Brief Encounters With Che Guevara

Winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award * A National Bestseller “An exceptional story collection.” —New York Times Book Review The well-intentioned protagonists of Brief Encounters with Che Guevera—including a disillusioned NGO worker, the wife of a special operations officer, and an obssessed ornithologist—are caught, to both disastrous and hilarious effect, in the maelstrom of political and social upheaval surrounding them. With masterful pacing and a robust sense of the absurd, each story is a self-contained adventure, steeped in the heady mix of tragedy and danger, excitement and hope, that characterizes countries in transition. An intelligent and keenly observed collection, Brief Encounters with Che Guevera marks the arrival of a striking and resonant new voice that speaks adeptly to the intimate connection between the foreign, the familiar, and the inescapably human.

This debut collection from the man Malcolm Gladwell described as a genius took readers by storm. From the slums of Haiti to a golf course in Myanmar, and from the Colombian jungle to the diamond mines of Sierra Leone, Ben Fountain's impeccable and devastatingly funny stories describe a world in political and social upheaval, and the lives caught in the balance.

With masterful pacing and a robust sense of the absurd, each story in Brief Encounters with Che Guevara is a self-contained adventure, steeped in the heady mix of tragedy and danger, excitement and hope, that characterizes countries in transition."--BOOK JACKET.

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and a finalist for the National Book Award “Brilliantly done . . . grand, intimate, and joyous.” —New York Times Book Review From the PEN/Hemingway Award-winning author of the critically acclaimed short story collection, Brief Encounters with Che Guevara, comes Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk ("The Catch-22 of the Iraq War" —Karl Marlantes). Three minutes and forty-three seconds of intensive warfare with Iraqi insurgents—caught on tape by an embedded Fox News crew—has transformed the eight surviving men of Bravo Squad into America’s most sought-after heroes. Now they’re on a media-intensive nationwide tour to reinvigorate public support for the war. On this rainy Thanksgiving Day, the Bravos are in Texas Stadium, slated to be part of the halftime show. Among the Bravos is nineteen-year-old Specialist Billy Lynn. Surrounded by patriots sporting flag pins on their lapels and support our troops bumper stickers, he is thrust into the company of the team’s owner and his coterie of wealthy colleagues; a born-again cheerleader; a veteran Hollywood producer; and supersized players eager for a vicarious taste of war. Over the course of this day, Billy will drink and brawl, yearn for home and mourn those missing, face a heart-wrenching decision and discover pure love and a bitter wisdom far beyond his years. Poignant, riotously funny, and exquisitely heartbreaking, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk is a searing and powerful novel that has cemented Ben Fountain’s reputation as one of the finest writers of his generation.

Winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award * A National Bestseller “An exceptional story collection.” —New York Times Book Review The well-intentioned protagonists of Brief Encounters with Che Guevera—including a disillusioned NGO worker, the wife of a special operations officer, and an obssessed ornithologist—are caught, to both disastrous and hilarious effect, in the maelstrom of political and social upheaval surrounding them. With masterful pacing and a robust sense of the absurd, each story is a self-contained adventure, steeped in the heady mix of tragedy and danger, excitement and hope, that characterizes countries in transition. An intelligent and keenly observed collection, Brief Encounters with Che Guevera marks the arrival of a striking and resonant new voice that speaks adeptly to the intimate connection between the foreign, the familiar, and the inescapably human.

In a sweeping work of reportage set over the course of 2016, New York Times bestselling author Ben Fountain recounts a surreal year of politics and an exploration of the third American existential crisis Twice before in its history, the United States has been faced with a crisis so severe it was forced to reinvent itself in order to survive: first, the struggle over slavery, culminating in the Civil War, and the second, the Great Depression, which led to President Roosevelt’s New Deal and the establishment of America as a social-democratic state. In a sequence of essays that excavate the past while laying bare the political upheaval of 2016, Ben Fountain argues that the United States may be facing a third existential crisis, one that will require a “burning” of the old order as America attempts to remake itself. Beautiful Country Burn Again narrates a shocking year in American politics, moving from the early days of the Iowa Caucus to the crystalizing moments of the Democratic and Republican national conventions, and culminating in the aftershocks of the weeks following election night. Along the way, Fountain probes deeply into history, illuminating the forces and watershed moments of the past that mirror and precipitated the present, from the hollowed-out notion of the American Dream, to Richard Nixon’s southern strategy, to our weaponized new conception of American exceptionalism, to the cult of celebrity that gave rise to Donald Trump. In an urgent and deeply incisive voice, Ben Fountain has fused history and the present day to paint a startling portrait of the state of our nation. Beautiful Country Burn Again is a searing indictment of how we came to this point, and where we may be headed.

Examines the life of Che Guevara, including his family's background, childhood, education, and groundbreaking work as a revolutionary fighting against poverty.

Ripe and ruthless Beltway satire by a former Presidential speechwriter. Peter Holmes Dickinson (of the Main Line Dickinsons), a former top speechwriter for President Tyler "Ty the Guy" Ferguson, is a charming snob, a part-time coke-head, full-time womanizer, and in big trouble. His Washington speechwriting firm is tanking, he owes money to Dean, a hillbilly drug dealer, and also to Jeb Hammerford, a northern Virginia construction executive. And, oh yes, Pete has been shtooping Marlie Rae Perkins, a veritable Valkyrie of a policewoman from rural Virginia, given to periodic fits of overpossessiveness. And then, across a crowded room (actually the foyer in The Kennedy Center), Pete sees Che Che Hart, his former lover. Che Che is beautiful, a Georgetown professor, a kickboxing student, and the daughter of Donna Hart Lyons. Donna is a former soap opera queen, dedicated left-wing activist (Time Magazine called her "The Godmother of the American Left"), and, since the death-by-orgasm of her billionaire octogenarian husband, rich beyond the dreams of avarice. Donna's latest scheme is to reform prostitutes through heavy doses of leftist dogma at The Ernesto "Che" Guevara School for Wayward Girls, located on her Montana ranch. Marrying Che Che would be one way of paying off Pete's debts, but first he has to make her forget what a rat he is. While he is thinking of creative ways to lie to Che Che, he gets a call from Harry Gottlieb, President Ferguson's long-suffering chief-of-staff. Would Pete like to resume doing speeches for Ty the Guy, on the side, but without Ty knowing it is Pete doing the writing? So begins this screamingly funny, page-turning, equal-opportunity-offending political satire.