Source of Trouble

by Debra Monroe

Winner of The Flannery O'Connor Award, this critically acclaimed debut collection features ten stories set in the plains of the Midwest and the honky-tonks of the South. This is a world where happiness is half heartache, dreams dwindle, and infidelity becomes just another way to extend the family. Characters search in vain for "the one incident you can zero down to as the source of trouble, and everything bad that happens after if happens because of it." Witty and sly, exciting and powerful, these are stories about people who understand their own complicity belatedly, but never too late. Illuminated in these affecting, self-revealing stories is the measure of hope and healing that lies in every heart and coupling, no matter the trespass.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories

176 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1990

About the author

Debra Monroe is the author of four books of fiction, two memoirs, a textbook, a collection of essays.

Her first book The Source of Trouble was acclaimed as a “fierce debut” that presents “ever-hopeful lost souls with engaging humor and sympathy” (Kirkus Reviews). Her second book of stories A Wild, Cold State was described by The Boston Globe as “fine and funky, marbled with warmth and romantic confusion, but not a hint of sentimentality.” The Washington Post called her first novel “rangy, thoughtful, ambitious, and widely, wildly knowledgeable.” Shambles was praised by the Texas Observer as “a novel of graceful ease and substance.” Her first memoir On the Outskirts of Normal was published to national acclaim. Her second memoir My Unsentimental Education was described by the Chicago Tribune as "a heady rush of adventure, optimism, and fearlessness. Her book of essays It Takes a Worried Woman was described by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune as "edgy, nervy, anxious, alloyed by intellect, insight and humor."

Her books have won many awards, including the Flannery O’Connor Award, Borders Bookstore New Frontiers Award, The Barnes and Noble Book Award, and several best book of the season or year citations, including in O Magazine, Elle, Vanity Fair, and Southern Living.

Reviews

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book when it won the Flannery O'Connor Award for short fiction, and it is still a favorite collection that I return to periodically. Monroe's writing in these stories is like a wooden stake through the heart of a vampire. Here's the beginning of "Starbuck," one of my favorite stories in the collection: "I heard the explosion that killed Bo. The next thing I knew, Tad Lee needed formula because my milk was gone. Jewel hung on my leg. I smelled Bo's smell. And one day, a few weeks later, bent over mopping, I felt a hand on my neck and heard Bo say, clear as day, my name. When I came to, Jewel was leaning over me. I asked the doctor for Valiums. With some of the insurance money I bought a trailer and made Mama live in it in my yard. Soon, though, I stayed at the trailer and she took the house with the kids because I was working nights and, by then, selling speed."

[Richard McDonough · Rating 4 out of 5]

A favorite writer, smart, touching, really good use of language. Just started this collection (she got the Flannery O'Connor award for this one, I think) and will pick away at it for a while.
Fine collection of felt work by a serious writer. Smells and feels of the people and their places and their concerns.Waiting for her new book to arrive. Soon?

(Somehow a comment I made re a "comic" novel, in which I invoked the name of Marshall Brickman, wound up here!! Who knows? I expect it was a crossover from Facebook, the evil.)

[David Hicks · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my second read-through, and the stories really hold up. They're brutal--people behaving terribly, making bad decisions--and yet you can't help but love them and hope they'll get it right. I love the way Monroe writes.

[Maurean · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn't very taken by this collection of shorts; perhaps someone else will enjoy them more (it did win awards, after all.)

[Sonja Livingston · Rating 5 out of 5]

gorgeous writing

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb storytelling and character.

[Sharon Mann]

Perceptive, wise, funny.