George SingletonRecensioni

Another great collection of short stories from the master short story writer, George Singleton. The population of Calloustown did seem to be a little more down beat, than some of the other fictitious towns Singleton has created.

I've said it before and will say it again, George Singleton is a genius. With an ear for people's conversation and the ability to bring characters to life, he's one hell of a writer. All that aside, each of his short story collections seem to have one story that's more like what would be fit into a creative writing class. "Between Wrecks" has one of these and it was 80 pages taking up the last part of the book. Since this was my re-read of these stories, I skipped it this time.½

Singleton is a F*ucking Genius

Still re-reading George Singleton. Great group of stories with the exception of the last one, which really appears to be a add on and has little to do with the other stories (most revolve one way or another around the flea market)

A re-read. One story I did not read, since I had read it several times in the past. All the other stories were fresh to me, since my brain doesn't hold all memories anymore. One story I didn't like and thought it was a waste of space. However, every other story is written by what can only be a genius. Read these stories slow, since there are carefully crafted words/sentences you will miss otherwise.

The stories follow Mendal Dawes pretty much chronologically through his boyhood in Forty-Five, South Carolina, a town of “cheating, lying, and stealing business and civic leaders,” a town from which he longs to escape, and is encouraged to escape. Questionably raised by his highly eccentric father, Mendal might be the smartest person in town. “I wasn’t three years old before I’d done about everything scary outside of flying upside down in a crop duster or shaking hands with Republicans.”

His clairvoyant dad purloins or obtains all manner of junk and buries it in the back yard so Mendal can sell it later after a large increase in value. He buries fake toxic waste barrels on land behind their house to play a trick on future developers. But it’s not all fun and games. “My father, in an attempt to make me know that people lived differently than we did, went out of his way to find albinos, one-armed men, burn victims, waterheads, and vegetarians for me to meet.”

In a couple of stories Mendal has returned to town as a mostly functioning adult, but it doesn’t seem permanent. These stories bring back a simpler time when endemic racism, corruption, poverty and drunk drivers were the main things to worry about in the south. The humor is sharp and wicked with little diamonds sprinkled throughout. As always, George Singleton’s writing is a joy to read.

These are stories that have appeared in George Singleton’s previous collections and in various publications; basically his greatest hits. Singleton’s South Carolina and his fictional towns are gloriously ridiculous. Calloustown, for instance, is a place where the citizens feel slighted to this day because General Sherman didn’t feel it worthy to be destroyed during his march, and so passed it by.

Several of the stories feature observant and thoughtful boys and young men who feel out of place and intuitively know that they need to leave their small town as soon as possible and not return. Others feature grown men who feel out of place in their small town but haven’t left and never will. Others feature men who have moved to a small town and feel out of place. There’s a theme.

“Fresh Meat on Wheels,” one of the out of place adolescent boy tales, is one of his best. In “Outlaw Head and Tail” a “pre-bouncer” in a bar keeps the peace with words of wisdom from the television show Bonanza. A couple of the stories explain why the narrator’s wife will become his ex-wife at some point. The cause usually seems to be because he just can’t seem to fit into society and fly right. Definitely a theme.

There are wickedly funny moments that pop out of each of these stories, and quite often. And like all good humor, the absurdity is surrounded and enhanced by the gravity of the situation. George Singleton, documenting his version of the south, is one of the best writers going now.

This is a great collection of short stories, expertly written. Having said that, I found them missing a lot of the humor from his previous collections and also these stories didn't contain those spots that were so good you had to read them to someone else. I don't want to say this is a more mature collection of short stories, but I don't know any other way to state it. The last story, "Everything's Wild", is a heart breaking story, unlike anything I have read from Singleton in the past.

George Singleton's stories are sublime, ridiculous, funny and serious, usually all at once. A lost father takes his son on a tour to meet women who could have been his mother. A couple prank obnoxious frat boys at a lake house. A woman meets a man who might be of her dreams at a contest to see who can keep a hand on an RV the longest.

Racists, preachers, his own hapless, hard-luck protagonists all get their due, but gently. Old age and death are creeping into Singleton's stories now, or maybe they were always there. He leavens the sadness of life with humor. It's part of the fabric of his writing, except for the last story, Everything's Wild, in which a widower appears to be sliding into dementia due to grief, but there's more to it. Singleton plays it straight in that one, while acknowledging that most of us try to do our best, but don't always pull it off.

