{"product_id":"special-election-stories-paperback","title":"Special Election: Stories - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eBrock Clarke\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWith his tenth book, celebrated author Brock Clarke once again demonstrates his mastery of the story form.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In \u003ci\u003eSpecial Election\u003c\/i\u003e, ingenious fictions target our all-too-familiar preoccupations and vulnerabilities--belonging, (dis)engagement, the struggle for self-worth, the difficulty of loving and being loved, the banality and absurdity of existence. Brock Clarke's rapier wit, inexhaustible imagination, and brilliant leaps of illogic transform his characters' desperation and distress into tragicomic delight. In the title story, Lawrence Welk is ousted from heaven to run for governor in present-day North Dakota. In \"One Goes Where One Is Needed,\" we follow the former Provisional Coalition Administrator of post-liberation Iraq, now a youth ski instructor at Okemo Mountain in Vermont. In \"The Slim Jim,\" the protagonist finds himself (literally and figuratively) very slowly choking to death on a frozen microwavable burrito. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"There is something wrong with me,\" states the narrator of \"The Big Book of Useless Saturdays.\" This could be said of all the characters in \u003ci\u003eSpecial Election\u003c\/i\u003e, and through loopy misdirection and mordant observation, Clarke devotes himself to showing his characters and his readers exactly what is wrong. Yet the sharpness of his attention and lavish ludicrousness of his storylines belie a sneaking affection for this imperfect, disappointing world filled with imperfect, disappointing humans. Though Clarke has been compared to such greats as Barthelme, Bellow, and Saunders, the nine stories in \u003ci\u003eSpecial Election\u003c\/i\u003e vibrate at a frequency all his own, showcasing the strengths of one of our most gifted comic writers.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eBrock Clarke\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of nine books, most recently the novel \u003ci\u003eWho Are You, Calvin Bledsoe?\u003c\/i\u003e and the essay collection \u003ci\u003eI, Grape; or The Case for Fiction\u003c\/i\u003e. Clarke's stories and essays have appeared in \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eBoston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003ePloughshares\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eVirginia Quarterly Review\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSewanee Review\u003c\/i\u003e, and more. His work has appeared in the annual \u003ci\u003eBest American Essays\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003ePushcart Prize\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eNew Stories from the South\u003c\/i\u003e anthologies, as well as on NPR's Selected Shorts. Clarke is the cohost of the award-winning podcast \u003ci\u003eDead Writers\u003c\/i\u003e and the A. LeRoy Greason Professor of English and Creative Writing at Bowdoin College. He lives in Portland, Maine.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 216\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.55 x 8.98 x 5.98 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e September 15, 2025\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47266642297081,"sku":"9781946724922","price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0789\/2782\/3097\/files\/5YAgn-_NY29781946724922.webp?v=1768852399","url":"https:\/\/bookscloud.io\/products\/special-election-stories-paperback","provider":"BooksCloud Book Dropshipping","version":"1.0","type":"link"}