Vada Prickett is a 29-year-old Hose Associate at a car wash in South Carolina, and Darla, the woman he loves, is about to marry his friend, rival, and life-long neighbor, Wyatt Yancey. Vada has “spent his life waiting for the thing to get a proper start.” But it will never get that start, for Vada, as this wildly original novel opens, is being crushed to death by Wyatt’s latest animal trophy, a stuffed grizzly bear Vada has been helping him to smuggle—against Darla’s wishes—into Wyatt’s house. It turns out that the cliché is true—at the moment of death, your life does flash before your eyes. Trophy, the account of a man’s final, fleeting instant on earth, joins Vada as he attempts to make that flash last as long as possible. As he lies dying, too soon and too absurdly, Vada tries to unravel the mysteries of his life. He first bargains with God, then rages against the dying of the light. Exhausted, Vada proceeds to prolong, in every way available to a man in his dire circumstances, the time he has remaining. Just beneath Griffith’s dark humor and witty take on our present-day culture lies a meditation on memory and identity and the power of language over both.

Trophy: A Novel

Literature & Fiction

Griffith, Michael

Humor & Satire

TriQuarterly

Compelling Evidence

Politics & Social Sciences

Politics & Government

JFK Lancer Productions & Pub

The story that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was an unprovoked, surprise attack is perhaps the biggest and most fiercely defended myth in American history. Yet, with each passing year, the evidence continues to grow that the attack was not a surprise to certain high officials in the government and was not unprovoked.This book, written by an author with 21 years of experience in military signals intelligence, presents evidence that President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) and other senior officials knew that Pearl Harbor would be attacked. It discusses key evidence such as the Hoover-Ladd memos, the bomb plot messages, direction-finding bearings from signals from the Japanese task force, a Navy document on the pre-attack interception of the "East Wind Rain" execute message, revealing research done by members of the Joint Committee on the Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack, General George C. Marshall's incriminating actions on the morning of the attack, the suspicious departure of FDR's favorite Navy ship from Pearl Harbor less than 48 hours before the attack, FDR's strange decision to base the Pacific Fleet in Hawaii, FDR's secret Red Cross order, disclosures from former government officials and agents, and credible and mutually corroborating accounts from former foreign intelligence operatives and officials--and much more.This book also examines FDR's refusal to reach a reasonable peace agreement with Japan, his determination to provoke Japan into “firing the first shot,” and his intervention in China to prevent the Japanese and the Chinese Nationalists from making a peace deal. Preventing peace in China and provoking war between America and Japan were two major policy goals of the Soviet Union, and FDR's disastrous pro-Soviet foreign policy played a decisive role in making those goals become tragic reality.In addition, the book answers many of the arguments put forward by defenders of the traditional story, such as those made by Philip Jacobsen, Henry Clausen, David Kahn, Stephen Budiansky, and Robert Hanyok.And, in the final chapter and in a lengthy appendix, this book takes a critical look at FDR's handling of World War II, the Allied war crimes tribunals held in Asia after the war, the traditional claims about Japan's actions in Manchuria and China, the fire-bombing of Japan, and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The Real Infamy of Pearl Harbor: Separating Fact from Fiction about the "Unprovoked and Dastardly Attack"

History

Military

Smashwords

A intelligent first novel set on the minor league golf circuit follows a has-been twentysomething golfer on a last-ditch tour through the South. 30,000 first printing.

Spikes

United States

Arcade Publishing

A intelligent first novel set on the minor league golf circuit follows Brian Schwan, a has-been twentysomething golfer, on a last-ditch tour through the South. Reprint. 10,000 first printing.

Spikes: A Novel

A collection of stories includes the novel-length title piece in which a post-menopausal university librarian is pressed into reluctant duty as a sex cop and patrols the aisles to prevent illicit student couplings.

Bibliophilia: A Novella and Stories

A collection of stories includes the novel-length title piece in which a post-menopausal university librarian is pressed into reluctant duty as a sex cop and patrols the aisles to prevent illicit student couplings. Reprint.

Bibliophilia: A Novella And Stories

In the title novella, 'Bibliophilia,' the unlikely protagonist is a postmenopausal university librarian pressed into reluctant duty as a 'sex cop,' whose job is to troll the stacks for students intent on illicit coupling among the classics. The stories are equally zany and wide-ranging, featuring, among others: a hair scientist who is going bald; an English professor trapped in a monkey cage; a mother who hands her toddler to a mugger while she rummages for money in her purse; a nightwatchman in a used-hubcap yard; and the owner of a landfill who is also the proud father of a teenage chess prodigy. What the fictions have in common is an astute mixture of comedy and pathos. Taking seemingly ludicrous premises, Griffith manages, in surprising ways, to render them poignant.

At twenty-six, Brian Schwan is washed up. Four years hacking away on third-rate golf courses across the South have produced a grand total of $19,000 in earnings, zero wins, and a string of spectacular tournament flame-outs. He’s just shot a horrendous opening round, his wife wants him to come home and start a family, and even his father, who dreamed of seeing his son a star golfer, seems to have given up on his game. Critically acclaimed, Spikes is a sharply observed novel about the obscurity of our motivations, our capacity for self-delusion, and the surprising, unexpected possibilities for grace.

Arcade

The Speaking Stone: Stories Cemeteries Tell is a literary love letter to the joys of wandering graveyards. While working on a novel, author and longtime Cincinnati resident Michael Griffith starts visiting Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum, the nation's third-largest cemetery. Soon he's taking almost daily jaunts, following curiosity and accident wherever they lead. The result is this fascinating collection of essays that emerge from chance encounters with an interesting headstone, odd epitaph, unusual name, or quirk of memory. Researching obituaries, newspaper clippings, and family legacies, Griffith uncovers stories of race, feminism, art, and death. Rather than sticking to the cemetery's most famous, or infamous, graves, Griffith stays true to the principle of ramble and incidental discovery. The result is an eclectic group of subjects, ranging from well-known figures like the feminist icon and freethinker Fanny Wright to those much less celebrated-- a spiritual medium, a temperance advocate, a young heiress who died under mysterious circumstances. Nearly ninety photos add dimension and often an element of playfulness. The Speaking Stone examines what endures and what does not, reflecting on the vanity and poignancy of our attempt to leave monuments that last. In doing so, it beautifully weaves connections born out of the storyteller's inquisitive mind.

The Speaking Stone: Stories Cemeteries Tell

Americas

University of Cincinnati Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Griffith, Michael. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Griffith, Michael

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Griffith, Michael. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Trophy: A Novel

Compelling Evidence

The Real Infamy of Pearl Harbor: Separating Fact from Fiction about the "Unprovoked and Dastardly Attack"

Spikes

Spikes: A Novel

Bibliophilia: A Novella and Stories

Bibliophilia: A Novella And Stories

Bibliophilia: A Novella And Stories

Spikes: A Novel

The Speaking Stone: Stories Cemeteries Tell