Red Ant House: Gritty and Luminous Short Stories of Family and Loss in the American Southwest

by Ann Cummins

Denis Johnson meets Flannery O’Connor in this luminous collection of short stories about the collision of cultures, genders, and generations in the American Southwest. Set mainly amid Indian reservations and uranium mills, these twelve stories create a kaleidoscopic view of family, myth, love, landscape, and loss in a place where infinite skies and endless roads suggest a world of possibility, yet dreams are deceiving, like an oasis, just beyond reach. Whether it’s a young woman pushed quite literally to the edge on a desolate mountain pass, an orphaned brother and sister trying to patch together an existence one stitch at a time, a cop who suspects his kleptomaniac wife is stealing from other people — materially and emotionally — or a wily roadside hypnotist whose alleged power is both wonderful and strange, Ann Cummins’s characters want to transcend the circumstances of their lives, to believe in the eventuality of change.
Again and again, Ann Cummins generates imagery of white-hot intensity and pushes the limits of both the human spirit and the short story form. Gritty, seductive, and always daring, this unforgettable collection puts forth a haunting new vision of hope and heartache in contemporary America and confirms the arrival of an important new voice.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Literary Fiction

179 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Geoffrey Fox · Rating 3 out of 5]

12 stories, previously published in Hayden's Ferry Review (1); McSweeney's (3); The New Yorker (3); A Room of One's Own (1); Sonora Review (1). Psychological subtlety and detailed, vivid description of settings, especially western US deserts and mountains. Several stories take p.o.v. of an adolescent girl -- either white or Navajo -- on or near a Navajo reservation. The McSweeney's stories are the strangest, "The Hypnotist's Trailer" being a magical realist allegorical fable about corrupt petty power further corrupting its holder (the hypnotist takes a belly button from a woman, turns it into things large and small, and finally finds that it has grown and adhered to his hand). Cummins often develops a story to an approaching crisis and ends it -- sometimes in mid-air, as in "Billy by the Bay" (desperate Billy jumps off a pier). "Headhunter" (from Hayden's Ferry Rev) leaves us wondering what the heroine will do now that she has unintentionally caused a man's death on the highway; she seems weird enough to do almost anything, but we don't know. My favorite is "Bitterwater" (from the New Yorker), told by the white woman who has married a powerfully attractive, crazy and usually drunk Navajo; will she take him back from the detox center or not? Don't know. I would read more work by this surprising writer.

[Aaron · Rating 2 out of 5]

I breezed through this collection of short stories by Ann Cummins for two reasons: they were easy to read, and I refuse to not finish a book I've started and I was unimpressed enough by all but one of the stories, and wanted to finish this bullshit as quickly as possible. Cummins' style and diction reminded me somewhat of a cross between Tom Robbins and Barbara Kingsolver, which might sound good to some, but was a major turnoff to me. The mix of cutesy language with edgy material just wasn't any fun to read. There was one exception though, and that was the haunting "Headhunter," which was about a character in a desperate, incredibly messed up situation and showcased beautiful, suspenseful description more in line with Cormac McCarthy. One great short story out of twelve is not good enough, though.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first story in this collection, "Red Ant House" is an absolute gem. It captures the two little girls' world with starling accuracy and childlike candor. "Trapeze" and "Crazy Yellow" are also standouts, excellent and fascinating.

Many of the stories in this collection are coming-of-age tales with a child or teenage protagonist growing up in an atmosphere of poverty, boredom and loneliness where the child's imagination provides an escape from everyday reality. The stories are primarily set in desert towns in the American Southwest. At times, Cummins' writing is so effective you can practically feel the blazing sun and blowing sand.

[Margaret Carmel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a 3.5 star book for me.

Red Ant House is a well done collection of short stories, mostly set in the southwestern United States. Of these twelve stories, I enjoyed the ones about the coming of age of young girls or women the most of all with my favorites being Trapeze, Red Ant House, Blue Fly and Bitterwater.

