Charity: Short Stories

You can tell Richard is a fan of southern gothic and that he has some Faulkner and Flannery O’ Connor blood coursing through his veins. This is pitch-black, hillbilly noir, presented in eleven twisted stories, focusing mainly on outcasts and the downtrodden. There are some stand out tales to be found here but my favorite has to be “The Birds For Christmas”, which feature 2 young boys stuck in a hospital for the holidays, begging the nurses to let them watch Hitchcock’s The Birds, on Christmas Eve. Of course, these stories and Richard’s style of writing my not be for everyone, but if you don’t mind getting your hands a little dirty, give this one a shot.

A collection of short stories by Mark Richard, author of Fishboy, who is like a gonzo version of William Faulkner. Though Richard's style is surreal, it's dream-like quality is less about a divorce from reality than a distillation of aspects of reality we may not always be aware of. (This is not meant in a mystical sense.)

For example, the way he sketches a backwater seaside Florida town in "Fun at the Beach" beautifully captures the strange mix of ennui, relaxation and seediness that seems to hang over those places. Or the father-son relationship at the heart of "Gentleman's Agreement" which manages to be both touching and creepy.

The one about slinging condoms full of water at corny gangsters from the balcony you can't afford is one of the best short stories I've ever read.

If you love gritty, surreal southern writing riddled with imaginative and haunting imagery (which I do), this is the book for you.