“Joseph Sutton has an eye–for navel oranges and red rubies, for heroic cats and noble geckoes, for perfect mouths and super-sized bartenders. He has an ear–for festival rhythms and regional accents, bedtime stories and cautionary tales. He has a heart–for the pull of tradition and the call of the road, for bright-eyed Greek beauties and unresponsive ladies of the night, for boys becoming men, and writers scraping by. Most of all, Joseph Sutton has a voice–that emerges strong and true in this remarkable collection of stories.” —Lynn Park, photographer and poet

“Joseph Sutton is an exciting writer. His stories are interesting, vivid, unique. He’s written two pieces about William Saroyan, his mentor, in this collection. He covers a lot of territory in 200 pages (29 stories altogether), from growing up in Hollywood to relationships to travel to sports to old age. This book is a must read.” —Gary Turchin, poet

“Joseph Sutton loads all the bases with such classic American themes as sports, travel on the road, and rollercoaster relationships… [and] brings these tales home with a literary grand slam in the title story that would have elicited a growl of approval from his celebrated role model, William Saroyan, and now evokes a howl of delight from us — the noisy fans in the bleachers.” —Ramon Sender Barayon, author of A Death in Zamora and A Planetary Sojourn

“Imagine taking your seat for a long flight with your favorite book. But the guy sitting next to you starts telling a story. A minute later, you’ve closed the book. You ask to hear more. In an hour, you’ve laughed, sighed, gasped, held back a tear, then said to hell with it and let it fall. You don’t want this flight to ever end. Joe Sutton is the guy talking, and he’s also your pilot.” —Joe Quirk, author of The Ultimate Rush and Exult

Friday November 7, 2003

by Jay Schwartz
Staff Writer

It’s not every day that someone goes from contemplating God to feeling like an average Joe in the same breath. But this makes perfect sense if you happen to be Joseph Sutton, who has a gift for bringing the cosmic down to a level that you can relate to and for elevating the ordinary to a higher plane.

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When you think of Los Angeles, what comes to mind? Most people see a kaleidoscopic image of vibrant glamour, broken dreams, infinite variety, and cheap thrills. Having grown up in Hollywood, Joseph Sutton brings his expertise in the grind and shine of thrill seeking and small wonders from Los Angeles to the context of all life in The Immortal Mouth, his first collection of short stories.

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