I Looked Alive by Gary Lutz

What you often hear about Gary Lutz is that he writes astonishing sentences. I think that’s true. I also think it undersells the brilliance of what Lutz does. The insanely tight, compressed sentences build into insanely tight, compressed stories that show us what America and contemporary life can feel like, at their darkest core. Gary Lutz is a master – living proof that, even in our cliche-ridden, denial-drenched, hype-driven age, true originality is still an American possibility.

Gary Lutz is a revolutionary force in American writing, reinventing prose fiction with sentences that always deliver on their extravagant promises. His new collection is even stronger and funnier than his first, a feat I’d presumed impossible. Lutz’s stories reside at the messy, linty, futile core of everything – and he’s there, too, at first a tiny figure, waving demurely, but then the nearer we get to truth, the larger Gary Lutz looms, godsome.