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Stabs at Happiness: 13 Stories
Marking the first original publication by Todd Grimson in almost 20 years, the 13 stories compiled in this volume showcase the author’s fascinating fictional canvases, peopled by authentic and sympathetic characters with settings ranging from the Amazon to the Sahara and stops in between to 1970s East Village and pre-Castro Cuba.
Whether it’s a Hollywood starlet who goes AWOL from her movie set in the wake of her husband's suicide and in disguise embarks anonymously on a hedonistic bender or an African American man seeking the answer behind the mysterious disappearance of his friend in the heart of Muslim North Africa, each individual within these stories is striving to break free, to make new meaning of their world, to find recognition or self-definition in an otherwise bleak and unsympathetic world.
Fresh and bold and original in his voice and depiction of character, places, and events, Grimson’s range is extraordinary, his imagination is unsurpassable, and his empathy for his characters—whether killers, transvestites, prostitutes—are all deeply heartfelt.
Whether it’s a Hollywood starlet who goes AWOL from her movie set in the wake of her husband's suicide and in disguise embarks anonymously on a hedonistic bender or an African American man seeking the answer behind the mysterious disappearance of his friend in the heart of Muslim North Africa, each individual within these stories is striving to break free, to make new meaning of their world, to find recognition or self-definition in an otherwise bleak and unsympathetic world.
Fresh and bold and original in his voice and depiction of character, places, and events, Grimson’s range is extraordinary, his imagination is unsurpassable, and his empathy for his characters—whether killers, transvestites, prostitutes—are all deeply heartfelt.
- GenresHorrorShort Stories
188 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2012
10 people are currently reading
256 people want to read
About the author
Todd Grimson
5 books123 followersTodd Grimson was born in 1952 in Seattle and moved to Portland, Oregon at an early age. At the age of 22, having gone through all kinds of dead-end employment, Grimson took a civil service exam and ended up working at the VA Hospital in its surgical intensive care unit, which he found highly educational. He went on to work nightshift in the emergency room at Emanuel Hospital, where most local victims of violent crime were seen—an intense experience informing his first novel, “Within Normal Limits,” which he wrote under the mentorship of Paul Bowles, whom he had met and studied with during a summer writing workshop in Tangier, Morocco. Published in the prestigious “Vintage Contemporaries” series as a trade paperback original, “Within Normal Limits” earned critical acclaim and was the winner of the Oregon Book Award in 1988.
It was shortly before the publication of this first novel that Grimson was first
diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS), an incurable, degenerative disease. However, his symptoms went away and did not reappear until the summer of 1991. Stricken suddenly, housebound and incapacitated, Grimson found himself having vivid and surreal dreams, which later became the source and literally a part of the novel, “Brand New Cherry Flavor,” which blends this phantasmagorical dreamscape with the innovation of “cinematic realism.” Critically acclaimed both in the US and in the UK, this novel was followed by “Stainless” (Schaffner Press: Feb. 2012), an urban noir vampire novel set in late 1990’s L.A.
In recent years, Grimson has been writing and publishing short fiction online under the nom de plume “I. Fontana,” appearing in such literary reviews as BOMB, Bikini Girl, Juked, New Dead Families, Spork, Lamination Colony and Spork, while working on a new novel, “sickgirl101,” a thriller which delves into the online Alt Sex underworld, exploring and exposing the darker side of contemporary sexuality as perhaps no one else has done before.
It was shortly before the publication of this first novel that Grimson was first
diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS), an incurable, degenerative disease. However, his symptoms went away and did not reappear until the summer of 1991. Stricken suddenly, housebound and incapacitated, Grimson found himself having vivid and surreal dreams, which later became the source and literally a part of the novel, “Brand New Cherry Flavor,” which blends this phantasmagorical dreamscape with the innovation of “cinematic realism.” Critically acclaimed both in the US and in the UK, this novel was followed by “Stainless” (Schaffner Press: Feb. 2012), an urban noir vampire novel set in late 1990’s L.A.
