"Helen Norris is one of our best and brightest story writers. It should be no surprise that One Day in the Life of a Born Again Loser and Other Stories is a wonderful collection, rich and various and shining with the light only a true artist can create, the pleasure only the finest writers can offer." —George Garrett, author of the Death of the Fox trilogy and Double Vision
"A prize-winning fiction writer and current poet laureate of Alabama, Norris (The Christmas Wife) offers up nine stories, many resplendent with traditional Southern styles and themes, but most transcending the boundaries of regionalism, through powerful symbolism, a canny and touching understanding of human frailty and uproariously funny moments. "The Flying Hawk" is an uproarious account of a spunky old librarian taking a reluctant high school boy on a quest for the sight of a famous historic inn. "[T]he hounds came from under a bush and jumped all over the side of the truck. Miss Pott's lips were set in a smile, as if she enjoyed a good barking at." In the emotionally crushing "The Bower-Bird," Will Geer, a Vietnam vet at loose ends, tries to contact an old army buddy, only to be caught in a web of deception and desperation when a strange, lonely woman posing as the friend's sister informs Will that his friend is dead. "Tutankhamen Calhoun" tells of a dying mill owner who tries to outwit his scavenging relatives with the help of a charlatan minister who may well be the Devil....These are good country people who would make Flannery O'Connor proud, and Norris makes them bitterly, or hilariously, real with her comic genius, emotional depth and elegant, direct prose." --Publishers Weekly
Often quirky and occasionally poignant, these narratives give us a peek into a host of interesting lives. --Peter Khoury in The New York Times Book Review
