The Pugilist at Rest

Thom Jones

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"The Pugilist at Rest" took first place in Prize Stories 1993: The O. Henry Awards and was selected for inclusion in Best American Short Stories 1992. Jones's stories are set in the combat zones of Vietnam and the brittle social and intellectual milieu of an elite New England college, recounting the poignant last battles of an alcoholic ex-fighter and the hallucinatory visions of an American wandering lost in Bombay in the aftermath of an epileptic fugue. They are fueled by an almost brutal vision of the human condition, in a world without mercy or redemption. Physically battered, soul-sick, and morally exhausted, Jones's characters are yet unable to concede defeat: his stories are infused with the improbable grace of the spirit that ought to collapse, but cannot. For in these extraordinary pieces of fiction, it is not goodness that finally redeems us, but the heart's illogical resilience, and the ennobling tenacity with which we cling to each other and to our lives.