Love Warps the Mind a Little

Literature & Fiction

Dufresne, John

Contemporary

Vintage

Dufresne is "an extraordinarily generous and lyrical storyteller" (San Francisco Chronicle) who has been compared to John Irving (New Orleans Times Picayune) and William Faulkner (Detroit Free Press). Welcome to Shiver-de-Freeze, a boot-shaped precinct deep in the Louisiana swamp, famous for its healing waters and curious fauna. Grisham Loudermilk is marrying Ariane Thevenot at Paradise, the family's ancestral home, and we're here for the wedding. But reason and love, it would seem, keep little company in Paradise these days: Grisham's cousin Adlai Birdsong has fallen desperately in love with the bride-to-be. Adlai's ill-advised courtship proceeds even as his daddy, Royce, struggles to recall his past in the face of Alzheimer's; as Father Pat McDermott realizes his passion for the mother of the bride; as the conjoined twins, Tous-les-Deux, train their eyes on Boudou Fontana, the last of the star-crossed Fontana clan. And just when it seems that Adlai must resign himself to a prolonged season of bachelorhood, Miranda Ferry, Grisham's recent lover, wanders into town unawares. With his signature tragic-comic voice and cast of unforgettable and lively characters, Dufresne explores love, death, imagination, and memory. Reading group guide available.

Deep in the Shade of Paradise: A Novel

United States

W.W.Norton&Company

Stories set in American small towns deal with a sheriff investigating a murder, a man who sees visions, two lonely women who run an inn, and a father and daughter team of drifters

The Way That Water Enters Stone

W.W.Norton

Welcome to Monroe, Louisiana, corrugated paper capital of the North Delta parishes, home of the Louisiana Passion Play and the Christian business weekly Prophet and Loss, a city whose library hosts a dysfunctional Great Books seminar, whose civil theater has produced a musical-comedy version of King Lear, and whose cypress tress have been known to drip snakes. Folks here have been studying the genetically deficient Fontana family for generations, ever since Peregrine Fontana sloshed his way out of the swamp in 1840. Now it's 1972 and Billy Wayne Fontana is the last survivor of this sorry familial line. In this hilarious and wholly original tragi-comic romp you'll meet Billy Wayne, who has been raised and groomed for the priesthood but who leaves his spiritual calling for Earlene, a sassy woman who writes country music lyrics at her kitchen table; George Binwaddie, a Pakistani messiah and motel owner who is driven to extraordinary acts of violence; Angelo Candella, a Vietnam hero and State House official who runs his office from a wheelchair; and Moon Pie Fontana, Billy Wayne's offspring, a physically disabled child-star radio evangelist. Hold on, this is a wild and wacky ride through the Louisiana backwaters. As quirky and imaginative as the best of John Irving, culled with the literary affects of Flannery O'Connor, Eudora Welty, and William Faulkner - all of whom Dufresne was compared to in reviews from his debut collection The Way That Water Enters Stone - this first novel about marriage, politics, friendship, love, and the quest for salvation will break your heart and make you laugh at the same time.

Louisiana Power & Light

A daring new novel set in a blue-collar town in Massachusetts by the author of the highly acclaimed Louisiana Power &amp; Light. Ever since Lafayette Proulx quit his day job, left his wife, hauled his dog and his Royal portable across town to Judi Dubey's house, and set out at last to be a fiction writer, his life has been a sordid mess. Judi's exotically dysfunctional family isn't all to blame. Sure, the murders are disconcerting. And, yes, Judi's father's gone off the deep end. Worse are the vicious rejection letters Laf gets from editors. To top it off, Laf's falling for Judi at the same time he's nettled with guilt, is in marriage counseling with his wife, and is writing his long-hoped-for novel. When Judi is diagnosed with stage IV cancer, they both struggle to find the memory that will comfort, the truth that will redeem in a world where everyone suffers some kind of love disorder. John Dufresne, called "a highly readable Faulkner," will once again take the literary world by storm with this new tragicomic tale. Jill McCorkle in the New York Times Book Review cites "the miraculous beauty of his tale-telling surprises and delights."