One of my biggest complaints about coming of age stories, especially ones that feature young children, is that authors tend to make the characters talk or think older than their actual age. While these stories featuring children were introspective and thought provoking, I never once felt myself questioning that a characters thought process or actions were too mature to be believable. It was such a relief to read stories from a writer who could depict children accurately, but still make them interesting.

I enjoyed the other stories in the book, but the ones featuring adults or some of the more fantasy focused stories just didn't resonate with me as much as the ones I mentioned above. Overall this is a well done collection of short stories and Cummins writing is worth checking out.

[Jeff]

P

[Marguerite · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m a fan of well-written short stories. A few in this collection were good but most just ok. I’m sure she appeals to a lot of readers, but I don’t think I will read anything else by her.

[Hilario Ramirez · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book I read was called Red Ant House by Ann Cummins, This book was more of a collection of stories rather than one specific story with a plot. For this book review I will only talk about the first story since there were about 6 or 5 different short stories. The first story takes place in the Mojave desert and follows these young Native American girls, the girls were setting up a birthday party for herself and a lady came up to her and was asking what she was doing. This is where this short story got interesting, the girl was saying that she needed beans. I thought that this was very weird and so the lady started to call her bean.

This book as one of the strangest books I have ever read, it was very weirdly constructed and it consisted of many different stories. This is particularly why it was one of the strangest and why is was so weird. This book was separated into different stories as I mentioned before, so there was not really a main plot or story. This in turn made it very difficult for me to read since I kept losing interest in the book because I would have to read different stories every time, and it is also why it is kind of hard to write a review on something that doesn't really have a main plot to it.

In conclusion, this book is very strange as I mentioned before and I think that it is intended for people who like these short stories. I personally am not a big fan on them but i thought i would give it a chance and my opinion is still the same. While the stories were interesting at first I quickly lost interest in them as they went through the book. I hope that my next book might be able to bring more excitement when reading it.

[Ruby · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well done, albeit, depressing collection of stories that take place around southwestern NA reservations. There are a few common themes that run together though the unconnected stories, most prominent to me being those of parental abandonment. Most of the stories revolve around the messed up lives of children whose parents either abandoned them completely, or were so messed up themselves they couldn't parent. The stories really are good, even in their bleakness, and I would recommend for fans of authors like David Eggers (who himself raves about this collection).

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short story collection read much like Flannery O'Connor to me, except set in the west. The characters in these stories are often exploring the limits of a frightening boundary, so they can be unsettling to read. Some of these stories end quite abruptly, too, and I found that I was inventing their sequels in my head. I liked the experience of reading about these sharp moments continuing to think about them later.

[melanie (lit*chick) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I completely get the comparison to Flannery O'Connor, these are some dark stories. But unlike reading Flannery, I was left wondering about the point...Jill any help here? She is an adept short story writer, succintly including history about her characters necessary to put you right there. Basically, I like this collection alot, but I can't pinpoint why.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this collection a bit intriguing, but ultimately disappointing. I had sought it because years ago I read Cummins novel Yellowcake and loved it. I think she has tremendous talent as a storyteller and wish she would write more. These stories seemed too focused on just one or two characters, without enough context of their lives to make me care about them.

[Mindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

She's a good writer but things started dragging after the third story. I think I would prefer to read her work as part of an anthology. Dark stuff, and strange enough to be interesting, but they didn't resound with me.

[Louvaine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Weird collection of odd short stories! I can't really say I "enjoyed" this, but it IS different. All of the stories feature Native Americans in some way, sometimes unexpectedly. The stories seem to snowball towards the end, with shorter stories and more accelerated action.

[Katrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the eerie, slightly uncomfortable but familiar atmosphere that Cummins sets for these stories. She does a great job setting the scene for a variety of childhood turning points - some terrifying, great, horrifying, necessary, commonplace and unique.

[Jenn Mattson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked the first two stories, then the last stories became increasingly grimmer and more grotesque. I like Flannery O'Connor's short stories, because of the grotesque, but not so much this collection.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent