The Tao of Humiliation

"Readers will want to live inside this wonderful book -- not just in its parties and wrecked gatherings and sophisticated conversations but in the sentences themselves, which are genuine shelters: long, erudite, warmhearted and capable, brimming with scholarship and knowledge. In its own way, each sentence is a container filled with something revelatory." --The New York Times Book Review, Sunday Shortlist "Masterful stories by a writer of great lyrical gifts. Upton focuses on personal relationships, especially the immediacy and estrangement that emerge from the intensity of family life ... Upton specializes in ending her stories with epiphanies that can be searing in their poignancy. These 17 tales explore personal and familial relationships with both pathos and humor--and all are well worth reading." --Kirkus Starred Review "Poet, essayist, and fiction writer Upton's stories are playful, full of clever allusions that are deftly presented ... Upton's story openings tend to be vivid; they're great hooks ... This is a smart and highly entertaining book." --Publishers Weekly Starred Review "These well-imagined stories bear the mark of the poet in the best sense, and the reader will not soon forget them." --Library Journal Starred Review "Upton, award-winning poet and literary critic, shows her mastery of the short form ... This entertaining collection will appeal to fans of a variety of literary authors, such as Grace Paley, Edith Pearlman, and Louis Norda." --Booklist "Lee Upton's stories in The Tao of Humiliation are startlingly original, emotionally compelling, and delicately crafted, making them that most satisfying of finds: a great read." --Bathsheba Monk, WDIY, Lehigh Valley's NPR Affiliate "Simply put, this is one of the finest short story collections published in 2014. Alternately chilling, funny, devastating, and hopeful, Upton's stories introduce us to a theater critic who winds up in a hot tub with the actress he routinely savages in reviews; a biographer who struggles to discover why a novelist stopped writing; a woman who searches through her past lives to recall a romantic encounter with the poet Yeats; a student who contends with her predatory professor; and the poignant scenario of the last satyr meeting his last woman. This is short story writing at its best." --BUSTLE "I really like the stories in Lee Upton's The Tao of Humiliation, witty, solidly constructed pieces that are really unlike anything I've read before. I'm curious, of course, as to whether there's more stories that feature a bunch of fragile males trying to sort out their feelings in hotel conference rooms, or if it's just coincidence that two of the three I read feature this set-up. Either way, I'm going to read more of this book, as it's a good one." -- Michael Czyzniejewski, creator of Story 366