Look Down, This Is Where It Must Have Happened

Front Cover
City Lights Books, 2011 - Fiction - 174 pages

The acclaimed author of The Peep Diaries and Hello, I'm Special returns to fiction, and delivers a mind-altering collection of short stories that confront the hypocrisies, humiliations and hilarities of modern life. Hal Niedzviecki's past books have established him as one of North America's most interesting and influential writers. In Look Down he romps through social conventions, confronts society's intractable dilemmas and deftly captures the zeitgeist of our fractured times.

* In "Doing God's Work," God's personal assistant devises an outlandish way to kill the deity by playing to his never-ending need for human attention.

* "Prenatal" is a new take on right-to-life, wherein a pregnant 10th-grader finds herself struggling with her fetus's insistence that she abort him before both their lives are ruined.

* In "Undead," a man struggling to come to terms with the death of a friend finds himself haunted by a funeral home’s online broadcasts.

* In the epic "Special Topic: Terrorism," an undergraduate gets in way over his head when a class assignment to found a terror organization goes viral.

"Look Down, This is Where It Must Have Happened" is a biting satire of nostalgia, a send-up of the way highschool-era friendships can permanently choke off the possibility of adulthood.

Praise for Hal Niedzviecki:

"Hal Niedzviecki is a remarkable writer." -- Margot Livesey, author of Eva Moves the Furniture

"Niedzviecki is a gifted writer, thoughtful and insightful." -- The Globe and Mail

"There's tons of talent here."-- NOW

 

Selected pages

Contents

Terrorism
7
Look Down This Is Where It Must Have Happened
37
Punk Rock Role Model
45
Real Estate
157
Doing Gods Work
169
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Look Down, This is Where It Must Have Happened
Hal Niedzviecki
Limited preview - 2011

Common terms and phrases

Adjunct arms asked baby Becky belly breath C’mon can’t Charlie Charlie’s cheeks color Colorist Colorist’s wife cool couch cream cheese Dad says Dad’s dark Deirdre doesn’t door drink empty everything eyes face feels fetus front fuck funeral girl God’s grabs hair hand happen Harvey Weinstein he’d He’s head Humvee Joanie Joanie’s kids kitchen laughed Laurie’s legs lips living look lucky night Meals On Wheels Mickers mother mouth night nods numbers okay Paul says Paul thinks Peter felt Petey pink pulls punk rock Rainy Sarah Shauna Sheils shit shivah Shlomo says shoulder shrug sits smiling snapped someone Star’s stares stomach stop stuff sure sweat talking teenage tell tequila There’s They’d thick things turned voice waiting walked watch What’s Who’s wife says Willet window Yeah yells You’re YouTube

About the author (2011)

Hal Niedzviecki is the founder of Broken Pencil Magazine and has published numerous works of social commentary, including The Peep Diaries: How We're Learning to Love Watching Ourselves and Our Neighbors, Hello I'm Special: How Individuality Became the New Conformity (both published by City Lights) and We Want Some Too: Underground Desire and the Reinvention of Mass Culture. He has also published two works of fiction, including The Program, a novel, and Smell It, a collection of stories. Hal is the subject of the documentary "Peep Culture" which premiered in Canada and the U.S. in 2011. Look Down, This is Where it Must Have Happened is his first collection of stories to be published in the U.S.

Bibliographic information

TitleLook Down, This Is Where It Must Have Happened
City Lights Publishers Spring/Summer 2011 Catalog
G - Reference,Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series
AuthorHal Niedzviecki
Editionillustrated
PublisherCity Lights Books, 2011
ISBN0872865398, 9780872865396
Length174 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Fiction / Dystopian
Fiction / General
Fiction / Humorous / General
Fiction / Literary
Fiction / Short Stories (single author)
  
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