Dogs, clueless foolish men, and women who take no shit populate George Singleton’s usual batch of seamless, funny as hell stories. They also populate Gruel, S.C., a town where apparently everyone is inadvertently amusing. Only Gruel would host a BBQ joint with a “pig-petting zoo/slaughterhouse off to the side” where parents counsel their kids not to get too attached to the piggies.

A highlight: “Claudia’s first husband left her one day when he decided that he wanted to live off of the land. On a houseboat with his secretary.”

The Opposite of Zero is a standout among this collection of wonderful stories.½

George Singleton is a well-established Southern author who publishes short stories in small presses. Each story in Staff Picks is firmly rooted in the rural communities of the Carolina upstate, with occasional mentions of "Steepleburg," a pretty obvious stand-in for Spartanburg. With the exception of the title story, each story is narrated by a middle-aged or older white man, and most of them are easy-going guys who feel some regret for the way things have turned out.

The two most memorable stories were Staff Picks, in which a woman is determined to win a radio endurance contest for an RV, and Eclipse, in which a middle-aged recovering addict works a catering job at a community center named for a lynching victim. Things become surreal, although the reader is never quite certain how reliable a narrator the story has.

All in all, this is a solid collection of stories that reflect the location in which they are set.

Another Great Collection from the master of the humorous Southern short story.

I thought this was Singleton's best collection of short stories, but that thought was ruined by the last story: "I Would Be Remiss". This "story" was 80 pages of pure self indulgence written as acknowledgements If anyone in Singleton's creative writing class presented such a mess, I'm sure it would receive an F.

George Singleton is the master of humorous Southern Short Stories. You can't go wrong with a book full of characters you sort of know (if you live in The South).

Set in South Carolina “where every original, abstruse philosophical tract begins with ‘I think, therefore I think you’re wrong,’” and featuring hapless husbands and smart wives, this collection revolves around a loosely connected group of characters in the rural town of Forty-five. Flea markets and the people that sell things at them figure in a couple of the stories. There’s a pharmaceutical salesman who changes his name to Seldom and becomes a “phony primitive artist.”

In Bank of America a group of professionals meet in the swamp at a treehouse annually, at least until a mild Deliverance type outing. In This Itches, Y’all a boy infamous for a head lice educational video reprises the role in adulthood. George Singleton’s stories are humorous and good-natured. They poke fun without a hint of meanness. And his narrators are usually poking at themselves.

Herb Spillman is a sculptor, first in metal, then ice after his drinking became a problem and his liver became“ his most utilized organ, ranked above brain, lungs or pecker.” After he stops drinking his wife may or may not be instrumental in a year-long undercover intervention involving a number of people in several states and a large sculptural commission to keep him busy.

Herb might be the most astute and funniest alcoholic since Henry Chinaski. He has a much sweeter disposition in any case. He has disdain for twelve step programs and the “addiction industry” in general. Herb is hard on himself, but on most others too. Everyone is a target. “Who has named a boy Clem in the last two hundred years? No wonder the man turned to booze.” As with all of George Singleton’s writing the humor never stops. It’s clever and often understated, but there on every page. No one else can make the quest for sobriety quite so funny.

George Singleton features male protagonists with marriage problems and quirky jobs. Ethnic pantyhose salesman, diaper inventor, pre-bouncer in a bar. They are usually educated, self-aware yet clueless, beleaguered by life – and women in particular. They are deadly funny. And deadpan funny. “I drank Old Crow mixed with ginger ale and milk thistle to help replenish my liver.”

The stories in this early collection aren’t quite as honed as his later stories but are still exceedingly biting, witty and odd-ball brilliant.

George Singleton is my number one favorite short story writer. He can turn a phrase and capture the South like no one else. Having said that, his novels leave something to be desire. "Work Shirts For Madmen" and his previous novel, "Novel", just don't compare to his short stories. Both books were a slog to get through.

A collection of loosely linked stories set in the south, full of George Singleton’s trademark twisted humor. Stet Looper, a loveable loser, is a recurring character. He’s a perpetual and overaged graduate student (with 5 bachelor’s degrees) in a “low residency program in Southern Cultural studies at Ole Miss-Taylor.” In “Which Rocks We Choose” he’s looking for alternate history stories to satisfy his college mentor, who appears to work out of “Taylor Grocery and Catfish,” but has a difficult time finding any not involving southern racism or incest. It might be the most serious story in the collection, but without any drop in the humor quotient.

