Third Class Superhero

My power, if you can call it that, and I don t think you can, is that I am able to take about two gallons of water from the moisture in the air and shoot it in a stream or a gentle mist. Moisture Man

Moisture Man, the hero of Third Class Superhero, is tired of watching his former classmates kick ass and claim their secret hideouts while he struggles to maintain his good guy accreditation. Someday soon he ll have to decide whose side he s really on, and how far he s willing to push the panels of his story line. Meanwhile, in My Last Days as Me the actor playing Me on the hit show Family loses his composure when the new woman playing My Mother insists on abandoning the script. In Problems for Self-Study, A and B fall in love but can t solve for the variable having a baby introduces. And a couple living in the Luxury Car Commercial subdivision in 401(k) realize too late that their exotic vacation is a Life Insurance/Asset Management pitch.
In these and other stories, Charles Yu s characters run up against the conventions and parameters of their genres while tackling the terrifying aspects of existence: mothers, jobs, spouses, the need to express feelings. Heartbreaking, hilarious, smart, and surprising, Third Class Superhero marks the arrival of an impressive new talent.
"Wonderfully wry work. A terrific debut. It s a delight to read someone who realizes that life in the world is not as simple as it is often made to seem." Frederick Barthelme, author of Bob the Gambler
Charles Yu s work has been published in the Harvard Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, the Mississippi Review, Mid-American Review, and elsewhere. He is the recipient of the Sherwood Anderson Fiction Award. This is his first book. He lives in Los Angeles.
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