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The Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas
In The Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas, Davy Rothbart's stories grow out of road trips and small towns and are populated by questionable heroes and gold-hearted thugs. Full of loneliness and hope, heartbreak and humor, Rothbart's tales blaze their way from midwestern farm fields to state prisons and border-town brothels.
Much like the lost, tossed, and forgotten items Rothbart collected in his acclaimed book, Found, the stories in The Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas capture the oddity, poetry, and dignity of everyday life.
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First published January 1, 2002
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About the author
Davy Rothbart
34 books100 followersDavy Rothbart's magazine Found is dedicated to discarded notes, letters, flyers, photos, lists, and drawings found and sent in by readers. The magazine spawned a best-selling book, Found: The Best Lost, Tossed, and Forgotten Items from Around the World, published in April 2004. A second collection was published in May 2006. The magazine is published annually and co-edited by Rothbart's friend Jason Bitner.
Rothbart, a former Chicago Bulls ticket scalper, often tours the country to share finds and invite others to share their finds with him. His brother, musician Peter Rothbart, often accompanies him on these tours.
The Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas, a collection of Rothbart's short-stories, was published in August 2005 by Simon & Schuster. A shorter version of the same book was previously self-published by Rothbart's own production company, 21 Balloons Productions (named after Rothbart's favorite book, The 21 Balloons, by William Pène du Bois). An Italian edition, Il Surfista Solitario del Montana, was published in 2007 by Coniglio Editore. In 2008, actor Steve Buscemi optioned the book for film adaption, to be developed by Olive Productions; Buscemi has written the screenplay and plans to direct.
Rothbart, a former Chicago Bulls ticket scalper, often tours the country to share finds and invite others to share their finds with him. His brother, musician Peter Rothbart, often accompanies him on these tours.
The Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas, a collection of Rothbart's short-stories, was published in August 2005 by Simon & Schuster. A shorter version of the same book was previously self-published by Rothbart's own production company, 21 Balloons Productions (named after Rothbart's favorite book, The 21 Balloons, by William Pène du Bois). An Italian edition, Il Surfista Solitario del Montana, was published in 2007 by Coniglio Editore. In 2008, actor Steve Buscemi optioned the book for film adaption, to be developed by Olive Productions; Buscemi has written the screenplay and plans to direct.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 94 reviews
December 31, 2017
This was a decent little collection, but I didn't enjoy it a lot. The writing was good, the characters were real, but the overall mood of the book was one of hopelessness. The characters were all outside the fringe of society; they weren't going anywhere, and seemed to know it. They all made bad decisions, or else had some bad karma waiting for them. It got to be a little too much when repeated story after story.
There were some highlights - several of the stories had a promise of going somewhere. "The Lone Surfer..." started with a great premise, but then the story behind the story revealed itself and kind of sucked the joy right out of it.
"Lie Big" also had a lot of potential. One of the characters was so "over the top" with his storytelling that it reminded me a bit of "Big Fish" (which I loved).
The only story that hinted at a possible brighter future for its protagonist was "Maggie Fever". It started with a hard story, moved to a hopeful romance that was soon after dashed; but it ended with a little uptick of hope.
Overall, some good writing and characters, but you'd have to really like dark stories to fully appreciate this one....
There were some highlights - several of the stories had a promise of going somewhere. "The Lone Surfer..." started with a great premise, but then the story behind the story revealed itself and kind of sucked the joy right out of it.
"Lie Big" also had a lot of potential. One of the characters was so "over the top" with his storytelling that it reminded me a bit of "Big Fish" (which I loved).
The only story that hinted at a possible brighter future for its protagonist was "Maggie Fever". It started with a hard story, moved to a hopeful romance that was soon after dashed; but it ended with a little uptick of hope.
Overall, some good writing and characters, but you'd have to really like dark stories to fully appreciate this one....
April 1, 2025
Sue me I liked it I love a little collection of hopeless people being hopeless
February 22, 2021
The titular story is 5-Stars great, but it enveloped by less stellar stories. I'll split the difference with a 3/5, but for $2, this book is a steal
September 9, 2010
Davy Rothbart is most famously known as the creator of FOUND Magazine and author of the bestselling Found books, but he's also written a short story collection, The Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas.
The back cover copy reads: "Much like the lost, tossed, and forgotten items Rothbart collected in his acclaimed book, Found, the[se] stories. . .capture the oddity, poetry, and dignity of everyday life."
