Stop Breakin Down: Stories

by John McManus

Winner of the Whiting Writers' Award

In a voice somewhere between Cormac McCarthy and Kurt Cobain, John McManus explores young people living in extreme situations. Some are in the Tennessee Smoky Mountains, some in the Pacific Northwest, a few are in the Western deserts of Utah and Nevada, one is in England, and many are scattered throughout the Southern US. All are desperate for something beyond the ordinary lives that are given to them, and every one is absolutely unforgettable.

Genres: Fiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Librarians note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

For the software engineer, see John McManus.

Reviews

[Pat Settegast · Rating 3 out of 5]

At times hit or miss (but then again so is Chekhov), this book definitely has some big rewards for the diligent reader. McManus' style is one of terse rhythem, poetic neologism, and rattling diction. The stories are all over the map and have no distinct sense of place except perhaps some alternate universe, in which Rambo won WW III. Perhaps Post-Americalypse? Call me a Utard, but my favorite story in the lot takes place out on salt flats--"Deseret," a rambling quasi-homage to Jean Genet about a naked submissive chained to the ceiling in a shack housing a meth lab, mourning the slow death of his dominator. The title story, "Stop Breakin Down," reads like doing a line of coke.

I will confess two points, which bias my review and throw things into a different light. First, jealousy. John and I were born in the same year in the same state and the man's already got two amazing books of short stories published... so, I admit I read this thing with glowing green eyes, and still it spoke to me. Second, Mr. McManus is a graduate of the Michener Center program--that's right, the same program I am interested in... So, it is a little intimidating to think this guy already had a book in print by the time he applied to grad school. I mean, WOW! And, I don't use all caps or exclamation points lightly.

In all honesty, I've learned a lot from reading these stories, and I can't wait to finish John McManus' second volume of stories: Born on a Train to see in what ways his time at Michener changed his voice or provided him with new insights.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the premises and main characters of many of these stories, but disliked the endings of almost all of them. Most of them just seemed to stop instead of coming to any kind of resolution, either good or bad. There were also some annoying stylistic things that seemed to be there for the sake of making the work "edgy," such as the lack of apostrophes, commas, or quotation marks, and in one story, the use of all-caps for random words. These affectations made me wonder about the endings (or lack of) and if the author ended the stories the way he did as some kind of rebellion against the usual story format. If so, it was a disservice to the work because most of the stories ended up feeling like good ideas with no follow through.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

review to come