“Tongue,” featuring two losers who clean rental cars, is a commentary on overblown fears of terrorism. “I Would Be Remiss” is what has to be the longest, at eighty pages, author’s acknowledgement, fictional or otherwise. A thesis about a black Vietnam veteran sushi chef who was eventually lynched, is being published, apparently as his editor’s revenge on her employer. It’s plain “No Cover Available: The Story of Columbus Choice, African-American Sushi Chef from Tennessee” is not going to be a best seller.

Singleton’s stories are addictive due to his skill in mixing what should be despair, with humor and insight to create pure, serious thought provoking fiction.½

George Singleton’s world is one of feckless men (often named Stet), especially feckless fathers, unforgiving women, good-natured drunks, very small-time thieves and, in this collection, dogs. The dogs do what dogs usually do, and that often includes helping humans cope with their messy lives.

These are among the best kind of stories, funny, but serious. Often the serious part is buried deep down, but it’s there. Singleton’s narrators often question their own existence and seem kind of lost. “I realized that I wasted way too much time, didn’t follow dreams, and wouldn’t have minded dying.”½

The best story collection I’ve read this year. Sharp, wicked humor – each story is packed with brilliance. Set in the fictional Calloustown, S.C., the stories intertwine themes, settings, names. There are couples that have divorced, couples that should divorce but don’t, people with strange obsessions, and people that are just strange – and wonderful.

Worm’s Bar makes an appearance in several stories. “Worm had a new piece of plywood next to his door that advertised TOPLESS, which meant he’d be in there behind the bar not wearing a shirt.” A family lives in a cave. “When you see a door on the ground with a knob sticking out, you’re at the Massey’s place.”

His characters are otherworldly good. A wife that orgasms to sad things. An “adjunct professor of Morse code over at Eminent Domain College.” A man that is the world record holder for being stung by bald-faced hornets.

Common themes are people trying to get in the Guinness World Records book ("Most people call it the Guinness Book of World Records, but they’re wrong”) and the obsession that General Sherman hadn’t deemed Calloustown important enough to burn.

I’ll be seeking out more of George Singleton’s writing.

I would say this is the best collection of Southern Short Stories you will ever read. I really shouldn't qualify that statement with the word Southern, because this is one of the best collection of short stories you will ever read from any author.

This is a real wait in the ditch book

Honestly, I bought this for "This Itches, Y'all" alone. While most of the other stories were pretty great, this short story was fantastically funny. I enjoyed this book very much. It's great for those who appreciate short stories and/or Southern writers. With this one you get the best of both worlds.

The Half-Mammals of Dixie by George Singleton is a collection of short stories centered around the fictitious town of Forty-Five, South Carolina. These are tales of the South, but not the stereotypical South (genteel and racist) so many people love to read about – these stories are more of the “good ol’ boy” South variety. I generally stay away from short story collections, because I usually don’t think there’s enough character development in them, but after reading this collection, I’ve decided that I was probably reading the wrong collections before – these stories are simply a hoot!

As you would suspect with a collection of stories, I enjoyed some of them more than others. My favorites (and the ones Carl had to hear about) are:

* Show-and-Tell – is the story of Mendal Dawes. When his mom deserted the family, his dad began calling himself a widower. Mendal’s third grade teacher is one of his dad’s old girlfriends, so in an effort to woo her, Mendal’s dad gives him all kinds of crazy things to take to school for show-and-tell, like a love letter written by a famous person that contains the line, “That guy who wrote that “How Do I Love Thee” poem has nothing on us, my sugar-booger-baby.” The way Mendal and his dad end up handling this potential relationship is priceless.
* Public Relations – tells the story of V.O., who loses his job when he proceeds to tell a potential client his theory of the decline of the American educational system at a business dinner. He has a crazy theory of how the women’s movement has ruined the schools in this country and, as you can imagine, it doesn’t sit well with the female client his company’s trying to lure.

The Half-Mammals of Dixie is a solid collection of short stories with lots of quirky characters that readers will delight in. I think those who live in, or have a love for, the South will enjoy these stories the most.