"A heartbreaking portrait of what it means to be a man in a world where violence trumps reason, and bad decisions begin with good intentions. With wit, tenderness and intelligence, Bull Head exposes the raw underbelly of male experience." —Gary Shteyngart, author of Super Sad True Love Story
"John Vigna’s prose grabbed me by the throat and wouldn’t let go. The characters in Bull Head never give up—they keep trying to fulfill themselves by taking action. Like all of us, their decisions were the best option at the time, but in retrospect often caused more difficulty and damage. Bull Head is a brilliant book by a writer who never flinches." —Chris Offutt, author of Kentucky Straight
"Bull Head is a remarkable collection of rough-edged stories about the hard lives of men and women living and working in hard places, and John Vigna's eye for detail, gift for description and unflagging empathy are the keys that unlock these characters' closely guarded hearts and give us access to their weary, yearning souls." —Richard Lange, author of Dead Boys
"Iowa Writers’ Workshop alumnus John Vigna’s muscular debut transplants Southern gothic to the Pacific Northwest in eight dark tales of men and women haunted by lost partners and strained relations ... While there is bravado on display, Vigna also prods the underbelly of these emotions, revealing the insecurities of man." —Publishers Weekly
"Muscular, lyrical prose ... This impressive debut collection will appeal to readers of literary fiction like James Dickey's Deliverance, Larry Brown's Joe, and Annie Proulx's Wyoming stories." —Booklist
"A country-noir vision of rural existence ... Vigna showcases an aptly spare style and an impressive willingness to explore the fraught relationships of guys deeply flummoxed, or else defeated, by the wintery meanness of getting by in the valley." —The Globe and Mail
"The men in Vigna’s tales resort to physical brutality as an expression of a kind of existential yearning; on a thematic level, these are stories of paralysis — of characters’ inability to rise above their circumstances — that owe as much to the work of Beckett and Joyce as to Hemingway and O’Connor."
—National Post
"The spare, disciplined beauty of Vigna’s prose and his evident but unsentimental compassion for them floods this dark material with a kind of tender light." —Vancouver Sun
"A heartbreaking portrait of what it means to be a man in a world where violence trumps reason, and bad decisions begin with good intentions. With wit, tenderness and intelligence, Bull Head exposes the raw underbelly of male experience." —Gary Shteyngart, author of Super Sad True Love Story
"John Vigna’s prose grabbed me by the throat and wouldn’t let go. The characters in Bull Head never give up—they keep trying to fulfill themselves by taking action. Like all of us, their decisions were the best option at the time, but in retrospect often caused more difficulty and damage. Bull Head is a brilliant book by a writer who never flinches." —Chris Offutt, author of Kentucky Straight
"Bull Head is a remarkable collection of rough-edged stories about the hard lives of men and women living and working in hard places, and John Vigna's eye for detail, gift for description and unflagging empathy are the keys that unlock these characters' closely guarded hearts and give us access to their weary, yearning souls." —Richard Lange, author of Dead Boys
"Iowa Writers’ Workshop alumnus John Vigna’s muscular debut transplants Southern gothic to the Pacific Northwest in eight dark tales of men and women haunted by lost partners and strained relations ... While there is bravado on display, Vigna also prods the underbelly of these emotions, revealing the insecurities of man." —Publishers Weekly
"Muscular, lyrical prose ... This impressive debut collection will appeal to readers of literary fiction like James Dickey's Deliverance, Larry Brown's Joe, and Annie Proulx's Wyoming stories." —Booklist
"A country-noir vision of rural existence ... Vigna showcases an aptly spare style and an impressive willingness to explore the fraught relationships of guys deeply flummoxed, or else defeated, by the wintery meanness of getting by in the valley." —The Globe and Mail
"The men in Vigna’s tales resort to physical brutality as an expression of a kind of existential yearning; on a thematic level, these are stories of paralysis — of characters’ inability to rise above their circumstances — that owe as much to the work of Beckett and Joyce as to Hemingway and O’Connor."
—National Post
"The spare, disciplined beauty of Vigna’s prose and his evident but unsentimental compassion for them floods this dark material with a kind of tender light." —Vancouver Sun