A creative and funny guide to writing fiction shows readers where to go to find inspiration, stories, and characters, in a guide that demystifies the writing process while maintaining the author's comic voice.

The Lie That Tells a Truth: A Guide to Writing Fiction

Reference

Foreign Language Study & Reference

W.W. Norton & Co., Inc.

In a collection of short works by the author of Louisiana Power &amp; Light, a romantic-minded woman must choose between a marriage of convenience and an affair, four brothers pretend to search for a nonexistent foster home, and an unfaithful man is found dead after announcing he is leaving his wife and children. 20,000 first printing.

Johnny Too Bad: Stories

In the tragicomic mode of his best-selling Louisiana Power &amp; Light, a hilarious and tenderhearted novel about a son's attempts to save his family. John Dufresne takes us to Requiem, Mass., heart of the Commonwealth, where Johnny's mom, Frances, is driving in the breakdown lane once again. She thinks Johnny and his little sister Audrey have been replaced by aliens; she's sure of it, and she's pretty certain that she herself is already dead, or she wouldn't need to cover the stink of her rotting flesh with Jean Naté Apres Bain. Dad, truck driver and pathological liar, is down South somewhere living his secret life. And Audrey, when she's not walking her cat Deluxe in a baby stroller, spends her time locked in a closet telling herself stories. Johnny, meanwhile, is hell-bent on saving the family from itself. In his "truly original voice" (Miami Herald) and with the "miraculous beauty of his tale-telling" (New York Times Book Review), Dufresne brings his unparalleled eye for the tragic and the absurd to the dysfunctions and joys of family in this powerful new novel.

Requiem, Mass.: A Novel

“[Dufresne’s] generous, wise, cajoling, stern, and compassionate voice will get you working right away.”―Brad Watson “Writing a novel,” says John Dufresne, “is not as easy as you may have thought before you tried. But it’s also not as difficult as you imagined.” Dufresne’s smart, practical, hard-nosed guide is for the person who has always wanted to write a novel but has been daunted by the sometimes chaotic, always challenging writing process. A patient teacher and experienced writer, Dufresne focuses his expertise and good humor on helping aspiring novelists take their first tentative steps. His six-month program variously calls attention to the key elements of good fiction writing and offers exercises that are designed to sharpen writers’ command of novel-length storytelling. After six months of guided writing, the users of this book will finish what might have once seemed impossible―a rich and compelling first draft of a novel. Is Life Like This? may well be the most important addition to the aspiring writer’s library.

Is Life Like This?: A Guide to Writing Your First Novel in Six Months

Words, Language & Grammar

For readers of Elmore Leonard and Dennis Lehane, a South Florida noir from the best-selling author of Louisiana Power &amp; Light. On Christmas Eve in Eden, Florida, Wylie “Coyote” Melville, therapist and forensic consultant, is summoned to a horrific crime scene. Five members of the Halliday family have been brutally killed. Wylie’s rare talent is an ability to read a crime scene, consider the evidence seen and unseen, and determine what’s likely to have happened. The police are soon convinced that the deaths were a murder-suicide carried out by a broken and desperate Chafin Halliday, but Wylie’s not so sure. As Wylie begins his own investigation with the help of his friend Bay Lettique―a poker-playing sleight-of-hand artist with links to the Everglades County underworld―he discovers a web of corruption involving the police union, Ponzi-scheming lawyers, county politicians, and the Russian mob. What follows is a heart-stopping, edgy novel that introduces a completely original crime solver.

No Regrets, Coyote: A Novel

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Dufresne, John. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Dufresne, John

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Dufresne, John. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Love Warps the Mind a Little

Deep in the Shade of Paradise: A Novel

The Way That Water Enters Stone

Louisiana Power & Light

Love Warps the Mind a Little

The Lie That Tells a Truth: A Guide to Writing Fiction

Johnny Too Bad: Stories

Requiem, Mass.: A Novel

Is Life Like This?: A Guide to Writing Your First Novel in Six Months

No Regrets, Coyote: A Novel