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The Chaos We Know: Stories
The Chaos We Know is the debut story collection from Keith Rawson featuring a mix of previously published stories and brand new stories for this collection.ADVANCED PRAISE FOR THE CHAOS WE KNOW"These aren't stories (The Chaos We Know), these are slivers of a blasted world which Rawson gleefully embeds in your mind, and which won’t be dislodged by bourbon, ritual scarification, or even the police procedural -- thank God. And thank God, too, for Rawson, who has the kind of talent to leave you mutilated and breathless." -- Benjamin Whitmer, author of Pike“The Chaos We Know is a pulp-fueled debut w/ dopers, cops, husbands and wives. boyfriends & girlfriends, psychos & sadists, sand-storming through the potholes & shithouses of Arizona, leaving barnacles of the self centered, the down trodden’ & the surviving. Keith Rawson is the new garbage-tongued satirist of filth, deviance & violence for the new underclass.” -- Frank Bill, author of Crimes in Southern Indiana and Donnybrook“Keith Rawson wields his spare prose like a wrecking ball, laying bare a world of whores, petty criminals, crooked cops and meth heads. These short, sharp portraits of users &losers are deranged snapshots from deep in the underbelly of contemporary America. No tired noir tropes here, this is tough, unsentimental & savagely funny dark fiction that charts its own course” --Roger Smith, author of Wake Up Dead and Dust Devils"Keith Rawson's last name gives you a hint. It's going to be raw, and it's going to get to you. Like stepping on a shard of glass, but in a good way. Rawson's stories always bowl me over with aggressive style and deep psychological fright" --Anthony Neil Smith, author of Yellow Medicine and Choke On Your Lies"Reading Keith Rawson’s short stories is like strolling through a you know you’re in for trouble, and there’s no going back. Powerful, twisted, fierce and profane, this is take-no-prisoners fiction." -Hilary Davidson, author of the Damage Done
156 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 11, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 6, 2017
*4.5 Stars*
You ever been thrown off your game by a surprise headbutt to the face? I have. And that's what reading this book is like. There will be many decent, morally-sound human beings that probably won't like this one, but if you're like me and enjoy reading dark stories about self-destructive, morally reprehensible assholes, then this one will float your boat. Almost every story in this collection left me reeling at the end, not only by the deplorable subject matter but also by how impressively precise and assured Rawson's style is in the crafting of each tale.
These are true short stories, each one being an average of about 8 or 9 pages, with Rawson truly in command of the characters and the language. His writing is great all around, punchy and profane.
Although I really enjoyed it, I wouldn't recommend this to everyone; it may be hard for some readers to take. There are almost no redeemable characters in this at all, the whole thing is filled with meth addicts, crooked cops, mass murderers, adulterers, etc. In fact, one of the minor weaknesses of the collection is how repetitive it feels at first, especially in the first third, where it seemed like every story starred someone strung out on drugs. And another reason why I didn't give it a perfect score is because of the plethora of typos. That's usually not a big deal for me but it got a bit ridiculous. That aside, I really enjoyed EVERY story here and I was never let down. I dare you to read "Memory Lane," "The Referral System," "The Clipjoint Romance," "Three Cops," or "Hide and Seek" and not want to read every story that Rawson has ever written.
You ever been thrown off your game by a surprise headbutt to the face? I have. And that's what reading this book is like. There will be many decent, morally-sound human beings that probably won't like this one, but if you're like me and enjoy reading dark stories about self-destructive, morally reprehensible assholes, then this one will float your boat. Almost every story in this collection left me reeling at the end, not only by the deplorable subject matter but also by how impressively precise and assured Rawson's style is in the crafting of each tale.
These are true short stories, each one being an average of about 8 or 9 pages, with Rawson truly in command of the characters and the language. His writing is great all around, punchy and profane.
Pauline and Christy, they were both in their twenties but the warzone world of gash for cash had turned them into something resembling squeezed out tubes of toothpaste.There's a theme to the structure here too, where each tale opens with the main character in the middle of a compromising situation, and then the twists and surprises lie in what got them to that point.
