Jones's collection of stories The Pugilist at Rest was received enthusiastically by reviewers, who hailed the author as a strong new voice in American short fiction. According to Publishers Weekly, “Jones's voice . . . is irresistible—sharp, angry, poetic. His characters . . . are scarred, spirited survivors of drug abuse, war and life's cruel tricks.” Most reviewers noted the similarities between the title story and many of the other stories. According to John Skow, in Time, the book “is a sheaf of extraordinary short stories, most of them about scarred, damaged men on the far side of violence. The viewpoint does not vary much: a straight-on, wondering stare back through the wreckage.” Skow admired the strength and clarity of the voice in the stories and commented that “it is hard to imagine the author finding another as effective.” Like Skow, Mary Hawthorne, in the Times Literary Supplement noted that that...