Funny, surprising, and disarmingly poignant stories that can appear laissez faire but are in fact, very finely crafted.
A quirky, often mischievous collection of stories by flash fictionist Barton.
There’s no narrative thread or really any rhyme or reason to this collection, but that’s definitely part of its charm. The stories here can be contained in a single paragraph or spread out to etch little moments in the lives of their characters. In some ways, it’s reminiscent of Raymond Carver or John Steinbeck in its evident compassion for the human condition but also doesn’t linger long enough to offer a deep dive into the pathos of its denizens. The opener, “Once Nothing, Twice Shatter,” begins with a bang as an aging radio shock jock finds bigger and better jolts to the nervous system when he becomes a demolition derby driver. Some are mere sketches but entertaining nonetheless, as in “The Skins,” which chronicles the search for the perfect set of hand claps for a recording studio, or the equally brief “County Map (Detail),” which is pretty much just a laundry list of small-town idiosyncrasies. There are some really great lines here, ranging from the opener of “Hiccups Forever”—“An hour after it happened, I watched our house explode"—to the Sam Shepard–ish vibe that launches “Spit If You Call It Fear” as the narrator confesses, “He’s my brother and I love him but, Jesus, I won’t miss him.” "Black Sands," one of the more playful tales, finds the inherent humor in old age as a 14-year-old girl clashes with her father, while the assisted living residents in “Of a Whole Body (Passing Through)” plot to escape their prison at every opportunity. There’s also some genuine old-school flashbacks, as in “K,” which finds a guy reflecting on his childhood addiction to break dancing, and more modern satire in “Cowboy Man, Major Player,” which employs the themes of Modest Mouse’s music to portray the foibles of a man accidentally becoming a meme.
Funny, surprising, and disarmingly poignant stories that can appear laissez faire but are in fact, very finely crafted.Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-946448-84-2
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Sarabande
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.
An artwork’s value grows if you understand the stories of the people who inspired it.
Never in her wildest dreams would foster kid Louisa dream of meeting C. Jat, the famous painter of The One of the Sea, which depicts a group of young teens on a pier on a hot summer’s day. But in Backman’s latest, that’s just what happens—an unexpected (but not unbelievable) set of circumstances causes their paths to collide right before the dying 39-year-old artist’s departure from the world. One of his final acts is to bequeath that painting to Louisa, who has endured a string of violent foster homes since her mother abandoned her as a child. Selling the painting will change her life—but can she do it? Before deciding, she accompanies Ted, one of the artist’s close friends and one of the young teens captured in that celebrated painting, on a train journey to take the artist’s ashes to his hometown. She wants to know all about the painting, which launched Jat’s career at age 14, and the circle of beloved friends who inspired it. The bestselling author of A Man Called Ove (2014) and other novels, Backman gives us a heartwarming story about how these friends, set adrift by the violence and unhappiness of their homes, found each other and created a new definition of family. “You think you’re alone,” one character explains, “but there are others like you, people who stand in front of white walls and blank paper and only see magical things. One day one of them will recognize you and call out: ‘You’re one of us!’” As Ted tells stories about his friends—how Jat doubted his talents but found a champion in fiery Joar, who took on every bully to defend him; how Ali brought an excitement to their circle that was “like a blinding light, like a heart attack”—Louisa recognizes herself as a kindred soul and feels a calling to realize her own artistic gifts. What she decides to do with the painting is part of a caper worthy of the stories that Ted tells her. The novel is humorous, poignant, and always life-affirming, even when describing the bleakness of the teens’ early lives. “Art is a fragile magic, just like love,” as someone tells Louisa, “and that’s humanity’s only defense against death.”
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781982112820
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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