Jonathan Blum

The Fearmonger

Fiction. California Interest. Jewish Studies. THE USUAL UNCERTAINTIES: STORIES--Jonathan Blum's highly anticipated first collection--is storytelling at its finest. In precise, elegant prose, these stories follow characters and communities often consigned to the edge of the frame: a community college dropout, a geriatric care manager, a square dance bar mitzvah, a Scrabble club, an entrepreneurial Thai immigrant, and a South Florida country club. With echoes of Leonard Michaels, Mavis Gallant, and Lore Segal, Blum explores the ways our divergent histories tether us together and at times push us completely apart. THE USUAL UNCERTAINTIES: STORIES revels in the persistent human struggle to love with abandon and marks a dynamic voice in American short fiction. "The characters that inhabit these stories will break your heart and mend it simultaneously. A writer of immense talent and imagination, Jonathan Blum is unafraid to explore, sometimes hilariously, the most dangerous interiors of personality in ways we've never quite seen before. THE USUAL UNCERTAINTIES tackles the most primal of our human dilemmas with a vision as profound and achingly delicate as it is unforgettable."--Holiday Reinhorn "Jonathan Blum is a wonderful writer: witty and sharp, compassionate and humane, and THE USUAL UNCERTAINTIES is a flat-out glorious collection that manages to be both hilarious and heartbreaking, nervy and timeless. I won't soon forget these masterful stories."--Molly Antopol "These wonderful stories by Jonathan Blum run so many gamuts--his range is glorious: from joy to grief, from hilarity to solemnity, from stupidity to wisdom. When I consider how beautifully achieved these stories are I weep with pleasure. Jonathan Blum is the real deal, the full spectrum and I've known this from when I first read him such a long time ago. This is his first full book of stories--finally, at last. The world needs this book. We deserve it after a long wait."--Michael Silverblatt "I love everything about this book. These are wise and richly imagined stories, at turns hilarious and heartbreaking. Blum is undeniably a master of the short story form, a writer of profound compassion and virtuosic talent, and these stories mark the arrival of a major new voice in American short fiction."--Andrew Porter "In these wonderfully various stories, gentle and bizarre and tragic and very funny, there are characters the likes of which have rarely been given life in fiction: The young son of a pulmonary oncologist learns excitedly to read x-rays, and that excitement is very different than what his father feels. A widow makes a business of bringing a quality of life to elders, and a thirteen-year-old Roger, on the occasion of his Bar Mitzvah, has a T-shirt stamped: I'd Rather Be Davening. Herm is a one-man ad hoc adoption agency finding unwanted newborns and delivering them into well-appointed futures. Jonathan Blum descends from a great tradition of Jewish storytellers, Richler, Malamud, Michaels, and he brings the tradition into the twenty-first century, and he brings the tradition west, too, to Los Angeles. Oh, and south to Florida, and right up to the Shabbat table where Adam sits with his Thai girlfriend in 'A Certain Light on Los Angeles.' There is a certain light here in these stories and it is very much worth your time."--Michelle Latiolais "I've long been an admirer of the strange, intense, and yet incredibly intimate work of Jonathan Blum."--Peter Orner

The Usual Uncertainties: Stories

Kate Orman

"In the days when the Time Lords were young, their war with the Vampires cost trillions of lives on countless worlds. Now the Vampires have been sighted again, in San Francisco. Some want to coexist with humans, using genetic engineering in a macabre experiment to find a new source of blood. But some would rather go out in a blaze of glory -- and UNIT's attempts to contain them could provoke another devastating war. The Doctor strikes a dangerous bargain, but even he might not be able to keep the city from getting caught in the crossfire. While he finds himself caught in a web of old feuds and high-tech schemes, his new companion Sam finds out just how deadly travelling with the Doctor can be."--Page 4 of cover.

Vampire Science

In ancient Akrotiri, a young girl is learning mysteries from a tutor, who, quite literally, fell from the skies. With his encouragement she can fly and surf the time streams and see something of the future. But then the demons come. Death and disaster are meted out by the gods of her land. Perhaps retribution for some heinous crime... or something far more sinister?

Fallen Gods

Seeing I (Doctor Who Series)

A story featuring the eighth Doctor Who, Sam and Fitz. The Doctor regenerated in San Francisco at the turn of the millennium. When he returns there a few years later, it seems the catastrophic events that nearly sent the whole of Earth into cosmic oblivion have taken their toll.

Unnatural History

Rupert Booth

The Prisoner's Dilemma

An Eight Doctor novel. The Doctor has been staying on the planet Hitchemus for the last few months. This planet has two distinctive features - humans have a reputation for composing and playing a wide range of music while its tiger population is showing signs of intelligence.

Jonathan Blum

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