Although I really enjoyed it, I wouldn't recommend this to everyone; it may be hard for some readers to take. There are almost no redeemable characters in this at all, the whole thing is filled with meth addicts, crooked cops, mass murderers, adulterers, etc. In fact, one of the minor weaknesses of the collection is how repetitive it feels at first, especially in the first third, where it seemed like every story starred someone strung out on drugs. And another reason why I didn't give it a perfect score is because of the plethora of typos. That's usually not a big deal for me but it got a bit ridiculous. That aside, I really enjoyed EVERY story here and I was never let down. I dare you to read "Memory Lane," "The Referral System," "The Clipjoint Romance," "Three Cops," or "Hide and Seek" and not want to read every story that Rawson has ever written.
October 9, 2011
I’ve known chaos.
My mind won’t work in straight lines. I’ve done things that are highly irrational all my life. Lucked out many times to get through to my 47th year on the planet.
Many of my friends live in chaos, too. Skirt in and out of the shadows. Cross the borderline between sanity and insanity on a regular basis.
And then I read ‘The Chaos We Know’ and feel like my life’s been completely sheltered and protected from the very beginning.
I know no chaos like the characters Keith Rawson introduces in his collection.
What’s more, these guys have got so used to their upturned lives that they wouldn’t see them as crazy if you drew all over their foreheads in lipstick and forced them to look into mirrors.
These stories are dark. The places are shady. The drugs and booze and violence are merely the furniture for everyone to settle their backsides into, those arses fitting into the cushions like conjoined twins separated at birth.
People on Rawson’s pages barely keep afloat. Imagine drowning in a sewer, bobbing on the surface only because of your indigestion and where the only way to breathe is to swallow a mouthful of filth at the same time and you may just get a sense of where these guys are.
It may seem like I didn’t enjoy it. Maybe I shouldn’t have either, but I lapped it up. Huge helpings of good fiction to keep me thoroughly entertained and engrossed wherever I happened to be reading.
The pictures are well-painted, the characters so well-sculpted, I’d swear Keith Rawson must have lived one hell of a life and gone through it with a photographic memory.
A couple of stories stand out as my favourites.
The first is about a box. It’s a box where a crazy father locks his family when they commit minor offences. When he puts his wife in on one occasion and she fails to make a noise for a good 4 hours, he starts to get worried. And, boy, does he need to be.
The other, ‘Memory Lane’ tells the tale of a crook turned cop turned crook who’s put in a rather unusual Catch 22.
Here are a couple of descriptions that might give you a sense of the mood:
‘The two major differences between them [mother and wife] being that my mother could never shoot a convenience store clerk in the face for not emptying the register fast enough, nor could she hit a deflated, blackened vein with a hypo loaded with a sweet mixture of coke and smack at twenty paces.’
And this pondering over maternal desire:
‘I asked her if she could really see herself having a little bundle of diaper rash and shit sucking on her tit all day?’
It’s brutal, raw and sometimes difficult.
It’s also powerful, engaging and skilfully done.
You’ll see this book when you get up your Amazon page. You’ll avert your eyes and try and keep away. You know it’s not good for you to visit places like this. You also know you’re going to click in the end. Isn’t it better to click ‘buy’ now rather that waste all that energy fighting the inevitable? Well isn’t it?
My mind won’t work in straight lines. I’ve done things that are highly irrational all my life. Lucked out many times to get through to my 47th year on the planet.
Many of my friends live in chaos, too. Skirt in and out of the shadows. Cross the borderline between sanity and insanity on a regular basis.
And then I read ‘The Chaos We Know’ and feel like my life’s been completely sheltered and protected from the very beginning.
I know no chaos like the characters Keith Rawson introduces in his collection.
What’s more, these guys have got so used to their upturned lives that they wouldn’t see them as crazy if you drew all over their foreheads in lipstick and forced them to look into mirrors.
These stories are dark. The places are shady. The drugs and booze and violence are merely the furniture for everyone to settle their backsides into, those arses fitting into the cushions like conjoined twins separated at birth.
People on Rawson’s pages barely keep afloat. Imagine drowning in a sewer, bobbing on the surface only because of your indigestion and where the only way to breathe is to swallow a mouthful of filth at the same time and you may just get a sense of where these guys are.
It may seem like I didn’t enjoy it. Maybe I shouldn’t have either, but I lapped it up. Huge helpings of good fiction to keep me thoroughly entertained and engrossed wherever I happened to be reading.
The pictures are well-painted, the characters so well-sculpted, I’d swear Keith Rawson must have lived one hell of a life and gone through it with a photographic memory.
A couple of stories stand out as my favourites.
The first is about a box. It’s a box where a crazy father locks his family when they commit minor offences. When he puts his wife in on one occasion and she fails to make a noise for a good 4 hours, he starts to get worried. And, boy, does he need to be.
The other, ‘Memory Lane’ tells the tale of a crook turned cop turned crook who’s put in a rather unusual Catch 22.
Here are a couple of descriptions that might give you a sense of the mood:
‘The two major differences between them [mother and wife] being that my mother could never shoot a convenience store clerk in the face for not emptying the register fast enough, nor could she hit a deflated, blackened vein with a hypo loaded with a sweet mixture of coke and smack at twenty paces.’
And this pondering over maternal desire:
‘I asked her if she could really see herself having a little bundle of diaper rash and shit sucking on her tit all day?’
It’s brutal, raw and sometimes difficult.
It’s also powerful, engaging and skilfully done.
You’ll see this book when you get up your Amazon page. You’ll avert your eyes and try and keep away. You know it’s not good for you to visit places like this. You also know you’re going to click in the end. Isn’t it better to click ‘buy’ now rather that waste all that energy fighting the inevitable? Well isn’t it?
April 1, 2015
Violent, profane, visceral, and definitely not for the squeamish. Few of the stories in this collection have actual story arcs, being instead slice-of-criminal-life pieces narrated by meth heads and bent cops and a bunch of other deranged headcases lighting up parts of Arizona. If high-energy pyscho-prose is your thing this will ring you up like a lungful of glass.
July 2, 2017
Rawson's vision is one where beneath the surface of the freeways and
strip malls is a dark desolate place filled with drug addicts, hookers,
and most of all angry men. They are angry about the dreams that
were never delivered, the jobs that they scratch at cause there's no
other job anywhere in sight, the crap they have to take to keep their
miserable jobs, their screwed up families, and all the unfair crap they
have to put up with. There are no happy endings in Rawson's world,
only more misery. Honesty is here in dozens of short tales of the chaos
we know. Do not read this if you want to read about happily ever after.
That just ain't gonna cut it.
strip malls is a dark desolate place filled with drug addicts, hookers,
and most of all angry men. They are angry about the dreams that
were never delivered, the jobs that they scratch at cause there's no
other job anywhere in sight, the crap they have to take to keep their
miserable jobs, their screwed up families, and all the unfair crap they
have to put up with. There are no happy endings in Rawson's world,
only more misery. Honesty is here in dozens of short tales of the chaos
we know. Do not read this if you want to read about happily ever after.
That just ain't gonna cut it.
November 21, 2011
If you’ve read author Keith Rawson’s work before – and if you haven’t, why the hell not? – you know that his is a guerrilla warfare, take no prisoners style of writing. I mean, there’s a reason the man’s blog is called Bloody Knuckles Callused Fingertips.
The Chaos We Know, Rawson’s recently released collection, features over twenty of his short stories and represents a mixture of new offerings and previously published work. A few of the standouts…
“The Anniversary Weekend” conclusively demonstrates that crank is never an appropriate anniversary gift. When two reformed tweakers find themselves without the kids and with $100 to burn on their anniversary weekend they decide to cook up a batch of meth. The collapse into paranoia and brutality that follows is nothing short of epic. Definitely should have stuck with a nice cake.
“Three Cops” proves to be one too many for a strung-out junkie on a delivery run when what starts as a routine traffic stop for littering ends with a hostage situation in a rest stop bathroom. What happens in between, well, you have to read to believe. Let’s just say there is apparently nothing a junkie won’t do to hide his stash… and gun.
“The Sons of Greatness Take It In The Ass” takes the reality show craze and combines it with the current economic climate to great effect in this stark, but darkly humorous, offering. Having recently lost his union job to a crony of one of the wise guys who control the union leaders, a young family man comes up with a unique way to get both revenge and some money.
“Hide and Seek” is anything but child’s play. Strong-armed into babysitting for the four-year-old daughter of his boss, a man runs out to pick up a pizza and returns home to the horrific realization it probably wasn’t the brightest idea in the world to leave the little girl alone with his two rambunctious, mischievous young sons.
“Clinical Trial” is my favorite of the collection. Rawson takes the seemingly routine setup of an affair gone wrong to new depths of disturbing in this story, which also involves a scientist working on a top secret compound for the military, a cabin in the woods, and perhaps the most chilling last sentence I’ve ever read.
