Tag: Short Story
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The Patron Saint of Juvenile Delinquents
Everyone who’s grown up Catholic has a few stories to share, long or short. The good folks at The Citron Review were good enough to publish one of my really short ones: CONFIRMATION Mrs. Dever sees their faces but can’t remember what to call them. They all look alike. They all look bored. They all look…
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Review: Shriver
Chris Belden’s Shriver might be called a book about a novelist who wrote a book called Goat Time which everybody seems to enjoy but nobody seems to have read, at least not entirely, including not the author Shriver himself. Add to this nonsensical loop a few day’s worth of swarming mosquitoes, a crate or two…
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Review: When You Cross That Line
The short line-up of characters in Sam Slaughter’s collection lead lives you’d rather not lead yourself, and therein lies the charm. The unnamed narrator of When You Cross That Line is moving to Florida when he has a run-in with an alligator salesman. The episode turns from odd to ugly, leaving the narrator in search of a swamp,…
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Review–Pathologies
If laughter is good medicine, William Walsh presents sick remedy in Pathologies. His short collection of diseased proceedings is more than the sum of its madness. Walsh is a gifted writer, by turns astounding with sharp phrases and surprising with brief, unpredictable arcs. One way to treat this is by engaging the peculiar brilliance of individual…
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Winning Big at the County Fair
I could do without the county fair. I don’t like crowds. I’d rather not stand in line for pricey food known to cause obesity and heart attacks. I don’t care for the “Twirling Tots” act on center stage advertising just how little talent exists at the local dance school, and I think Mutts Gone Nutts…
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Christmas at Pilchard’s Diner
I enjoyed co-authoring the following piece with my son. Poor kid’s got Christmas on the brain. No harm; so do I. Merry Christmas, everyone. Christmas at Pilchard’s Diner Pilchard worked as a short order cook in his own diner on the outskirts of town. The patrons were a rough mix of millworkers and truck drivers,…
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Great Writing by Podcast
You only need about 11 minutes 30 seconds (less if you skip the intro!) to listen to Jess Walter read his short story “Cheston”. Damn funny. Visit Episode 1 of A Tiny Sense of Accomplishment. Stick around longer and hear another great piece by Sherman Alexie.
Ben East Books 