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Buffalo Lockjaw
by Greg Ames

Published: 2009-04-01
Paperback : 290 pages
1 member reading this now
2 clubs reading this now
2 members have read this book
Recommended to book clubs by 2 of 2 members

"Buffalo Lockjaw, like its charming, bitter screw-up of a narrator, reaches finally for larger meaning, and succeeds. . . . A brazen and tender book about a city and a scene, a mother and a son, and the beauty and pain of several kinds of love."
--Sam Lipsyte, author of Home Land

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Introduction

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"Buffalo Lockjaw, like its charming, bitter screw-up of a narrator, reaches finally for larger meaning, and succeeds. . . . A brazen and tender book about a city and a scene, a mother and a son, and the beauty and pain of several kinds of love."
--Sam Lipsyte, author of Home Land

"Ames knows how to build up the world with a light hand while still getting to the complicated and painful ways we muddle through. Funny, fresh, and generous."
--Aimee Bender, author of The Girl in the Flammable Skirt

"In Buffalo Lockjaw, love of one's parents and love of one's hometown mix powerfully with the mad undertow of loss that seems as inevitable in life as gravity."
--Jonathan Ames, author of Wake Up, Sir!

"Greg Ames, one of the funniest writers I've ever read, faces dead-on the most terrifying event in a person's life. Buffalo Lockjaw is frightening, heart-rending, and beautiful. . . . I didn't want it to end."
--Poe Ballantine, author of Things I Like About America

"Greg Ames manages to evoke place and expose the complexities of character in a single swift phrase. It is a funny-sad, heartbreaking, hypnotically readable debut."
--Adrienne Miller, author of The Coast of Akron

James Fitzroy isn't doing so well. Though his old friends in Buffalo believe his life in New York City is a success, in fact he writes ridiculous taglines for a greeting card company. Now he's coming home on Thanksgiving to visit his aging father and dying mother, and unlike other holidays, he's not sure how this one is going to end. Buffalo Lockjaw introduces a fresh new voice in American fiction.

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Discussion Questions

Suggested by Members

Why does James initially go to Buffalo? How does his purpose there change? How, if at all, does he change?
Discuss the idea of being trapped in regards to James? The other characters?
Discuss the impact that one's past has on the present. How does this tie into James?
by smccarthy (see profile) 06/17/09

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Member Reviews

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  "Buffalo Lockjaw"by Tim B. (see profile) 07/08/11

The jacket copy for BUFFALO LOCKJAW states, "James Fitzroy isn't doing so well." I disagree. I think James is doing damn well under the circumstances. His mother is slowly dying from Alzheim... (read more)

 
  "Buffalo Lockjaw"by Sue M. (see profile) 06/17/09

Buffalo Lockjaw is a brilliantly written story about a son who feels responsible for his mother's current, debilitated state. After talking Ellen out of suicide when she was diagnosed with early onset... (read more)

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