I think this is where my issues with the collection begin. (To be fair, I didn't hate this collection. One or two of the stories were charming and a couple were sad, but none of them stuck with me.) These stories rely too heavily on coincidence and chance. Of course, life is full of coincidence, chance, and serendipity, but for the most part, those moments don't translate well to the page. I know this leads into the old workshop defense of "But that's how it really happened!"; however,when something like that happens in a piece of fiction, there's too strong of a narrative/authorial hand guiding the action. The characters are no longer acting of their own volition, and the story dissolves.
Perhaps if only one of the stories had a moment of coincidence or "fate" I wouldn't be so bothered by it, but this collection has several, for example: the event that sets off the climax in "First Snow," a moment with a police officer in "The Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas," the plot of "A Black Dog," though fate is actually mentioned in the story, and a moment near the end of "Elena" where Elena happens to be show up where the narrator is staying, though there was no previous indication she knew where that was.
Maybe I'm being too tough on these stories. Rothbart does do a great job setting these stories up. If nothing else, the scenarios he sets up for his characters are interesting and unique - I can't take that away from him. He puts his characters in odd situations and he doesn't seem to be afraid to see where that takes him.
(For an extended review, see my blog: http://thestoryisthecure.blogspot.com/)
The back cover copy reads: "Much like the lost, tossed, and forgotten items Rothbart collected in his acclaimed book, Found, the[se] stories. . .capture the oddity, poetry, and dignity of everyday life."
I think this is where my issues with the collection begin. (To be fair, I didn't hate this collection. One or two of the stories were charming and a couple were sad, but none of them stuck with me.) These stories rely too heavily on coincidence and chance. Of course, life is full of coincidence, chance, and serendipity, but for the most part, those moments don't translate well to the page. I know this leads into the old workshop defense of "But that's how it really happened!"; however,when something like that happens in a piece of fiction, there's too strong of a narrative/authorial hand guiding the action. The characters are no longer acting of their own volition, and the story dissolves.
Perhaps if only one of the stories had a moment of coincidence or "fate" I wouldn't be so bothered by it, but this collection has several, for example: the event that sets off the climax in "First Snow," a moment with a police officer in "The Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas," the plot of "A Black Dog," though fate is actually mentioned in the story, and a moment near the end of "Elena" where Elena happens to be show up where the narrator is staying, though there was no previous indication she knew where that was.
Maybe I'm being too tough on these stories. Rothbart does do a great job setting these stories up. If nothing else, the scenarios he sets up for his characters are interesting and unique - I can't take that away from him. He puts his characters in odd situations and he doesn't seem to be afraid to see where that takes him.
(For an extended review, see my blog: http://thestoryisthecure.blogspot.com/)
February 1, 2008
A decent but not terribly impressive or memorable werk; I think there is a spark of talent buried in there and I hope it matures. This little collection has a few fleeting moments of brilliance but overall doesn't linger with much substance. For every passage that suggests depth and insight, there are two on each side that feel vapid -- heavy on the style, like he's searching for his voice and spends too much time imitating others.
September 17, 2007
i want to make love to Davy Rothbart.
that said, only about half the stories in this book are awesome. the rest are kind of silly.
February 27, 2008
I find I enjoy the short story. Davy's collection is diverse and entertaining. I especially liked the story, "Lie Big."
June 14, 2020
3 stars on aggregate, with a couple very bright spots mixed in there. I feel like short story collections are like sketch comedy shows in that it is incredibly difficult to keep up the consistency.
I had never read anything by Rothbart before this collection. These stories feature maladjusted young white men from somewhere in the Midwest and are usually about nothing in particular. They do capture a feeling of discomfort in ones own skin, an internal desperation that no one else sees. I think the problem with some of them is that very few would care even after getting that internal view. It did not take long to get through these stories, but I only remember half of them with any clarity. The story that lends its name to the title is probably the most vivid, with "The Black Dog" probably running second for me, but perhaps these are just the ones I connected to the most.
Maybe that is the takeaway here. Most of the goings on are fairly mundane, so if you don't connect with the characters you won't retain much more than the climax of each story. For me, the two stories I mentioned above both featured protagonists whose insecurity and self doubt in their relationships made them vacillate wildly in their internal monologue between extremes. It very much reminded me of when I was about 17-20, and tried to remain calm on the surface while this sort of thing gnawed at me inside. These seemed to be very well articulated to me, and I think I would have been absolutely enthralled with them if I had read them at the time. Even reading them now, it was an interesting window into how irrational I had been at the time.
But as I say, maybe not universally relatable, and without a connection I am not sure I would have remembered any of these stories. That said, it's a quick read and readers may find something of interest.
I had never read anything by Rothbart before this collection. These stories feature maladjusted young white men from somewhere in the Midwest and are usually about nothing in particular. They do capture a feeling of discomfort in ones own skin, an internal desperation that no one else sees. I think the problem with some of them is that very few would care even after getting that internal view. It did not take long to get through these stories, but I only remember half of them with any clarity. The story that lends its name to the title is probably the most vivid, with "The Black Dog" probably running second for me, but perhaps these are just the ones I connected to the most.
Maybe that is the takeaway here. Most of the goings on are fairly mundane, so if you don't connect with the characters you won't retain much more than the climax of each story. For me, the two stories I mentioned above both featured protagonists whose insecurity and self doubt in their relationships made them vacillate wildly in their internal monologue between extremes. It very much reminded me of when I was about 17-20, and tried to remain calm on the surface while this sort of thing gnawed at me inside. These seemed to be very well articulated to me, and I think I would have been absolutely enthralled with them if I had read them at the time. Even reading them now, it was an interesting window into how irrational I had been at the time.
But as I say, maybe not universally relatable, and without a connection I am not sure I would have remembered any of these stories. That said, it's a quick read and readers may find something of interest.
November 13, 2021
Parts of these stories land and the style is so readable, as Rothbart keeps is very conversational and entertaining when he’s not trying a bit too hard with the descriptive language. Even though it’s a slim collection already, I would love to see it get chopped down by an editor even more. These stories and their broken-down cast of characters need to move swiftly.
At the collection’s strongest points, there’s a sense of redemption (or at least empathy) for our character. In stories like “First Snow” or “Elena” where the character is just a racist or a pedophile, I wonder what the point is in even writing the story. So we know things are bad and the world is a fucked up place? This collection came out in the early-to-mid aughts, and maybe I would have liked it more then. At this point, I know the world is a bad place, that people have awfulness burned into them their whole lives and let it leak out and burst in predictable ways.
Overall, a quick read that burns on the energy of the dilapidated, for better or worse. There’s a lot of heart in the writing, but it doesn’t balance out against the heartless actions of the characters it chronicles.
At the collection’s strongest points, there’s a sense of redemption (or at least empathy) for our character. In stories like “First Snow” or “Elena” where the character is just a racist or a pedophile, I wonder what the point is in even writing the story. So we know things are bad and the world is a fucked up place? This collection came out in the early-to-mid aughts, and maybe I would have liked it more then. At this point, I know the world is a bad place, that people have awfulness burned into them their whole lives and let it leak out and burst in predictable ways.
Overall, a quick read that burns on the energy of the dilapidated, for better or worse. There’s a lot of heart in the writing, but it doesn’t balance out against the heartless actions of the characters it chronicles.
June 9, 2019
Five stars for what I thought would have been a few quirky stories by this lesser known author. Some quirkiness apparent? Yes. But so much pathos as well. Rothbart has given us some characters that are relatable, as well as conflicted, confused, lost and even less than upright at times.
One story, the title tale, is about a kid living in a landlocked state, and wishes he could serf. He finds an interesting way to simulate surfing, but gets into a serious accident.
Another tale deals with an inmate who is trying to come to terms with the darkness he has in him by writing. My favorite tale concerns a lonely teenager who finds himself falling in love with someone just from some notebooks and cassette tapes he stole when he was made to commit theft by his guardian.
If you like short stories and want to try someone a little off the beaten path, try this book.
One story, the title tale, is about a kid living in a landlocked state, and wishes he could serf. He finds an interesting way to simulate surfing, but gets into a serious accident.
Another tale deals with an inmate who is trying to come to terms with the darkness he has in him by writing. My favorite tale concerns a lonely teenager who finds himself falling in love with someone just from some notebooks and cassette tapes he stole when he was made to commit theft by his guardian.
If you like short stories and want to try someone a little off the beaten path, try this book.
August 7, 2023
I don't know if "really liked it" is exactly how I would describe it, but I did really like the writing. I felt like Davy dropped me in on the lives of fairly regular people just trying to make the best of their usually crazy, self-inflicted situation. I am not a huge short story person because I don't like being left on the side of the road not knowing where the story goes next. With short stories, you begin to be invested in the characters, then it is over which is what I guess makes Davy's writing so good that he gets you to like the characters, or at least want to follow them to see what happens next.
June 13, 2017
Davy Rothbart has a fantastic eye for details that give his short stories a feel of authenticity even during their most outlandish moments. Unfortunately, his narrative voice, and the structure of said stories doesn't always live up to the associated details. This isn't to say that they're bad. Far from it; it's rare for an author to hit one aspect of their writing so damned well that it makes me sit up and take notice, and if I'm slightly disappointed that the rest isn't of the same caliber, that's not to say that it caused me not to enjoy it.
July 28, 2024
It's been a long time since a book sucks me in at chapter one, page one. I'm still hooked on all of the vivid story elements, especially the characters that Dave Rothbart's writing breathes life into. The dialogue kept my nose in the pages through and through! The Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas is a bundle of short stories tied together with a string laced in redemption, loss, and twisted lessons. Give it a chance if you can. 5⭐️!
September 17, 2019
I read this during a period when I was eating up this sort of material. Short, male-centered stories of bad decision making and soul-searching desperation amidst a backwash of blasé Midwestern drab. It was awhile ago, but I remember finding the stories quite funny with plenty of the melancholy tenderness that other writers of this ilk are known for, (Denis Johnson, Thom Jones, etc.)
September 19, 2020
This is a straightforward collection of Rothbart-style broken-Americana "life is beautiful and life is strange and life is so shitty it's funny" writing. I love it, and the book is so thin and the text so big that it makes for a great bedtime read at like 11:15 PM after watching two episodes of Top Chef. Thanks Rothbart! 9/10.
April 8, 2025
I really enjoyed this collection of short stories
Each one i feel like i could read a whole book about
Even though the characters were very flawed i usually felt myself rooting for them
I am inspired by this authors writing style i like it
I bought this book used at the library and im very happy with it!!!
Each one i feel like i could read a whole book about
Even though the characters were very flawed i usually felt myself rooting for them
I am inspired by this authors writing style i like it
I bought this book used at the library and im very happy with it!!!
May 7, 2023
Very genuine emotionally written collection of short stories. Many of them are told from the perspective of young confused fuckup men longing for often unavailable women. I enjoyed the rawness and emotion of these stories.
July 17, 2019
A very hit or miss story collection. The titular story as well as 2 or 3 others are wonderful but the rest are just mediocre.
October 13, 2019
as with most books of short stories, some are much better than others. however, all these stories had main characters that just weren't going anywhere. it got so damn depressing.
Read
May 2, 2023i picked this out of a little free library on a limb, so i wasn't really expecting much - a few stories from this were amazing, a few mediocre.
June 12, 2024
Write more short stories, Davy. I love this book.
June 18, 2024
Heart wrenching but wonderful stories.
August 24, 2024
strange little book
April 12, 2024
The most pointless thing I have ever read. Not a single one of those stories even tried to justify their existence. So bad I want to cry.
August 30, 2007
This review originally appeared in Clamor Magazine:
We Michiganders are a strange breed. We come from a wilderness that was chewed up and spit out by industry. Every fall, businesses shut down and deer carcasses grow on the roofs of vehicles. We tend to be descended from people who didn't fit in or got kicked out of other places and signed up for some free land up north near the frigid lakesides. Like local native Madonna, we get through long winters by regularly trading in our public identities. Also like Madonna, we get the hell outta there. We roam the continent in old salt-rust scarred cars. We gawk at the world innocently but with a strange sense of humor formed by postindustrial decay. We enjoy the reputation for being tough motherfuckers that comes with having survived the economic version of a neutron bomb and for being from the land of Hoffa. We get through difficult situations with a combination of hardened numbness and excruciatingly polite mannerisms. After you've been to Autoworld, there's not much absurdity that's going to phase you.
In his book of short stories, "The Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas," Davy Rothbart establishes himself as one of the emerging voices of the Michigan Diaspora. He grew up in the poor and deolate sections just outside of snobby liberal Ann Arbor where I moved to with my mom when I was fifteen. Davy Rothbart is best known for having started the small media empire that is FOUND Magazine which curates what people find on the ground and in the trash and send to him. His goofy accent is frequently heard on the public radio program "This American Life", where he can be heard doing things like taking his psychic channeling mom to Brazilian faith healing camps and asking Mr. Rogers about a real Chicago neighborhood.
In this book, there are eight stories filled with convicts, bad situations, dysfunctional families, Chicago, bad parties, difficult relationships, dark little towns, and odd little moments of beauty. The stories blast forth with a narrative strength that comes from a people that sit around all winter drinking, repeating, and honing their anecdotes. Some read like biography. Some are clearly fictional. They all are about the quiet dignity and everyday weirdness of people surfing their way through the absurd situations they find themselves in.
We Michiganders are a strange breed. We come from a wilderness that was chewed up and spit out by industry. Every fall, businesses shut down and deer carcasses grow on the roofs of vehicles. We tend to be descended from people who didn't fit in or got kicked out of other places and signed up for some free land up north near the frigid lakesides. Like local native Madonna, we get through long winters by regularly trading in our public identities. Also like Madonna, we get the hell outta there. We roam the continent in old salt-rust scarred cars. We gawk at the world innocently but with a strange sense of humor formed by postindustrial decay. We enjoy the reputation for being tough motherfuckers that comes with having survived the economic version of a neutron bomb and for being from the land of Hoffa. We get through difficult situations with a combination of hardened numbness and excruciatingly polite mannerisms. After you've been to Autoworld, there's not much absurdity that's going to phase you.
In his book of short stories, "The Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas," Davy Rothbart establishes himself as one of the emerging voices of the Michigan Diaspora. He grew up in the poor and deolate sections just outside of snobby liberal Ann Arbor where I moved to with my mom when I was fifteen. Davy Rothbart is best known for having started the small media empire that is FOUND Magazine which curates what people find on the ground and in the trash and send to him. His goofy accent is frequently heard on the public radio program "This American Life", where he can be heard doing things like taking his psychic channeling mom to Brazilian faith healing camps and asking Mr. Rogers about a real Chicago neighborhood.
In this book, there are eight stories filled with convicts, bad situations, dysfunctional families, Chicago, bad parties, difficult relationships, dark little towns, and odd little moments of beauty. The stories blast forth with a narrative strength that comes from a people that sit around all winter drinking, repeating, and honing their anecdotes. Some read like biography. Some are clearly fictional. They all are about the quiet dignity and everyday weirdness of people surfing their way through the absurd situations they find themselves in.
February 19, 2017
These stories were "okay" in a general way but there was not enough to make a lasting impression or want to read more from the author.
May 21, 2011
Oh how thankful I am to have heard him on This American Life a few weeks back. Little did I know it he's been contributing for years. Or that he runs a kick-a$$ magazine, FOUND. Or that he's from Ann Arbor, where like him, I went to college.
But then to get him book in the mail (thank you, Amazon prime) and see the following names, all first-rate in their own but incredibly eclectic as a whole side by side: Charles Baxter (love him), Judy Blume (Hello Margaret, are you there?), Ira Glass (total nerd crush, I admit), and Arthur Miller (yes, that one).
So, anyway, the book - it's awesome. A collection of 8 stories, all refreshingly random in their settings and character set-ups yet shining the same unique lens on i.) the more human side of what I'll call "white trash" solely as a colloquialism and not my own opinion, and ii.) the foibles of projecting greatness onto another person, simplifying their back stories into this or that label, and/or romanticizing their lot in life.
The title story is probably my favorite. It's epic, in both senses of the word. A few of the other stories seem suspiciously autobiographical in parts, but perhaps fictionalized here and there to take them from initial essays to stories. Either way, the narrators all tend to be males, like Davy, and kept at an interesting distance from very poignant and well-drawn pain of others. I'm curious to know if this remove was deliberate, but it gave the stories an added dimension for me that I really enjoyed.
The best part? I get to meet him tonight at a screening of a documentary about him, "My Heart Is An Idiot." Yes, I will be bringing my copy of "Long Surfer" for him to autograph.
But then to get him book in the mail (thank you, Amazon prime) and see the following names, all first-rate in their own but incredibly eclectic as a whole side by side: Charles Baxter (love him), Judy Blume (Hello Margaret, are you there?), Ira Glass (total nerd crush, I admit), and Arthur Miller (yes, that one).
So, anyway, the book - it's awesome. A collection of 8 stories, all refreshingly random in their settings and character set-ups yet shining the same unique lens on i.) the more human side of what I'll call "white trash" solely as a colloquialism and not my own opinion, and ii.) the foibles of projecting greatness onto another person, simplifying their back stories into this or that label, and/or romanticizing their lot in life.
The title story is probably my favorite. It's epic, in both senses of the word. A few of the other stories seem suspiciously autobiographical in parts, but perhaps fictionalized here and there to take them from initial essays to stories. Either way, the narrators all tend to be males, like Davy, and kept at an interesting distance from very poignant and well-drawn pain of others. I'm curious to know if this remove was deliberate, but it gave the stories an added dimension for me that I really enjoyed.
The best part? I get to meet him tonight at a screening of a documentary about him, "My Heart Is An Idiot." Yes, I will be bringing my copy of "Long Surfer" for him to autograph.
January 21, 2010
While searching for books about Kansas or by Kansas authors I stumbled upon The Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas: Stories. It happens to come from the same brain that is behind Found, the website, magazine and book which are dedicated to discarded notes, letters, flyers, photos, lists, and drawings found and sent in by readers.
The stories all carry an impact that often left me feeling uncertain and a little disappointed in the way things always seem to turn out. Is there anything worse than seeing someone else’s illusions ripped away? A progressive disillusionment is one thing, but in Lie Big it all hits the nameless narrator at once.
The raw human emotion in First Snow leaves the reader feeling things should be different for a group of juvenile delinquents collecting trash on I-94, but knowing they never can be.
Each story ends with an emotionally charged event for the narrator leaving the reader in conflict over, not only the content of the story, but the lack of resolution. I think Gully sums up the collections atmosphere best in the title story The Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas when he says “I felt I’d been everywhere and seen everything and met everyone and that still I knew nothing.”
The stories all carry an impact that often left me feeling uncertain and a little disappointed in the way things always seem to turn out. Is there anything worse than seeing someone else’s illusions ripped away? A progressive disillusionment is one thing, but in Lie Big it all hits the nameless narrator at once.
The raw human emotion in First Snow leaves the reader feeling things should be different for a group of juvenile delinquents collecting trash on I-94, but knowing they never can be.
Each story ends with an emotionally charged event for the narrator leaving the reader in conflict over, not only the content of the story, but the lack of resolution. I think Gully sums up the collections atmosphere best in the title story The Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas when he says “I felt I’d been everywhere and seen everything and met everyone and that still I knew nothing.”
April 27, 2013
This is a strange book. It is not at all funny, as you might of thought by the rather amusing title. The book is full of heart breaks, but I guess they are real heart breaks. So it has that going for it. You might have a hard time believing that so much awful stuff has happened to one real person, I will leave that to your judgement.
The weirdest thing about the book is how there's no order and no real theme and no plot or point exactly. I think the writer is just trying to tell you about the various ways life and love have sucked for him, but beyond that I'm not sure what the overall volume is driving at.
And the lack of context is sometimes unsettling. You go from one chapter where he's clearly in his 20's to another where you think he might just be a kid, and you're never quite sure. Or, at least, I wasn't.
The weirdest thing about the book is how there's no order and no real theme and no plot or point exactly. I think the writer is just trying to tell you about the various ways life and love have sucked for him, but beyond that I'm not sure what the overall volume is driving at.
And the lack of context is sometimes unsettling. You go from one chapter where he's clearly in his 20's to another where you think he might just be a kid, and you're never quite sure. Or, at least, I wasn't.
November 1, 2007
Humorous with just a tinge of desperation and dejection, Rothbart delivers a collection of short stories featuring a cast of everyday small-town characters in all too surreal situations. The opening story, "Lie Big," reads as a convincing memory recalled from a page of a friend's diary where the reader discovers the heartbreaking and hilarious intricacies of a complex friendship. Another notable story, "Maggie Fever," unravels the mundane yet tragic story of a fourteen year old boy left to his own devices but manages to allow his curiosity to lead him to anonymous adoration of a stranger. Oscillating from the ordinary, the intimate, the beautiful and the unfortunate, stories in The Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas will leave you hanging on and in search for more.
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