night, on loving foreign graduate students and following them back to Poland, on workplace crushes, on come-ons in bars, and so on. Some are three pages long while others are dozens of pages and span a time period of months in a relationship. None are the same, so Almost is to be admired for creating unique narrative voices for such a wide range of characters. Some are so engrossing that the reader is saddened to leave the characters, while others don't really strike the mark.

If you want to explore people's motivations and behaviors in love, lust, settling, pursuing, and the like, pick this up. If you are a heavy metal fan, read the opening essay and move on.


5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

Interesting., 2006-01-12
Steve Almond, My Life in Heavy Metal (Grove, 2002)

To start off with the weak point of Steve Almond's story collection: there's really nothing here you haven't seen before. Almond's stories are the kind of slice-of-life nothing-happens stories written by, it seems, every author on the planet who's written a word at any point past 1983. This has a tendency to make them light reading at best, predictable and boring at worst.

The strong point, on the other hand, is Almond's sense of voice. Each of these stories contains a narrator with an exceptionally distinctive voice. This may be masked by the voice of the narrator of the title story (the first in the collection), who's just a regular guy. But after a couple more, you start to realize how different the characters' voices are from one another, from the brash, unlikable office worker who narrates "Geek Player, Love Slayer," to the interior voice of the narrator of "The Pass," whose voice will, in your head, sound exactly like the guy who narrated all those film strips you watched in grammar school science.

If plot is a literary device secondary to characterization for you, there will be a good deal to like for you in this collection. If you like your stuff primarily plot-driven, however, you may be best advised to look elsewhere. ***


5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

For those who hate books, you might just love this one., 2004-10-31
I will be the first to admit, i hate books and reading, for the most part. Sure, i enjoyed catcher in the rye, the same book that every person, or at least every teenager, loves. But "My Life in Heavy Metal" became the first book that i ever bought, solely for my own enjoyment. Introduced to me through a college freshman writing class was the short story "How to Be a Republican," one of a collection of short stories in this book by Steve Almond. "How to be a Republican" is one of my favorite of the stories i have read so far from the collection, but i have not yet read them all. In all of the stories, the main character is Dave (Steve Almond) who is fighting between different forces of love (friendship, romance, and sex). These stories take you in with them. You become emotionally attached to characters, esp. Dave, wanting to help him all the time. The stories are very real, and sometimes graphic with their sensual imagery...il finish this later

Price is accurate as of the date/time indicated. Prices and product availability are subject to change. Any price displayed on the Amazon website at the time of purchase will govern the sale of this product.