Many Seconds into the Future: Ten Stories (Modern Jewish Literature and Culture) - Softcover

John Clayton has proven once again that he is not just a master writer, but a master of breaking and mending the reader s heart. I read these stories in one great and terrible rush. They have such powerful momentum, such essential and true gravitas that there was no stopping. The world here, dark as it can be, glitters. There is a lifetime of knowing in this book. --Victoria Redel, author of "The Border of Truth: A Novel" John Clayton is a mystic, a seer, a magi, and yet he doesn t know all, or care to. Within the mysteries lie the hearts of these great stories. His people are as real as ours, and we worry over them, listen to them, laugh with them, most of all feel with them. No writer evokes emotion like John Clayton, from tears to joy, from shock to acceptance, and "Many Seconds into the Future "is a testament to faith, compassion, and the power of love. --Bill Roorbach, author of "Life Among Giants" and "The Remedy for Love"" Praise for "Radiance" Here are powerful stories of urban life in America. . . among Jews who carry their exile and their wilderness within them. The prose is powerful, an impressive mixture of sinuous sentences--which one reads as if one overhears thoughts--and fragments of passion, small felt instances, that stay with the reader like bruises. All of these characters are bruised. They are often enough triumphant, though, even if locked into mortal flesh, because they have an astonishing belief in the spirit. --Frederick Busch

The stories in John J. Clayton's newest collection are luminous, expressing a struggle to see growth and meaning in life as much as possible. Nearly all focus on family, and the characters, most of them Jewish, grapple with questions of living, dying, loving and worshipping. Clayton has published several novels, including Mitzvah Man (TTUP, 2011), but he is best known for his critically-acclaimed short fiction, which have been included in O. Henry Prize Stories, Best American Short Stories and Pushcart Prize anthologies. His collection Radiance was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. The ten stories in Many Seconds into the Future were written after Clayton's collected stories were published in Wrestling with Angels in 2007. Many of these new stories originally were published in Commentary and some in literary magazines. Some are appearing for the first time. They are masterful stories of spiritual questing, emotional depth and often great humour.