A short story collection that’s by turns wry, heartwarming, and richly dramatic.
Schulz’s debut fiction anthology contains 26 short stories of varying formats and lengths, each anchored on the common framework of a small, Western farming community called Havelock, an unpretentious place far from the big cities. Between stories, Schulz intersperses tongue-in-cheek snippets from the town’s various announcements and advertisements, like one for the Havelock Mortuary: “We are the only mortuary in town. So it’s either us or behind the barn.” The stories range widely in both tone and scope; some are very short, little more than bits of dialogue with stage directions, while others, although usually still quite short, are far more complex and ambitious, such as the collection’s most gripping piece, “Terror in the Heartland,” which opens with a trio of strangers driving onto the isolated farm of an old couple who’s been there 20 years. The visitors trigger the husband’s suspicions, and when the men return armed and obviously intent on murder, they get the story’s well-executed surprise: The seemingly mild-mannered old farmer is a retired special agent more than capable of defending himself and his wife. “The AK-47 is a dependable and an easy weapon to use,” he muses. “I had many friends who were killed with this weapon.” Equally detailed but entirely different in tone is “Gone Fishing,” in which a workaholic bank employee in North Dakota goes on a road trip to go fishing, though he suddenly finds himself back in the 1950s, able to visit his parents’ farm as a young man and get a second chance at living his life. This note of nostalgia runs through most of the stories—a strong evocation of simpler times full of common sense and daily kindness. Lost and lonely people in dire straits (“Mary started the winter without any supplies or coal, and a dead husband”) are saved again and again by the simple kindness of others; in one bleak story, hope is brought by none other than Santa Claus.
A touching, effective collection that will keep its smiling readers guessing.
Pub Date: May 14, 2014
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 125
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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