A masterful collection of short stories exposing the seamy undercurrents of small-town American life from Charles Jackson, celebrated author of The Lost Weekend.
A selection of Jackson’s finest tales, The Sunnier Side and Other Stories explores the trials of adolescence in America during the tumultuous years of the early twentieth century. Set in the town of Arcadia in upstate New York, the stories in this collection address the unspoken issues—homosexuality, masturbation, alcoholism, to name a few—lurking just beneath the surface of the small-town ideal.
The Sunnier Side showcases Jackson at the height of his storytelling powers, reaffirming his reputation as a boundary-pushing, irreverent writer years ahead of his time.
“Charles Jackson is a writer of unusual power.”
—Chicago Tribune
“In their compassionate but merciless self-examination, their almost unbearable integrity, their penetrating (unarty) artfulness, [Jackson's stories] force the reader back upon himself, make him reflect upon his own motivations, his own worth.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“Jackson is a writer of lasting inventiveness and power.”
—Saturday Review
“It is not possible to squeeze Mr. Jackson's technique into any one school. First and foremost he is a creator of his own world. In his best stories he catches the tune of all our existence and hums it for us with the casual colloquially relaxed precision characteristic of his style.”
—New York Herald Tribune Book Review
