Bad Jobs and Poor Decisions by J R Helton
Weaving the brackish humor of Chuck Palahniuks Fight Club with the empathy of Barbara Ehrenreichs Nickel and Dimed, J. R. Helton brings to life an obscured, all-too-often ignored slice of the American psyche in this unflinching memoir of blue-collar Texas.
"Helton writes with an honest, gritty, straightforward style about ugly things and somehow manages to make them beautiful…A great book" -- Terry Zwigoff
"Bad Jobs and Poor Decisions is Helton at his best, as he recalls trudging through the lower depths working a myriad of menial jobs. With an abundance of humor, sharp observation, and a terrific ear for dialogue, he makes the bleak and tragic subject matter something to be savored." -- Terry Zwigoff, director of Crumb, Ghost World, Bad Santa, and Art School Confidential
"Both funny and sad, this book illuminates the hard work and unrelenting tenacity of people who scratch a living with manual labor." -- Jan Reid, author of Sins of the Younger Sons
"Somewhere between literary tinctures reminiscent of Charles Bukowski and Harvey Pekar, Helton conjures an intoxicating voice that mines mordant memories of abject and downtrodden moments to reveal hilarious, gobsmacking, and often haunting, epiphanies. When it doesn’t break your heart, this book might bust your gut from laughing." -- John Philip Santos
"J. R. Helton is my favorite contemporary American writer. He has a gift for writing well in plain language, and he can’t seem to help but write with total honesty. I eagerly devoured Bad Jobs and Poor Decisions, as I do all his writing. Everything he puts down on paper ought to be printed and disseminated to the reading public." -- R. Crumb
"I can’t help but fall for the way the rough and the poetic combine…Helton’s language will eat you up. His characters are wonderful and they are awful. They are so human, just like the rest of us." -- Erika T. Wurth, author of Crazy Horse’s Girlfriend and Buckskin Cocaine
"These pages contain a cutting, insightful, and addictively readable slice of sociological rabble-rousing—a literary feat that takes a rare talent to pull off. Luckily for us, J. R. Helton has that talent in spades. He fires on all cylinders, speaking truth after truth, and taking no prisoners." -- Tony O'Neill
"Bad Jobs and Poor Decisions is Helton at his best, as he recalls trudging through the lower depths working a myriad of menial jobs. With an abundance of humor, sharp observation, and a terrific ear for dialogue, he makes the bleak and tragic subject matter something to be savored." -- Terry Zwigoff, director of Crumb, Ghost World, Bad Santa, and Art School Confidential
"Both funny and sad, this book illuminates the hard work and unrelenting tenacity of people who scratch a living with manual labor." -- Jan Reid, author of Sins of the Younger Sons
"Somewhere between literary tinctures reminiscent of Charles Bukowski and Harvey Pekar, Helton conjures an intoxicating voice that mines mordant memories of abject and downtrodden moments to reveal hilarious, gobsmacking, and often haunting, epiphanies. When it doesn’t break your heart, this book might bust your gut from laughing." -- John Philip Santos
"J. R. Helton is my favorite contemporary American writer. He has a gift for writing well in plain language, and he can’t seem to help but write with total honesty. I eagerly devoured Bad Jobs and Poor Decisions, as I do all his writing. Everything he puts down on paper ought to be printed and disseminated to the reading public." -- R. Crumb
"I can’t help but fall for the way the rough and the poetic combine…Helton’s language will eat you up. His characters are wonderful and they are awful. They are so human, just like the rest of us." -- Erika T. Wurth, author of Crazy Horse’s Girlfriend and Buckskin Cocaine
"These pages contain a cutting, insightful, and addictively readable slice of sociological rabble-rousing—a literary feat that takes a rare talent to pull off. Luckily for us, J. R. Helton has that talent in spades. He fires on all cylinders, speaking truth after truth, and taking no prisoners." -- Tony O'Neill
J. R. Helton has published numerous books about movies, drugs, people, and dogs. A writing teacher in Texas, his stories and poems have been featured in Mineshaft magazine, the Sun, and the Missouri Review, among others.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781631492877 |
| ISBN 10 | 163149287X |
| Title | Bad Jobs and Poor Decisions |
| Author | J R Helton |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | WW Norton & Co |
| Year published | 2018-02-02 |
| Number of pages | 272 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |