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Grind
Convicts round up wild mustangs, a schizophrenic homeless man wins the jackpot and disappears, a truck driver with a child's mind spends his last hours in the embrace of a prostitute's photos—disparate and vivid, Mark Maynard's characters intersect in the new wild west of Reno, Nevada.
"Throughout the volume’s eight tenuously linked tales, lives and fortune are lost, and the city of Reno emerges as a locus of shattered souls. Maynard’s debut collection bursts with idiosyncratic characters... …packs a strong emotional punch...…is strangely entertaining.”
—Publishers Weekly
"In Grind, Maynard reveals a world the Nevada tourism board would rather you didn’t see…. A debut collection of stories that perfectly captures the seediness, desperation and sense of loss permeating the hot desert world of Reno.”
—Shelf Awareness
"Mark Maynard’s Reno is so sleazily appealing, so filled with convict cowboys, wild horses, racing pilots, truckers, snow bums, eco-terrorists, tattoo conventions, pawnshops and jackpots that you emerge from reading Grind dazed by this author’s empathy for neglected quarters of humanity. You feel gritty all over—and more alive.”
—Carolyn Cooke, author of Daughters of the Revolution
"The characters in these stories are as beautiful and broken as the desert itself. Mark Maynard explores the stony truths of lost lives with an unflinching eye for detail, an insider's sense of the place and its people, and an honest compassion. The heartbreaks here are real, as are the moments of uncommon grace and hard-won redemption.”
—Kim Barnes, author of In the Kingdom of Men
"Mark Maynard's Grind is chock full of men and women who are desperate with want and full of spirit. Pawnbrokers. Truckers. Casino shills. Prison inmates. They're all here, and they're all gloriously alive. This is prime American fiction—tough, generous, and open-eyed.”
—Alyson Hagy, author of Boleto
"Grind is exactly what I like in a locally based book. Plenty of those characters who make a visit to the environs of Reno both an exciting potential and an illicit affair…. This is a Northern Nevada book.”
—D. Brian Burghart, Reno News & Review
"Throughout the volume’s eight tenuously linked tales, lives and fortune are lost, and the city of Reno emerges as a locus of shattered souls. Maynard’s debut collection bursts with idiosyncratic characters... …packs a strong emotional punch...…is strangely entertaining.”
—Publishers Weekly
"In Grind, Maynard reveals a world the Nevada tourism board would rather you didn’t see…. A debut collection of stories that perfectly captures the seediness, desperation and sense of loss permeating the hot desert world of Reno.”
—Shelf Awareness
"Mark Maynard’s Reno is so sleazily appealing, so filled with convict cowboys, wild horses, racing pilots, truckers, snow bums, eco-terrorists, tattoo conventions, pawnshops and jackpots that you emerge from reading Grind dazed by this author’s empathy for neglected quarters of humanity. You feel gritty all over—and more alive.”
—Carolyn Cooke, author of Daughters of the Revolution
"The characters in these stories are as beautiful and broken as the desert itself. Mark Maynard explores the stony truths of lost lives with an unflinching eye for detail, an insider's sense of the place and its people, and an honest compassion. The heartbreaks here are real, as are the moments of uncommon grace and hard-won redemption.”
—Kim Barnes, author of In the Kingdom of Men
"Mark Maynard's Grind is chock full of men and women who are desperate with want and full of spirit. Pawnbrokers. Truckers. Casino shills. Prison inmates. They're all here, and they're all gloriously alive. This is prime American fiction—tough, generous, and open-eyed.”
—Alyson Hagy, author of Boleto
"Grind is exactly what I like in a locally based book. Plenty of those characters who make a visit to the environs of Reno both an exciting potential and an illicit affair…. This is a Northern Nevada book.”
—D. Brian Burghart, Reno News & Review
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
180 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
5 people are currently reading
473 people want to read
About the author
Mark Maynard
3 books29 followersMark Maynard's debut collection of short stories
Grind
was published by Torrey House Press on December 18, 2012.
Mark grew up on the north shore of Lake Tahoe in Incline Village, NV, a very small town that blessed him with enough quirky characters from an early age to populate a lifetime of stories.
Maynard is the winner of the 2015 Nevada Writers Hall of Fame Silver Pen Award and Grind is the 2016-17 Nevada Reads book as selected by the Nevada State Library and Archives.
He lives in Sparks, Nevada with his wife and their five children and teaches Composition, Fiction and Creative Writing at Truckee Meadows Community College.
Maynard is the Fiction Editor for The Meadow.
Mark grew up on the north shore of Lake Tahoe in Incline Village, NV, a very small town that blessed him with enough quirky characters from an early age to populate a lifetime of stories.
Maynard is the winner of the 2015 Nevada Writers Hall of Fame Silver Pen Award and Grind is the 2016-17 Nevada Reads book as selected by the Nevada State Library and Archives.
He lives in Sparks, Nevada with his wife and their five children and teaches Composition, Fiction and Creative Writing at Truckee Meadows Community College.
Maynard is the Fiction Editor for The Meadow.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 11, 2013
Read my full review @ http://bit.ly/XvgyPt
My opinion: I love that one book reviewer called this a "world that the Nevada Board of Tourism would rather you not see" because they were DEAD ON in their review. Come on, the cover of the book, which depicts a metal fold up chair shot up in the cracked desert earth, says it all.
These short stories were twisted in their depiction of life and that everything isn't squeaky clean or wraps up with a nice red ribbon all the time, which, let's face it, is reality. Furthermore, I simply loved the imagery of these stories. The authors abilities to bring out the darkness and desperation of the characters and their situations really kept my focus on the stories. I seek out twisted and quirky stories and this book fed right into my passion for that type of book.
The reason I didn't give this 5 stars is that I did feel that the author could have been tighter in some of his stories or that I felt like I was left hanging, but not intentionally. I read another book of short stories by the same publisher and I could definitely see the difference.
My opinion: I love that one book reviewer called this a "world that the Nevada Board of Tourism would rather you not see" because they were DEAD ON in their review. Come on, the cover of the book, which depicts a metal fold up chair shot up in the cracked desert earth, says it all.
These short stories were twisted in their depiction of life and that everything isn't squeaky clean or wraps up with a nice red ribbon all the time, which, let's face it, is reality. Furthermore, I simply loved the imagery of these stories. The authors abilities to bring out the darkness and desperation of the characters and their situations really kept my focus on the stories. I seek out twisted and quirky stories and this book fed right into my passion for that type of book.
The reason I didn't give this 5 stars is that I did feel that the author could have been tighter in some of his stories or that I felt like I was left hanging, but not intentionally. I read another book of short stories by the same publisher and I could definitely see the difference.
August 1, 2013
I was just in Reno. The rodeo was opening that same weekend. Drunken cowboys were in the streets all night, screaming, or maybe they were yodeling, who could tell? I stayed in a casino downtown, or what would be downtown if the powers that be in Reno ever decided what or where the downtown actually was. Hell, Reno's not exactly large – "The Biggest Little City In The World" is its motto – and then there's a river running through the middle of it, homeless degenerates living on its sidewalks, and people chain smoking inside the casino while they mindlessly play the slot machines. A cocktail waitress called me "darlin" and she had to be well over 70 years old. Her orthopedic shoes squeaked as she walked. While I was waiting for my room (there was some mix-up with housekeeping and none of the rooms had been cleaned that day so I had to wait or take a smoking room) I watched a man with a deformed arm, just long enough to reach the slot machine, feed quarter after quarter into it and then fall off his stool passed out drunk on the floor. I was left wondering just what down on its luck alternative universe had I fallen into? You can't smoke anywhere in the rest of America. But in Reno you can because they don't want you leaving the casino. There's this desperate sense in the air. Like everyone has missed the last train out and they're stuck here until Armageddon. But, you know I was just thinking it was me and I was being way too judgmental. Like I thought I was better than these people, and then I picked up Mark Maynard's Grind, a collection of linked short stories that pretty much validated everything I felt. His is not a happy "gimmie a hug" collection of stories. It starts off down and dirty and then it gets worse. Maynard's Reno is pretty much spot on from what I experience. Only he got all up in the local's minds and exposed all that fear, strangeness, and insanity for us, the reader, to decipher as best we could. My only objection was when one protagonist, regrettably named Patrick, meets a horrific demise run over by a train. I hate it when my namesake gets killed. But then, at least he faired better than most. An awesome debut collection from a writer I'm only too sure we'll be seeing more great work from in the near future.
July 4, 2013
I have visited Reno while visiting my parents, not as a tourist or a gambler, which gives the city a different feel than if you are visiting just for the casinos or the easy access to outdoor activity spots. This collection of stories felt so accurate to me, even Trading Up, about the pawnbroker with a hidden talent (or curse). Not all of the stories were to my taste, but you can't make everyone happy. Two of my favorite stories were Around the Bend and Jackpot, besides Trading Up. They're both sad (no spoilers) but I can understand the worry about an elderly parent (Around the Bend), and I have dealt with people that are not quite all there (Jackpot).
I'm pleased that such a good writer is teaching Creative Writing as well as editing the literary magazine. His own stories were very well edited, and read very tight and polished.
I'm pleased that such a good writer is teaching Creative Writing as well as editing the literary magazine. His own stories were very well edited, and read very tight and polished.
August 5, 2013
I have received a free copy of this book through a GoodReads First Reads giveaway.
This is one of those books that you start to read and tell yourself you'll only read a story or two, and the next thing you know you are flipping the last page and you've missed your lunch date. True story. I could not put it down. Thankfully my sister didn't give me too much heck, although I did have to allow her to borrow the book.
While there is a recurring theme that binds all the stories, you couldn't ask for more diverse stories. From the buzzes and bells of a casino floor, to the snow covered ski hills you are given brief glimpses of several of the lives of people who have made Reno there home. I feel like I'm doing the author a great disservice though when I say "brief glimpses". Maynard writes characters the way most authors only wish they could. In and of itself that is impressive, even more so once you consider that these are short stories.
This is one of those books that you start to read and tell yourself you'll only read a story or two, and the next thing you know you are flipping the last page and you've missed your lunch date. True story. I could not put it down. Thankfully my sister didn't give me too much heck, although I did have to allow her to borrow the book.
While there is a recurring theme that binds all the stories, you couldn't ask for more diverse stories. From the buzzes and bells of a casino floor, to the snow covered ski hills you are given brief glimpses of several of the lives of people who have made Reno there home. I feel like I'm doing the author a great disservice though when I say "brief glimpses". Maynard writes characters the way most authors only wish they could. In and of itself that is impressive, even more so once you consider that these are short stories.
August 5, 2013
I got this book from a GoodReads giveaway. As a collection of slightly connected stories, it was very good. I feel like it was the beginning of 8 different novels and wish that he would have gone further on some of them, "Steep" and "Letdown" in particular. However, Maynard did a fantastic job of painting characters that were imperfect or broken or forgotten about in society. The book makes the reader empathize with them and understand how they are unable to deal with the situations in which they find themselves. It's heartbreaking at times. I think the author should try his hand at a full-length novel, because with the amazing character development he was able to accomplish with just short stories, I'd love to see what could happen with a longer work.
March 12, 2014
"Grind" is a collection of slice-of-life vignettes based in the Reno/Tahoe area of Nevada where ordinary people who, through strange twists of fate, find themselves in some not-so-ordinary circumstances. After reading through these loosely interwoven stories, I have to say that my favorite was "Trading Up," which featured a pawn-shop owner with a touch of the supernatural.
I'm generally not a big fan of literary fiction, but I found this work to be well-written and intriguing, with vivid descriptions that enabled me to get a clear view of the characters and settings, even if they were not necessarily presented in the most flattering light. This would probably make a good choice for a reading group.
I'm generally not a big fan of literary fiction, but I found this work to be well-written and intriguing, with vivid descriptions that enabled me to get a clear view of the characters and settings, even if they were not necessarily presented in the most flattering light. This would probably make a good choice for a reading group.
December 23, 2022
Rating 3 stars.
A woman from one of my book clubs shared this selection (her copy) with me. I opened it with interest since I live in Reno. In each story I recognized references to familiar places and events. That part was fun because it was relatable and also not fun because the portrayal is the darkest parts of my town.
Although the writing on a sentence level is strong, the topics and characters were not for me. I can see how great of a book this is for the right reader - someone who loves short stories and reading about the darkest parts of human nature.
A woman from one of my book clubs shared this selection (her copy) with me. I opened it with interest since I live in Reno. In each story I recognized references to familiar places and events. That part was fun because it was relatable and also not fun because the portrayal is the darkest parts of my town.
Although the writing on a sentence level is strong, the topics and characters were not for me. I can see how great of a book this is for the right reader - someone who loves short stories and reading about the darkest parts of human nature.
October 18, 2016
This book is really interesting and well-written. I think anyone who is familiar with the Reno/Lake Tahoe area will appreciate it. I look forward to Maynard's next novels.
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February 7, 2017I wonder who chose this book as the Nevada reads book this year? None of these short stories appealed to me.
April 21, 2013
I got this book from a Goodreads giveaway.
It was a nice little book, but after reading an almost 700 page novel, it was like reading the first chapter of a different novel every few pages.
Or like one of those little snippets of the next novel at the end of a book, that I hate and never read...
I think Mark should do novel...
It was a nice little book, but after reading an almost 700 page novel, it was like reading the first chapter of a different novel every few pages.
Or like one of those little snippets of the next novel at the end of a book, that I hate and never read...
I think Mark should do novel...
July 7, 2014
I received this book through a give-away. It is a well written compilation of short stories which were depressing. All the stories are set in Las Vegas, NV. The situations are of everyday people with the human condition. I found myself not caring about any of the characters and felt the book was a grind to get through (No pun intended).
April 16, 2014
Pleased to recommend this collection of thought-provoking short stories by fellow Reno author and teacher, Mark Maynard. Grind brings together a memorable assemblage of offbeat and wayward characters passing through Reno--and life--just beyond the ragged edges of the American Dream.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews