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Idiot Men
★★★★★ “Like the best country song you have ever heard.” Jane Stern, author of Ambulance Girl
With Strangers to Temptation, Things that Crash, Things that Fly, and The Hammerhead Chronicles, Scott Gould cemented his reputation as one of the most inventive, distinctive voices of Southern literature. In his latest collection, Idiot Men, he once again gathers a cast of unforgettable characters in eleven stories chock full of exceptional storylines and hilarious writing.
You’ll meet a trucker driver whose wife flees to Jamaica with her lover, leaving him to babysit her hairless tomcat, Princess Di; a male nurse who discovers a trailer full of counterfeit NASCAR paraphernalia during a home health visit; an amateur arsonist sentenced to a year in a Smokey the Bear suit; a disgruntled roofer with a bad back and a meth-dealing twin brother… these are just a few of the idiot men you’ll encounter in a collection of stories that will appeal to readers who relish literature with a Southern flavor.
Gould's Idiot Men provides the stage for wayward characters who make poor choices in life and love against a backdrop of elegant prose. These tales recalibrate morality and convention as readers will grow to love the characters despite—and perhaps because of—their flaws. These diverse, rich stories are ultimately connected by the spellbinding voice of a true Southern storyteller.
With Strangers to Temptation, Things that Crash, Things that Fly, and The Hammerhead Chronicles, Scott Gould cemented his reputation as one of the most inventive, distinctive voices of Southern literature. In his latest collection, Idiot Men, he once again gathers a cast of unforgettable characters in eleven stories chock full of exceptional storylines and hilarious writing.
You’ll meet a trucker driver whose wife flees to Jamaica with her lover, leaving him to babysit her hairless tomcat, Princess Di; a male nurse who discovers a trailer full of counterfeit NASCAR paraphernalia during a home health visit; an amateur arsonist sentenced to a year in a Smokey the Bear suit; a disgruntled roofer with a bad back and a meth-dealing twin brother… these are just a few of the idiot men you’ll encounter in a collection of stories that will appeal to readers who relish literature with a Southern flavor.
Gould's Idiot Men provides the stage for wayward characters who make poor choices in life and love against a backdrop of elegant prose. These tales recalibrate morality and convention as readers will grow to love the characters despite—and perhaps because of—their flaws. These diverse, rich stories are ultimately connected by the spellbinding voice of a true Southern storyteller.
282 pages, Paperback
Published November 7, 2023
4 people are currently reading
39 people want to read
About the author
Scott Gould
6 books56 followersScott Gould is the author of six books, including The Hammerhead Chronicles, winner of the Eric Hoffer Award for Fiction, and Things That Crash, Things That Fly, which won a 2022 Memoir Prize for Books. His other honors include a Next Generation Indie Book Award, an IPPY Award for Fiction, the Larry Brown Short Story Award and the S.C. Arts Commission Artist Fellowship in Prose. His work has appeared in a number of publications, including Kenyon Review, Black Warrior Review, Pangyrus, Crazyhorse, Pithead Chapel, Garden & Gun, and New Stories from the South, among others. His new novel, Peace Like a River, is forthcoming in August 2025 from Regal House Publishing. He lives in Sans Souci, South Carolina.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 23, 2025
In a Nutshell: A short story collection focussing on the titular “idiot men”, but not in the way you would imagine. Replete with humour and bittersweet scenarios. Loved this entertaining collection!
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This collection of eleven stories entered my reading list for one and one reason alone: the title! Now, now! Don’t get me wrong! I am no misandrist! I have pointed out how thrillers need to improve their male rep and stop showing almost every husband as a cheating/lying/gaslighting jerk/killer. I have also criticised those “feminists” who believe in the superiority of women over men, and have always advocated equality across all genders. And yet, something in my heart just leapt with joy at the candour in that title! 😄
Every single one of these stories has a man as the central character, and as you can guess, the man’s situation makes him act like an idiot. Just to be clear: the men aren’t idiots to begin with. (At least, I think not!) Rather, they have been made idiots, either by circumstances or by a person (usually but not always, a woman.) Most of the men are thus victims of some kind, but rather than wallowing in their misery, they take idiotic decisions in a bid to get back. Thus begins the vicious loop of “idiots” falling in the trap of their own idiocy.
