Chicago Heat and Other Stories

“Clarence Major has a remarkable mind and the talent to match.”
—TONI MORRISON

“[Clarence Major is] a pioneer on the cutting edge of contemporary fiction.”
—CHARLES JOHNSON

“Clarence Major’s… gathering of short stories has extraordinary technical and emotional force, that pushes the form to its contemporary limits without losing contact with its sources in legend, tall-tale, conte, year… Major proves that he is one of only a handful of American writers capable of doing significant work in more than one genre.”
—RUSSELL BANKS

“Chicago Heat and Other Stories is the kind of collection that deepens the reader’s understanding of human beings, of inner and outer landscapes… [This is] an experience delivered to us in sentences written out of utter clarity…The book is, in fact, a vision…This is a book to which you feel gratitude for its having been written, and for its invitation to you to read it.”
—LAURA KASISCHKE

“Clarence Major’s masterful stories have the calm, the composure and the profound authority of life authentically lived.”
—MADISON SMARTT BELL

“Unforced, heartfelt and true, these stories are tonic for the soul.”
—GISH JEN

“When was the last time you finished a collection and felt that every story in the book was one the author absolutely had to write?  That’s how I felt after reading Clarence Major’s magnificent Chicago Heat and Other Stories. There’s so much urgency in these pages, so much real human drama, not to mention a level of stylistic mastery most of us will never come close to achieving.  I have long believed that Major is an essential American writer.  This superb collection offers further
proof.”
—STEVE YARBROUGH

“The subtle fire that ripples under this amazing collection–from its…’Chicago Heat’ to its ingenious reinventions of the hard-luck love story–is Clarence Major’s uncanny knowledge of American life, coasts to heartland, past and right now. All of our democracy is alive in these pages, wrestling with secrets, fears, and attractions, and each character’s private struggle leads to startling revelations: about us.  New work by Clarence Major is always a literary event, and the purely innovative Chicago Heat and Other Stories give us this treasured storyteller…at the height of his superpowers.”
—JOHN BECKMAN

“Clarence Major…steps into [his characters] as if donning a new skin.  They present themselves from within their own situations and the reader describes them in his mind as they shimmer on the orders of change. Many times I wanted to shout out ‘But that’s me!’…The writing is clear and without adornment. A universal human narrative…Clarence Major is a great American storyteller, a national treasure.”
—STEVE KATZ

“If Clarence Major gets at the difficulty of knowing other people in these fine stores, he is equally perceptive when it comes to what we fail to see in our own selves.  Dense with richly portrayed lives, the stories in Chicago Heat and Other Stories are also full of lacunae.  The results is a book that feels deeply human, at once mysterious and full.”
—ELIZABETH GRAVER

“With the lightness and brevity of sketches and the emotional depth of memoirs [Clarence Major] explores the complexity and mutability of relationships between the sexes, races, and generations.  Major’s hand is swift and his eye is sharp…the title story…is a tour de
force…”
—JOHN KEENE

“From an American original, stories that
possess the beauty, the strangeness, and the jagged edges of life
itself.”
—PETER TRACHTENBERG

“The stories…sizzle with tension and eroticism…they are insightful about women, intimacy, relationships, love and loss, travel, nostalgia for growing up, for lost places, people…these kindhearted, profound and subtle stories will stay in your heart.”
—LAURA MARELLO

“There’s a quirkiness to these stories reminiscent of [Raymond] Carver, but Major also infuses them with a wisdom and humor and surreal candor all their own. An artful collection you’ll long remember.”
—MARK WISNIEWSKI

“This short story collection form National Book Award finalist Major, who works successfully in multiple genres, shows why Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison is such a supporter of his work.  Whether writing from the perspective of a black man, white woman, teenager, artist, or nurse, he creates embodied, engaging characters who observe events carefully and grow within their stories. While there is a certain omnipresence in the works, Major is able to capture the ambiguity of the human condition… Recalling the work of African American writer Henry Dumas, this work will appeal to all readers of literature.”
—LIBRARY JOURNAL, starred review

“One could compare the artistic career of Clarence Major to that of musical genius Miles Davis.  Major has always been miles ahead of other African American writers…With this latest book Clarence Major secures his position as a major voice in American literature. He is an elder who reminds us to never give up on love.”
—E. ETHELBERT MILLER, The New York Journal of Books

“Clear, readable, and often humorous, Chicago Heat and Other Stories demonstrate that Major… hasn’t lost his touch at whimsical storytelling with a bite.”
—TYRONE WILLIAMS, author of Rain Taxi

“For over 45 years now, Clarence Major has been on the cutting edge of literature… [In] Chicago Heat and Other Stories… the narrative
voice… [is] soothing…which, in some uncanny way, has the effect of heightening the readers’ anxieties, as if they were staring into a clear body of water bracing for an unseen mass from below to finally reveal itself before rushing to the surface.”
—RICHARD PRICE

“In these searing short stories Clarence Major plumbs the depths of our relationships with all their darkness and bizarre twists and at times even the joy they can bring us.  Romantic love itself is pretty risky business in this world in which betrayal and disappointment are the norm.  A world in which a wife can drive her husband home and not realize that he is dead.  And yet at the same time he manages to show us the resilience of the human spirit.  Somehow we will touch one another and we will go on.  There’s a cumulative build to these stories as if Clarence Major is quite literally turning up the heat.”
—MARY MORRIS

“These Stories execute the peeling away of artifice…the cumulative effect is kinetic.”
—LUCY CORIN

“Imagine…Sherwood Anderson in today’s Chicago…”
—ARAM SAROYAN

“…a new collection of 23 short stories that explore the full range of the human condition… With Major’s attention to rhythm and the musicality of language, the results is a delightful feast for
the senses.”
—KIRKUS REVIEWS

“Clarence Major [is] one of our most accomplished technical innovators… this new book [is] radiant…”
—JEFFERY RENARD ALLEN

“Brilliant reds–hair, sky, tomatoes–and yellows–eyes, squash, light–feature on the vibrant palette of Clarence Major’s exquisite…[Chicago Heat and Other Stories].
—KATHERINE VAZ

“Clarence Major is a consummate artist… the reader is in for a treat… a feast. With astute powers of observations Major delivers… We may end up thinking we’ve met [these] people… somewhere.”
—ANA CASTILLO

“A fine book and a pleasure to read…”
—STEPHEN DOBYNS

“Itwas [Clarence] Major’s literary and artistic skills that enabled him to define black masculinity in a different way, to turn away from materialist expectations… and to devote himself to a career that… gave him the freedom to express himself in ways few others would or
could.  That commitment and skill brought him into communities that
would otherwise have been closed to him and put him at the cutting edge of U. S. culture.”
—KEITH E. BYERMAN, The Art and Life of Clarence Major

“Clarence Major[‘s]… presence on the 20th Century and early 21st century U. S. writing scene shines and glimmers…Major is a joy to read…”
—AL YOUNG, Konch Magazine

“These elegant, intimate stories offer nothing less than vibrant life on the page: Clarence Major is a wonder.”
—HILMA WOLITZER

“There is such a thing as an exemplary literary life. Clarence Major … has lived it to to workmanlike excess.”
—GREG TATE, The Village Voice Literary Supplement