Rust and Bone Stories [Paperback]

In steel-tipped prose, Craig Davidson conjures a savage world populated by fighting dogs, prizefighters, sex addicts, and gamblers. In his title story, Davidson introduces an afflicted boxer whose hand never properly heals after a bone is broken. The fighter's career descends to bouts that have less to do with sport than with survival: no referee, no rules, not even gloves. In A Mean Utility we enter an even more desperate arena: dogfights where Rottweilers, pit bulls, and Dobermans fight each other to the death.Davidson . . . smudges the line between comedy and horror, cruelty and mercy. His remarkable stories are challenging and upsetting. . . . Dont look for comfort here.In prose so clean it has been stripped down to the bone, Craig Davidson gives us the demimonde of dogfights, bar brawls, and washed-up boxers that Hemingway first brought into our literature. . . . Davidson . . . is a writer of immense power and surprising, accurate insights.The landscape ofEnough incident, shock, and suspense for a dozen books. . . . Filled with stories you havent heard before.Bret Easton Ellis