In recent years, Grimson has been writing and publishing short fiction online under the nom de plume “I. Fontana,” appearing in such literary reviews as BOMB, Bikini Girl, Juked, New Dead Families, Spork, Lamination Colony and Spork, while working on a new novel, “sickgirl101,” a thriller which delves into the online Alt Sex underworld, exploring and exposing the darker side of contemporary sexuality as perhaps no one else has done before.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 2, 2012
These are the stories of societies taboo outcasts. The characters that polite society would rather ignore. Degenerative and hopeless, these characters help set the tone and paint this collection of short stories the darkest black.
Many of the characters in this collection are drug users/dealers, prostitutes, killers, and transvestites…..but they all have something in common, they are all looking for a little bit of happiness and hope in their own hopeless lives.
Grimson effortlessly blends powerful storytelling with gritty prose to create a new provocative approach to contemporary literature. His style has been described as esoteric, and I would agree….I think his style would appeal to a limited audience, however it is an exciting style that I think literary buffs who don’t mind reading a highly intelligent, gritty, modern gothic style story or two should pick this up.
See my full review here
Many of the characters in this collection are drug users/dealers, prostitutes, killers, and transvestites…..but they all have something in common, they are all looking for a little bit of happiness and hope in their own hopeless lives.
Grimson effortlessly blends powerful storytelling with gritty prose to create a new provocative approach to contemporary literature. His style has been described as esoteric, and I would agree….I think his style would appeal to a limited audience, however it is an exciting style that I think literary buffs who don’t mind reading a highly intelligent, gritty, modern gothic style story or two should pick this up.
See my full review here
June 3, 2023
3.5 stars. Several of these stories contained disparate elements that were meant to somehow make sense and a lot of the endings seemed abrupt but I liked the book overall.
January 9, 2019
I haven't really been into short stories lately, but some of these were really good.
January 5, 2015
I have a thing for Todd Grimson, his novels are sharp, clean, and tracking the pulse of cool before the cool folks know what they are looking for. His groundbreaking vampire novel ‘Stainless’, and the stylish Voodoo-chic of ‘Brand New Cherry Flavor’ are solid works deserving the attention of horror and speculative fiction fans.
Grimson is not to be pigeon holed as just a novelist. Over the years, his Short Stories have been published in various magazines and compendiums. ‘Stabs at Happiness’ is a new collection of shorts is comprised of previously published work, both under his own name and varied pseudonyms.
There are thirteen stories in the collection. As with all Short stories, readers will find that certain shorts resonate more with them than others. I found myself commonly wishing that there were more to the stories, that they were a single chapter of a book I could pull from a shelf and consume liberally. This does not read as "incomplete" only that i wanted more. and am greedy. Others were not much more than a lengthy character sketch, which many people I know would love. As such approach this collection with gleeful skepticism, you may not be dragged into every tale, but those which grab you won’t let you go.
Stand outs from my reading:
- “Brighter and Brighter”, a none too lengthy ride with a man and a child in an old Plymouth. Blood recently spilt and a code of ethics in the way of an easy escape, their conversation raises mixed feelings of honor vs post crime cleanup. I cant tell if I like the driver, or if I want some one to cap him.
- In “P not Q”, a man leaves a bunker in the heat of the desert, freshly showered and dedicated to the underground project he is part of. Picking a man up at the airport, turns out to be more confusing than the underground org is expecting. I was as confused as the characters on this, bur it was enjoyable.
- “Lamentations of Babylon”, Kimberly and Jean-Luc, in a stormy paranoia, traverse a world of beat poetry and film snobbery. It is a mess of human douche baggery, combined with the fall of Assyria. An excellent read, but might require an open wikipedia search for folks unfamiliar with the above key points…
- The title work “Stabs at Happiness” is a total ClusterF*ck of awesome. It is not for everyone.. Read on.. It is angsty, erotic, a fair amount of disturbing. The main character Nikki is a little bit Lisbeth, a little bit Wednesday, and a lotta bit Trinity sans matrix. If you do not care to read about strap-ons and a sad sad boy, you may skip it.. But it is very good.