And those are but the tip of the Chaos iceberg. Every story in the collection offers a brutally vivid look into the lives of people who’ve either already hit the down button on their personal elevators to hell, or are standing on the precipice staring into that abyss.
I think it’s time for Keith to stop billing himself as “a little-known pulp writer” since it’s clear that he’s not only one of the hardest working members of the crime fiction community, he’s one of the most well-known, talented and respected as well.
The Chaos We Know, Rawson’s recently released collection, features over twenty of his short stories and represents a mixture of new offerings and previously published work. A few of the standouts…
“The Anniversary Weekend” conclusively demonstrates that crank is never an appropriate anniversary gift. When two reformed tweakers find themselves without the kids and with $100 to burn on their anniversary weekend they decide to cook up a batch of meth. The collapse into paranoia and brutality that follows is nothing short of epic. Definitely should have stuck with a nice cake.
“Three Cops” proves to be one too many for a strung-out junkie on a delivery run when what starts as a routine traffic stop for littering ends with a hostage situation in a rest stop bathroom. What happens in between, well, you have to read to believe. Let’s just say there is apparently nothing a junkie won’t do to hide his stash… and gun.
“The Sons of Greatness Take It In The Ass” takes the reality show craze and combines it with the current economic climate to great effect in this stark, but darkly humorous, offering. Having recently lost his union job to a crony of one of the wise guys who control the union leaders, a young family man comes up with a unique way to get both revenge and some money.
“Hide and Seek” is anything but child’s play. Strong-armed into babysitting for the four-year-old daughter of his boss, a man runs out to pick up a pizza and returns home to the horrific realization it probably wasn’t the brightest idea in the world to leave the little girl alone with his two rambunctious, mischievous young sons.
“Clinical Trial” is my favorite of the collection. Rawson takes the seemingly routine setup of an affair gone wrong to new depths of disturbing in this story, which also involves a scientist working on a top secret compound for the military, a cabin in the woods, and perhaps the most chilling last sentence I’ve ever read.
And those are but the tip of the Chaos iceberg. Every story in the collection offers a brutally vivid look into the lives of people who’ve either already hit the down button on their personal elevators to hell, or are standing on the precipice staring into that abyss.
I think it’s time for Keith to stop billing himself as “a little-known pulp writer” since it’s clear that he’s not only one of the hardest working members of the crime fiction community, he’s one of the most well-known, talented and respected as well.
January 4, 2012
The characters that populate the dilapidated landscapes of Rawson’s ‘The Chaos We Know’ are reminiscent of grit under a fingernail – unsightly, and sometimes painful. Sure you can gnaw at it for a time but it can lead to frustration, a foul taste in the mouth, and a whole lot less fingernail leaving you prone to catching said nail (with the sensitive under-skin exposed) on clothing while getting dressed or performing any such menial activity to serve as a constant reminder that the grit was there and the hurt don’t stop simply ‘cos you extracted the visible. Yep, the characters of ‘The Chaos We Know’ are much like the proverbial grit though on a larger more fleshly scale - as analogies go, a more apt one fails me.
Comprising 22 stories of omnipresent oppression, this collection is the personification of noir. Rawson shelves all sense of nicety (the odd good deed pops up here and there re: ‘Ma’s Favourite Wife’) and elicits the darker nature of the human psyche - predominantly where lead characters are in a position of power (i.e law enforcement) as is evident in ‘Having His Cake’, and ‘The Blood, The Shattered Glass and All The Rest’. No one is safe, with treachery as rife as the burnt out prostitutes that loiter the blackened streets at night, ‘An Appointment with Larry’ attests to the sayng ‘trust no one’ while ‘My World Without Jenny’ merges the themes (treachery and prostitution).
Sure, this is dark, depressing, lifeless, and violent though survived by some crafty humour and snappy dialogue to lighten the mood. ‘Three Cops’ and ‘The Referral System’ come to mind as something sure to garner a laugh or two.
While most of the stories are memorable and enjoyable, the cream of the crop for me was ‘Life In Mesa’, ‘The Anniversary Weekend’, ‘Clinical Trail’, ‘A Clipjoint Romance’, ‘The Chaos We Know’, and the aforementioned ‘Three Cops’. A highly recommended collection sure to appease your inner thirst for ‘car wreck watching entertainment’ - 5 stars.