Every central character is a flawed one, but at the same time, most appear so vulnerable that we can’t help but root for them. What I loved the most is how relatable these characters are. None of them are larger than life, but rather, realistic men we can easily find in our neighbourhood.
The women in this book are mostly in negative roles, but I don’t mind this. Reality doesn’t have perfect women; why must we always demand them in stories? High time fictional men get some sympathy while evil fictional women walk all over them! I loved to see some of the men get back at the culprits. That said, I didn’t notice any obvious example of ‘men writing women’ in these pages; that’s a huge compliment from me to a male author!
It is obvious from the title that humour forms an important part of this collection. The comic factor is more satirical rather than slapstick. There are plenty of hilarious scenes and witty banter that add an entertaining layer to the otherwise serious situations.
Of the eleven stories, three tales are interlinked under a common heading called ‘The Gable Massey Trio’. These three Gable stories are the only ones written in third person; the rest are all in first person. I would have preferred a variation across the voices because while reading the anthology in one flow, the first-person voices sound similar.
It is disappointing to find no foreword or introductory note herein. This is the kind of anthology that needs, or rather, deserves an author's note. I would have loved to know the author’s motivation behind that title and the stories of this collection.
As always, I rated the stories individually. Every single story was at least a three star for me. Thus, there was no bad story here – all were either good or great for me. Even the ones that I didn't enjoy as much were excellent stories but not my type of tales because of their content.
My top favourites were:
Definitely recommended to short fiction lovers who would love to read a very different kind of anthology that is, for a change, focussed on men, even if they are idiots. 😉
I hadn’t heard of this indie author before, but now, I’ll make sure I keep an eye out for his works.
3.8 stars, based on the average of my ratings for the individual stories. (If you are familiar with how mathematical averages work, you will know that this is a great average.)
My thanks to author Scott Gould and BookSirens for the DRC of “Idiot Men”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
Content warning: Some of the stories have an animal abuse scene. Though mostly off the page, it could still be somewhat triggering to animal lovers. There are other milder triggers such as infidelity.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Connect with me through:
My Blog | The StoryGraph | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This collection of eleven stories entered my reading list for one and one reason alone: the title! Now, now! Don’t get me wrong! I am no misandrist! I have pointed out how thrillers need to improve their male rep and stop showing almost every husband as a cheating/lying/gaslighting jerk/killer. I have also criticised those “feminists” who believe in the superiority of women over men, and have always advocated equality across all genders. And yet, something in my heart just leapt with joy at the candour in that title! 😄
Every single one of these stories has a man as the central character, and as you can guess, the man’s situation makes him act like an idiot. Just to be clear: the men aren’t idiots to begin with. (At least, I think not!) Rather, they have been made idiots, either by circumstances or by a person (usually but not always, a woman.) Most of the men are thus victims of some kind, but rather than wallowing in their misery, they take idiotic decisions in a bid to get back. Thus begins the vicious loop of “idiots” falling in the trap of their own idiocy.
Every central character is a flawed one, but at the same time, most appear so vulnerable that we can’t help but root for them. What I loved the most is how relatable these characters are. None of them are larger than life, but rather, realistic men we can easily find in our neighbourhood.
The women in this book are mostly in negative roles, but I don’t mind this. Reality doesn’t have perfect women; why must we always demand them in stories? High time fictional men get some sympathy while evil fictional women walk all over them! I loved to see some of the men get back at the culprits. That said, I didn’t notice any obvious example of ‘men writing women’ in these pages; that’s a huge compliment from me to a male author!
It is obvious from the title that humour forms an important part of this collection. The comic factor is more satirical rather than slapstick. There are plenty of hilarious scenes and witty banter that add an entertaining layer to the otherwise serious situations.
Of the eleven stories, three tales are interlinked under a common heading called ‘The Gable Massey Trio’. These three Gable stories are the only ones written in third person; the rest are all in first person. I would have preferred a variation across the voices because while reading the anthology in one flow, the first-person voices sound similar.
It is disappointing to find no foreword or introductory note herein. This is the kind of anthology that needs, or rather, deserves an author's note. I would have loved to know the author’s motivation behind that title and the stories of this collection.
As always, I rated the stories individually. Every single story was at least a three star for me. Thus, there was no bad story here – all were either good or great for me. Even the ones that I didn't enjoy as much were excellent stories but not my type of tales because of their content.
My top favourites were:
✤ Word of the Day – The main character was an uncouth, burly truck driver who even considers hurting an animal to get back at his wife. And I still enjoyed this! Go figure! - 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫
✤ Playing Chicken – A male nurse is at the receiving end of this amusing tale. Didn’t expect that ending! - 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫
✤ The Gable Massey Trio – I can't believe a man wrote such a sensitive story about dealing with a difficult pregnancy and its aftermath. Sorry, I know that sounds very sexist of me, but I am just being frank. I have rarely seen a male author explore human emotions so well! If nothing else, then this mini trilogy is worth picking up the book for.
A. Gable Massey Learns Some Greek: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
B. What Gable Massey Did After His Wife Left Him: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
C. Gable Massey Makes a Movie: 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫
Definitely recommended to short fiction lovers who would love to read a very different kind of anthology that is, for a change, focussed on men, even if they are idiots. 😉
I hadn’t heard of this indie author before, but now, I’ll make sure I keep an eye out for his works.
3.8 stars, based on the average of my ratings for the individual stories. (If you are familiar with how mathematical averages work, you will know that this is a great average.)
My thanks to author Scott Gould and BookSirens for the DRC of “Idiot Men”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
Content warning: Some of the stories have an animal abuse scene. Though mostly off the page, it could still be somewhat triggering to animal lovers. There are other milder triggers such as infidelity.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Connect with me through:
My Blog | The StoryGraph | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
January 4, 2024
This collection of short stories appealed to me because of its title😁. I was immediately curious and wanted to see what the stories were about.
They are about, yes, men who by their actions or those of the people close to them, appear to be idiots, not necessarily in a malicious way.
I liked all the stories though the first one, Word of the day, and a trio of connected stories, The Gable Massey Trio, were definite favourites.
In the first story, I loved how words that were totally incongruous to the trucker who is the main character, were woven into the story of his relationship woes!
Gable Massey, I think, deserves an entire book, because this character was developed so well, right from his first appearance where the Greek words applied to describe difficulties in his wife's pregnancy, cause his head to spin to how he deals with the aftermath of that tough situation.
So many of the characters in these stories do things without thinking and in that way are very realistic. You can't help but feel a little empathy for them even if they bring trouble on themselves. The women here are given license to be flawed and real too and that's a definite bonus!
Overall, I enjoyed the flow of the writing. I read this after a friend reviewed it favorably and agree with her.
They are about, yes, men who by their actions or those of the people close to them, appear to be idiots, not necessarily in a malicious way.
I liked all the stories though the first one, Word of the day, and a trio of connected stories, The Gable Massey Trio, were definite favourites.
In the first story, I loved how words that were totally incongruous to the trucker who is the main character, were woven into the story of his relationship woes!
Gable Massey, I think, deserves an entire book, because this character was developed so well, right from his first appearance where the Greek words applied to describe difficulties in his wife's pregnancy, cause his head to spin to how he deals with the aftermath of that tough situation.
So many of the characters in these stories do things without thinking and in that way are very realistic. You can't help but feel a little empathy for them even if they bring trouble on themselves. The women here are given license to be flawed and real too and that's a definite bonus!
Overall, I enjoyed the flow of the writing. I read this after a friend reviewed it favorably and agree with her.
January 13, 2024
Awesome collection of short stories.
A first for me with this author, but one I’ll be keeping an eye out for in the future. Anyone who can write a good short story deserves all the credit they can get because they are few and far between.
The title and cover caught my attention and then the stories worked their magic. Not all the men were idiots - the women took on their fair share of idiotic decisions. The humour was great, as was the length and overall humanity of the characters. I probably missed some US-centred barbs and jokes, but found the collection a great read!
Thanks to Book Sirens for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
A first for me with this author, but one I’ll be keeping an eye out for in the future. Anyone who can write a good short story deserves all the credit they can get because they are few and far between.
The title and cover caught my attention and then the stories worked their magic. Not all the men were idiots - the women took on their fair share of idiotic decisions. The humour was great, as was the length and overall humanity of the characters. I probably missed some US-centred barbs and jokes, but found the collection a great read!
Thanks to Book Sirens for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
October 25, 2023
An unknown author for me but he’s on my fav list from here on in. This short volume of stories - some inter-connected - have a common theme given away in the book’s title. They are about “Everyman” = “Joe Ordinary”. That is to say, you will not find characters who can outrun, out-punch, out-think and out-seduce all others. These are the flawed characters you may bump into anywhere in real life and not the unbelievable James Bond, Jack Reacher, Jason Statham, Batman etc characters commonly portrayed in fiction. Many thanks to Scott Gould for writing this wonderful work and thank you to BookSirens for introducing me to Mr. Gould.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
October 14, 2023
Scott Gould is one of the most talented writers I know for his ability to mix substance with humor. “Idiot Men,” his new collection of short stories, is yet another brilliant example.
His tales have a small town feel in which you get to know all of the colorful characters. Quirky, loping, smart, not so smart, they all live lives in which real things — deep and abiding traumas, even if we sometimes don’t know what they are — have imprinted on them in ways that make their existence difficult.
While sometimes dark, like the story of the trailer man who plots on how to get rid of his new neighbor, there’s an overarching humor to the stories, that when put together deliver the message that humanity is like an oddball uncle: often illogical and unpredictable, yet always deserving of sympathy.
And because I don’t live in the South, I appreciated soaking up the color and flavors of where the author lives and writes.
His tales have a small town feel in which you get to know all of the colorful characters. Quirky, loping, smart, not so smart, they all live lives in which real things — deep and abiding traumas, even if we sometimes don’t know what they are — have imprinted on them in ways that make their existence difficult.
While sometimes dark, like the story of the trailer man who plots on how to get rid of his new neighbor, there’s an overarching humor to the stories, that when put together deliver the message that humanity is like an oddball uncle: often illogical and unpredictable, yet always deserving of sympathy.
And because I don’t live in the South, I appreciated soaking up the color and flavors of where the author lives and writes.
October 20, 2023
Scott Gould has done it again: he's created characters who live and breathe in their complexity and feel like they could walk out of the book fully formed.
I love a good flawed character and/or unreliable narrator, and Gould's characters are all struggling, with upending lives that are on the fast track to unwelcomed change. From the trucker to the amateur arsonist, the reader will meet a cast of characters they won't forget.
I also love how the author braids wry humor into each story.
This collection of stories is a gem of Southern literature. I heartily recommend this book for readers who enjoy character-driven fiction, short stories, Southern fiction, wry humor, and flawed protagonists who go to the extreme in their lives. This book would be great as part of a short-story writing class as well.
I love a good flawed character and/or unreliable narrator, and Gould's characters are all struggling, with upending lives that are on the fast track to unwelcomed change. From the trucker to the amateur arsonist, the reader will meet a cast of characters they won't forget.
I also love how the author braids wry humor into each story.
This collection of stories is a gem of Southern literature. I heartily recommend this book for readers who enjoy character-driven fiction, short stories, Southern fiction, wry humor, and flawed protagonists who go to the extreme in their lives. This book would be great as part of a short-story writing class as well.
September 1, 2023
Scott Gould’s “Idiot Men” is an intrepid collection of short tales. The author’s style is thoroughly engaging, full of wit and sly humor, reminiscent of the brilliant Sam Shepard. I particularly liked the stories told in the first person. They are totally engaging, giving the reader the feeling of walking along side of these fascinating personalities as they grapple with situations seemingly beyond their control. It’s a complete joy to spend time with these characters. One finishes the book feeling that they have accumulated a completely new reservoir of close friends. Highly recommended.
February 17, 2024
Great collection of short stories with an apt title. Each story is unique, clever, funny, and often brutal. The idiot men are flawed, selfish, and dangerous while remaining, somewhat unfortunately, grounded and relatable.
November 7, 2023
Enjoy reading short stories that just grabs my attention... when I read these short stories , I definitely felt the name of the book fits!! My emotions were definitely all over the place..
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews