Welding with Children

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year

In eleven raucous, touching stories, Tim Gautreaux traces the course of sin and redemption through the lives of small-town women and men in Louisiana. His unforgettable characters include a grandfather who discovers, while taking care of his grandchildren, that they are growing up without any sense at all of right and wrong; a camera repairman who discovers a woman's secret in her undeveloped film; and a one-armed hitchhiker who changes the life of the man who picks her up. Each of Gautreaux's pieces is an exceptional example of his storytelling and compassion.

Praise

"Gautreaux has perfect pitch . . . it's his fiction's coarse incongruities—epitomized by the book's title—that prove the limitless possibilities of limited geography."—The New York Times Book Review

"Startling and redemptive . . . These stories suggest . . . that to be alive means being open to grief and accident, chance and wonder."—The Chicago Tribune

"Finely balanced, sweet, and gritty."—The San Francisco Chronicle

"Both hilarious and honest . . . Gautreaux applies love and compassion, knowledge and ingenuity to create something superb."—The Seattle Times

"A pleasure from start to finish. You want to hand [this book] to your friends and say, 'read this.'"—The Cleveland Plain-Dealer

"Move Garrison Keilor's Lake Wobegon stories to Louisiana, add heat and Tabasco, and the result would be Welding With Children."—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

About the Author(s)

Tim Gautreaux

Tim Gautreaux has written three novels and two collections of short stories. His fiction has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, GQ, and Zoetrope, and also in volumes of The O. Henry Prize Stories, Best American Short Stories, and New Stories from the South. He is a professor emeritus/writer in residence in the English Department at Southeastern Louisiana University.

Table of Contents

Welding with Children
Misuse of Light
Good for the Soul
Easy Pickings
The Piano Tuner
The Pine Oil Writers' Conference
Resistance
Sorry Blood
Sunset in Heaven
Rodeo Parole
Dancing with the One-Armed Girl