- The true shining gem in this collection deserves to be stripped out and novelized. “Batista’s Lieutenant” is a Cubano tale that spans multiple years/decades. The characters are vibrant, the story engaging. The trouble is the short story format. This deserves a re-treatment as a full novel, or even a novella. I hope the author gets some additional feedback and gives this story the respectful treatment it commands.
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xpost RawBlurb.com
Grimson is not to be pigeon holed as just a novelist. Over the years, his Short Stories have been published in various magazines and compendiums. ‘Stabs at Happiness’ is a new collection of shorts is comprised of previously published work, both under his own name and varied pseudonyms.
There are thirteen stories in the collection. As with all Short stories, readers will find that certain shorts resonate more with them than others. I found myself commonly wishing that there were more to the stories, that they were a single chapter of a book I could pull from a shelf and consume liberally. This does not read as "incomplete" only that i wanted more. and am greedy. Others were not much more than a lengthy character sketch, which many people I know would love. As such approach this collection with gleeful skepticism, you may not be dragged into every tale, but those which grab you won’t let you go.
Stand outs from my reading:
- “Brighter and Brighter”, a none too lengthy ride with a man and a child in an old Plymouth. Blood recently spilt and a code of ethics in the way of an easy escape, their conversation raises mixed feelings of honor vs post crime cleanup. I cant tell if I like the driver, or if I want some one to cap him.
- In “P not Q”, a man leaves a bunker in the heat of the desert, freshly showered and dedicated to the underground project he is part of. Picking a man up at the airport, turns out to be more confusing than the underground org is expecting. I was as confused as the characters on this, bur it was enjoyable.
- “Lamentations of Babylon”, Kimberly and Jean-Luc, in a stormy paranoia, traverse a world of beat poetry and film snobbery. It is a mess of human douche baggery, combined with the fall of Assyria. An excellent read, but might require an open wikipedia search for folks unfamiliar with the above key points…
- The title work “Stabs at Happiness” is a total ClusterF*ck of awesome. It is not for everyone.. Read on.. It is angsty, erotic, a fair amount of disturbing. The main character Nikki is a little bit Lisbeth, a little bit Wednesday, and a lotta bit Trinity sans matrix. If you do not care to read about strap-ons and a sad sad boy, you may skip it.. But it is very good.
- The true shining gem in this collection deserves to be stripped out and novelized. “Batista’s Lieutenant” is a Cubano tale that spans multiple years/decades. The characters are vibrant, the story engaging. The trouble is the short story format. This deserves a re-treatment as a full novel, or even a novella. I hope the author gets some additional feedback and gives this story the respectful treatment it commands.
--
xpost RawBlurb.com
December 1, 2012
Todd Grimson was the winner of the 1988 Oregon Book Award for fiction for his novel Within Normal Limits. He’s been described by the UK-based newspaper The Guardian as “the greatest horror writer you’ve never read.” He is the author of the supernatural zombie thriller Brand New Cherry Flavor: A Novel of the Occult and the vampire love story Stainless: A Modern Romance.
I finished Stabs at Happiness: 13 Stories yesterday morning, and I’d classify the book in the realm of literary fiction, as there are no stories about vampires and zombies in this one. The majority of the stories are character-driven, including sketches of a 1970s New York transvestite and a scientist at a secret underground lab in the southwestern United States. One of Grimson’s greatest strengths is creating well-developed and elaborate settings, and those featured in Stabs at Happiness are quite diverse — the Amazonian jungle, the casbahs of Morocco, and even pre-Castro Cuba.
Read the rest of my review here: http://beckyajohnson.net/2012/12/01/s...
I finished Stabs at Happiness: 13 Stories yesterday morning, and I’d classify the book in the realm of literary fiction, as there are no stories about vampires and zombies in this one. The majority of the stories are character-driven, including sketches of a 1970s New York transvestite and a scientist at a secret underground lab in the southwestern United States. One of Grimson’s greatest strengths is creating well-developed and elaborate settings, and those featured in Stabs at Happiness are quite diverse — the Amazonian jungle, the casbahs of Morocco, and even pre-Castro Cuba.
Read the rest of my review here: http://beckyajohnson.net/2012/12/01/s...
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews