Born Bad: Collected Stories

Category	Fiction Other
Author	Andrew Vachss
Publisher	Vintage
Published	1994-08-23
Language	English
ISBN10	0679753362
ISBN13	9780679753360
Tags	bad born stories truth vachss
Description	If you have read any of Vachss' novels with criminal-cum-savior Burke as protagonist, you should allow yourself the honor of feasting on his short stories. The title is a play on the world's take of how children are bad seeds, i.e., born with a bad streak, prone to be losers, and addled with overripe genes for destruction; this book is a one-man treatise on why that is, summarily, not true and it's done with the usual minimalist and spare style prose Vachss is by now famous for. My preference is for his short stories, and the why of that is simple: it's a shorter, more rapid, and much more heart-wrenching path to the much-welcomed truth that only Vachss seems willing to tell. For me, he is the male counterpart of the Greek mythological character Cassandra--he comes bearing the truth that no one really wants to hear, but the fact is, once heard, you can't take your eyes or ears off of him. For a nonstop, nonpareil ride into the gloom and doom of what child abuse is, where it emanates from, and possibly the solutions to fix its ugly cast upon the world, read these stories; you will weep and you will cry with joy at the sheer simplicity of it, right along with the cutting-edge prose that digs in and plants its tentacles into your heart.

Download Born Bad: Collected Stories eBook