Nathaniel Barber’s Luck Favors the Prepared is a collection of nonfiction short stories about life, death and customer service. More than just dark comedy, Luck Favors the Prepared allows a peek inside the life observant, where even tragedies can be laid bare by a plain, straightforward narrative and a sharp, unsparing sense of humor. Nathaniel’s perspective is fresh and honest, illuminated by an economy of language that cuts to the heart of a story while taking care to build his characters and context with enough meat to sink your teeth into. More than just an archipelago of short stories, you’ll find Luck Favors the Prepared is a beguiling mosaic of memories whose common threads bind together an arching, many-angled memoir. With a remote and often hilarious documentary, this book explores the absurd humor to be found in death and divorce, landlordship, dysfunctional families, role playing video games, high school, misguided activism, and sudden, unexpected wardrobe failures. It is the story of a life, in all its fullness and minutiae laid bare, and it leaves you wanting more.
As a son of the Pacific Northwest, Nathaniel Barber’s stories are nestled in the mossy bosom of Washington, Oregon and Northern California. Many describe and take place in the heart of his hometown—Portland, Oregon. His characters and rich dialogue are plucked from a past that is stranger than fiction and, for better or worse, set to life. They are belligerents and buffoons. They are the beautiful and the bewildering, plagued by sinister and grotesque motives but juxtaposed with a loving objectivity that suspends judgement for a world where no one is defined by their worst deeds.
Luck Favors the Prepared is an unforgettable tour through the ordinary and unconventional—a journey through real life, its humor and all its baggage, handcrafted by the hardest working nobody in contemporary literature.
