Tired People Seeing America

"Wry. Hilarious. Hopple's pacing is masterful and gives the sense that these stories were meant to be read aloud, whispered from person to person as if gossip tangled in a game of telephone. When Hopple writes, 'Because I need to believe that they believe it. I need to believe it's possible for someone to know, not just think, something like that, ' I believe. You will believe too."-Keegan Lester, winner of the 2016 Slope Editions Book Prize judged by Mary Ruefle "These stories are not simply powerful, human meditations on life, love, and loss, they are proof-positive examples that the tiniest, quirkiest bits of our lives are exactly the moments that make us who we are. Everything matters, and everyone counts in Hopple's fiction, because every sentence is loaded with profundity, humor, and heart." -Nick Gregorio, author of This Distance"Claire Hopple's characters are lost and worn and they are examined with a pin-perfect exactness that reaches for and touches the sublime. Tired People Seeing America is modern American short fiction in top form."-Daniel DiFranco, author of Panic Years"These stories will find a residence in you where you least expect it."-C. C. Hannett, author of I Gave This Dream to a Color"Claire Hopple has written an intense, vivid book. A worthy edition to the Dostoyevsky Wannabe lineup."-Shane Jesse Christmass, author of Yeezus in FursFrom historical reenactors to water bed owners to professional mermaids, these stories show eccentric characters grappling with the postmodern American landscape and how it affects personal identity