I Blame Myself But Also You

by Spencer Fleury

A woman seeks out the meaning of an inscrutable note given to her by a man who used her car as an instrument of his own suicide. Two teenage boys discover that the devil has opened a record store in their seedy Florida suburb. A man's obsession with living a minimalist life goes nowhere as the possessions he discards all seem to find their way back to him.



The eleven stories in I Blame Myself But Also You (and other stories) are a little absurd, a little speculative, and a little dark. In them, Fleury repeatedly digs into a handful of universal The search for that one existential totem we expect to fix everything, but that never quite does; the strange, unnerving liminal space between childhood and not-quite-adulthood; the endless struggle to find our place in the world, and the nagging fear that maybe we never will.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

188 pages, Paperback

Published July 2, 2024

About the author

Spencer Fleury has worked as a sailor, copywriter, economics professor and record store clerk, among other disreputable professions. He is the author of the story collection I Blame Myself But Also You and the novel How I'm Spending My Afterlife. He lives in San Francisco.

Reviews

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I apologize to the beginning of this book for not remembering much of it. I’d set it aside after reading the fourth story for reasons I no longer remember, but after I picked it up again, I didn’t want to put it down (though I did, because I read only one story in a collection per night). After remembering that the title story, the first, is from the viewpoint of a woman, I quickly realized that the stories told by or about women were my favorites, including the very real Janine in the final story.

I especially love what I consider the centerpiece story, “Fantastic Atlas,” told by a single mother searching for her young son, a boy with extraordinary artistic capabilities. “Fantastic Atlas” is fantastic in both senses of the word. Several of the other stories are slightly off-kilter too (as far as realism goes, but then again, maybe not that far off from reality at all), including “Controlled Descent.” Told from the alternating viewpoints of a mother and adult daughter, the story is chilling in a way-too-close-for-comfort plot as to the present-day U.S.

[Sheldon Birnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great, wonderful stories!

[David Swisher · Rating 2 out of 5]

The stories in this collection of fiction are all just a bit speculative and a bit odd in most cases. The premises are intriguing and the stories themselves could've been great, but the way they were written felt very flat and uninspired. Maybe it's just me?

Call it 2.5/5 stars

[Deb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eleven short stories, each unique and highly creative. Controlled Descent is dystopian with a shocker of an ending that will stay in my head quite awhile. I Blame Myself But Also You, the first story in the collection, kicks things off with a mundane scene that quickly turns off kilter and careens towards a pleasantly dark and absurdist end. Tube Man, a farcical take on minimalism, was fun and engaging. As a collection, each story is an easy one-sitting read, and each pulls the reader in immediately. Great combination of flavors here, all deliciously imaginative and cleverly composed.

[Teresa Ardrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved these stories, loved this book; I don't have the book close so I can't say anything more concrete than that. What I came up with directly after finishing: "This collection slaps. Weird and human and touching and real and beautiful and sad and and and..."
Read it and find out what the and and and is all about!

[Jesse Milton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb. Haunting.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this short story collection.

It's a beautiful, fun, enjoyable, and deep set of stories. It constantly teeters on the edge of the fantastical without ever quite going over. It veers in unexpected ways.

I thought I had hold of the throughline, but it kept challenging it.

The first four/five stories feel thematically linked. A dive into a kind of mid– (or quarter-) life crisis, Americana-soaked malaise tinged with an insomniac's delirium. Very resonant to me personally and also, I think, universally.

But it doesn't let itself grow repetitive, it goes two directions at once (<--wry reference to one of the stories). It pushes reality just to say, "You want fantastical? I'll show you fantastical can hurt," and then it swerves and pisses all over our childhood desire for magical self-justification, keeping it simmering.

Hard to single out a favorite story. Maybe the title story? Maybe Tube Man? Maybe Fantastic Atlas? Maybe Fancy Gap? Maybe Headbangers' Ball?

I read it all straight through, which is not something I always do with short stories. I often hop around, skip a story or two that isn't clicking for me. This book, though, had real momentum.

Loved it. A great, resonant, timely collection.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

These stories would have turned out well in the hands of lots of writers, but in Fleury's hands, they are sublime. It's like he takes a great story and turns a dial and now you're wondering if the old man who owns the record store in "Headbanger's Ball" is actually the devil. And Fleury knows how to end a story; see "Fantastic Atlas," "Controlled Descent," and "Fight or Flight." Incredible collection, no skips.

[Jeff Bogle · Rating 5 out of 5]

The 11 stories of Spencer Fleury's remarkable I Blame Myself But Also You start surreal but build to a very honest and realistic conclusion, at a kitchen table, with a story ready to be told in the closing piece, Fight or Flight. These are breathtaking stories with characters who you will want to hug, laugh at, scold, and hang out with. Fleury's use of everyday language to create relatable worlds and his clever turns of phrase had me smiling and eagerly reading on. A truly dazzling book.

[Ramsey Hootman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A tight little collection of slice-of-life stories, often edging into the absurd or surreal. A fun read.