Ben Fountain

The well-meaning protagonists of Brief Encounters with Che Guevara are caught—to both disastrous and hilarious effect—in the maelstrom of political and social upheaval surrounding them. Ben Fountain's prize-winning debut speaks to the intimate connection between the foreign, the familiar, and the inescapably human.

Stories

Brief Encounters with Che Guevara

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.

Democracy, Rebellion, and Revolution

Beautiful Country Burn Again

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE BY OSCAR-WINNING DIRECTOR ANG LEE Billy Lynn is home from Iraq. And he's a YouTube sensation. Tonight, with the nation's eyes on him, Billy steps out onto the field at the Dallas Cowboys' Thanksgiving football game. Tomorrow, he must go back to war.

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk

"Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide has been toppled in a violent coup d'état, bringing to power a brutal military dictatorship. With turmoil in the streets and an international embargo threatening to destroy even the country's most powerful players, some are looking to gain an advantage in chaos--and others are just looking to make it through another day. American expat Matt Amaker, forced out of his beachfront scuba shop by a drug-smuggling operation, turns to hunting colonial Spanish treasure off a remote section of Haiti's southern coast. Misha Variel, a Haitian-American scholar, returns to Haiti to care for her aging parents, and soon stumbles onto an arms-trafficking ring masquerading as a U.S.-government humanitarian aid office. Rookie CIA case officer Audrey O'Donnell finds herself managing a grabbag of intelligence assets in an assignment more difficult and more dubious than she could have imagined. All are embroiled in a game of deceit that culminates in a vicious, zero-sum scramble for survival. Devil Makes Three's depiction of blood politics, the machinations of power, and, most of all, a country in the midst of upheaval is urgently and insistently resonant."--

A Novel

Devil Makes Three

È il tuo giorno, Billy Lynn!

New York Times Bestseller Now a Major Motion Picture “Brilliantly done . . . grand, intimate, and joyous.” —New York Times Book Review “Mothers, father, sons, and daughters: read this giant-hearted novel.” —MARIA SEMPLE, author of Where’d You Go, Bernadette 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 guests of a Dallas football team, 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.

Een jonge Amerikaanse soldaat wordt tijdens zijn verlof in zijn vaderland als held behandeld, maar zijn herinneringen aan het oorlogsgeweld in Irak raakt hij niet kwijt.

Billy Lynn en hoe hij de rust overleefde / druk 1

nouvelles ; traduit de l'américain par Michel Lederer

Brèves rencontres avec Che Guevara

Vincitore del National Book Critics Circle AwardVincitore del Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel PrizeVincitore del Los Angeles Times Book PrizeFinalista al National Book Award Fra i 100 "Notable Books of the Year" per il New York TimesI dieci soldati della squadra Bravo hanno compiuto una coraggiosa azione di guerra in Iraq, immortalata per caso dalle telecamere di un tg; trasformati di colpo in eroi nazionali, vengono richiamati in patria per due settimane di Victory Tour (interviste in tv, visita alla Casa Bianca, comizi pubblici aperti dal sermone di un predicatore), che culminano nell’apparizione come ospiti d’onore alla tradizionale, popolarissima partita di football del Giorno del Ringraziamento. Durante questa fatidica giornata, fra le strette di mano ai petrolieri texani, le canne fumate di nascosto, il trauma ancora vivissimo della recente morte di un compagno, la sensualità delle cheerleader, le avances di Hollywood e una proposta di diserzione, il diciannovenne caporale Billy Lynn cerca di non impazzire: la mattina dopo, la squadra deve tornare al fronte. La spettacolarizzazione dello sport e della guerra, il conflitto di classe, lo strapotere dell’entertainment e del mercato, ma anche la forza dell’amicizia, la paura della morte, la scoperta dell’amore: c’è tutto questo, in un romanzo scatenato e brillante, osannato dalla critica, che ha consacrato il suo autore come una delle migliori voci della letteratura americana di oggi.

America brucia ancora è un reportage dalla scioccante campagna elettorale 2016, quella in cui il mostro della politica americana si è infine ribellato al suo creatore, la realtà ha superato la fantasia e uno dei candidati ha fatto e detto cose che avrebbero affossato chiunque altro uscendone non solo indenne, ma vincitore. Come diavolo siamo arrivati a questo punto?Per provare a dare una risposta Ben Fountain indaga il passato – dal razzismo mai sradicato che ha avuto la sua massima espressione nella «Southern strategy», al culto della personalità che ha portato alla ribalta celebri cialtroni, alle diseguaglianze che affondano le radici nello schiavismo e sono state poi replicate in ogni epoca. Nelle sue mani la storia torna nuova, fresca, viva, e si fonde con il presente per darci un vivido ritratto della nazione: una diagnosi dei sintomi che ammalano l’America e al tempo stesso un’affascinante chiave di lettura utile a gettare luce sugli scenari futuri. Già due volte, infatti, gli Stati Uniti hanno dovuto bruciare la propria identità per ricostruirla in modo radicale: la prima fu la sanguinosa guerra civile combattuta per mettere fine alla schiavitù, e la seconda fu la Grande Depressione, che innescò le politiche del New Deal e la nascita dello stato sociale. Quella a cui assistiamo oggi potrebbe essere la terza crisi esistenziale dell’America.Sulla scia del lavoro condotto da Hunter Thompson nella campagna presidenziale del 1972 e da Joan Didion in quella del 1988, Ben Fountain, con il suo occhio per l’assurdo e la sua capacità di mappare le compulsioni, le stranezze e l’ostinato attaccamento alla fantasia dell’America, ci regala uno dei migliori scritti politici degli ultimi cinquant’anni.

Reportage dalla campagna presidenziale 2016

America brucia ancora

Faszinierende Reise an exotische Orte unserer Erde Fountain führt den Leser an Orte, wo kein Tourist sich hinwagen würde. Seine amerikanischen Landsleute hat es dorthin verschlagen, um zu arbeiten oder um Gutes zu tun. Ein Ornithologe versucht trotz Geiselhaft durch kolumbianische Freiheitskämpfer eine seltene Vogelart zu retten; ein Entwicklungshelfer bemüht sich, Frauen oder auch kostbares Kulturgut vor dem Untergang zu bewahren; die Gattin eines Special-Forces- Offiziers besiegt eine haitianische Voodoo-Göttin, mit der ihr Mann eine nicht eindeutig spirituelle Beziehung unterhält. Verwegene Abenteuer in einem Mix aus Tragik, Gefahr, Aufruhr und Hoffnung, der so charakteristisch ist für Länder im Umbruch. Provozierend und scharfsinnig porträtiert Fountain seine Helden und Heldinnen, niemals lässt er sie im Stich, sondern spannt ihnen bei ihren existenziellen Drahtseilakten ein Netz aus Humor und Freundlichkeit auf.

Ben Fountain

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