Comprising 22 stories of omnipresent oppression, this collection is the personification of noir. Rawson shelves all sense of nicety (the odd good deed pops up here and there re: ‘Ma’s Favourite Wife’) and elicits the darker nature of the human psyche - predominantly where lead characters are in a position of power (i.e law enforcement) as is evident in ‘Having His Cake’, and ‘The Blood, The Shattered Glass and All The Rest’. No one is safe, with treachery as rife as the burnt out prostitutes that loiter the blackened streets at night, ‘An Appointment with Larry’ attests to the sayng ‘trust no one’ while ‘My World Without Jenny’ merges the themes (treachery and prostitution).
Sure, this is dark, depressing, lifeless, and violent though survived by some crafty humour and snappy dialogue to lighten the mood. ‘Three Cops’ and ‘The Referral System’ come to mind as something sure to garner a laugh or two.
While most of the stories are memorable and enjoyable, the cream of the crop for me was ‘Life In Mesa’, ‘The Anniversary Weekend’, ‘Clinical Trail’, ‘A Clipjoint Romance’, ‘The Chaos We Know’, and the aforementioned ‘Three Cops’. A highly recommended collection sure to appease your inner thirst for ‘car wreck watching entertainment’ - 5 stars.
November 3, 2014
Started reading this between finishing Urban Waites' The Terror of Living & waiting for George Pelecanos' The Cut to become available. I'll read a couple of stories & then pick it up again after Mr Pelecanos has worked his magic, I thought. It's testament to the power of Keith Rawsons' short stories that I stormed through the whole lot in two sittings even after The Cut had been downloaded. What an absolutely stunning collection. Each tale was told with gusto, disgust, loathing & sometimes wide-eyed absolute terror & left my head spinning. Featuring bad cops, government scientists, meth-heads, failed marriages and a couple of kids that just can't be left on their own for half an hour while Dad goes out for pizza. Start this collection and you just won't be able to stop until Mr Rawson has put you through the wringer again & again.
Another great example of a writer with an amazing back catalogue of material being able to put it all together on Kindle at a very, very reasonable price. Back in the day this probably would never have been published as a paper collection & that would have been a real shame. Can't wait to see what this guy puts out next.
Another great example of a writer with an amazing back catalogue of material being able to put it all together on Kindle at a very, very reasonable price. Back in the day this probably would never have been published as a paper collection & that would have been a real shame. Can't wait to see what this guy puts out next.
January 7, 2012
If you like crime fiction better when it's done differently, Keith Rawson's stories THE CHAOS WE KNOW might just be what you're looking for. Rawson revisits many tropes of traditional noir, but twists and turns them to make something new. You know those spectacular statues made out of recycled material? This is it.
By that, I don't mean THE CHAOS WE KNOW lacks originality. Au contraire! It's as much fiction as it's a commentary on it should be done. The world of Rawson is full of self-destructive, nihilistic jerks who would like nothing better than to steal your money and blow up your house. It's dark, it's raw and it has a strange but enthralling sense of intimity to it. I have never read anything like this before, but I can't wait to read more of him.
By that, I don't mean THE CHAOS WE KNOW lacks originality. Au contraire! It's as much fiction as it's a commentary on it should be done. The world of Rawson is full of self-destructive, nihilistic jerks who would like nothing better than to steal your money and blow up your house. It's dark, it's raw and it has a strange but enthralling sense of intimity to it. I have never read anything like this before, but I can't wait to read more of him.
June 12, 2012
Keith Rawson writes with fire and fury.
THE CHAOS WE KNOW is an amazing and disturbing collection that drags you down (quite willingly) into the bowels of human suffering. Rawson's characters are meth-heads, corrupt cops, pervs, trannies, cannibals. The earliest stories in the book are more like snippets, really, slice-of-life bits that serve as appetizers for the more fully fleshed out stories later. Rawson's style is bold and aggressive and raw. We need more writers with balls like this.
THE CHAOS WE KNOW heralds the arrival of a major talent.
THE CHAOS WE KNOW is an amazing and disturbing collection that drags you down (quite willingly) into the bowels of human suffering. Rawson's characters are meth-heads, corrupt cops, pervs, trannies, cannibals. The earliest stories in the book are more like snippets, really, slice-of-life bits that serve as appetizers for the more fully fleshed out stories later. Rawson's style is bold and aggressive and raw. We need more writers with balls like this.
THE CHAOS WE KNOW heralds the arrival of a major talent.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews