Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles: A Novel

by Ron Currie Jr.

for $ 12.99

A bold, arresting new work of fiction from the acclaimed author of Everything Matters!

In this tour de force of imagination, Ron Currie asks why literal veracity means more to us than deeper truths, creating yet again a genre-bending novel that will at once dazzle, move, and provoke.

The protagonist of Ron Currie, Jr.’s new novel has a problem—or rather, several of them. He’s a writer whose latest book was destroyed in a fire. He’s mourning the death of… (more)

A bold, arresting new work of fiction from the acclaimed author of Everything Matters!

In this tour de force of imagination, Ron Currie asks why literal veracity means more to us than deeper truths, creating yet again a genre-bending novel that will at once dazzle, move, and provoke.

The protagonist of Ron Currie, Jr.’s new novel has a problem—or rather, several of them. He’s a writer whose latest book was destroyed in a fire. He’s mourning the death of his father, and has been in love with the same woman since grade school, a woman whose beauty and allure is matched only by her talent for eluding him. Worst of all, he’s not even his own man, but rather an amalgam of fact and fiction from Ron Currie’s own life. When Currie the character exiles himself to a small Caribbean island to write a new book about the woman he loves, he eventually decides to fake his death, which turns out to be the best career move he’s ever made. But fame and fortune come with a price, and Currie learns that in a time of twenty-four-hour news cycles, reality TV, and celebrity Twitter feeds, the one thing the world will not forgive is having been told a deeply satisfying lie.

What kind of distinction could, or should, be drawn between Currie the author and Currie the character? Or between the book you hold in your hands and the novel embedded in it? Whatever the answers, Currie, an inventive writer always eager to test the boundaries of storytelling in provocative ways, has essential things to impart along the way about heartbreak, reality, grief, deceit, human frailty, and blinding love.

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Fiction Literary American and Canadian literature

Editorial reviews (3 reviews)

The A.V. Club - Books : Book Review: Ron Currie Jr.: Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles (March 25, 2013)

Currie’s mash-up of the faux confessional and the impressively depraved is compelling enough to addict his fictional contemporaries to the form.

Picky Girl: I read. I teach. I blog. (pickily) : Review: Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles by Ron Currie, Jr. & Giveaway (March 06, 2013)

Though I hesitate to describe Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles as poetry, it is at once poetic and experimental in its reach, and it succeeds without feeling blatantly poetic or experimental.

MiamiHerald.com: Books : Taking a long drive off a short pier (March 03, 2013)

The first two-thirds of the novel are dramatically more plausible than the final third. Once the book becomes a runaway bestseller, the story seems contrived.