States of Grace

by Stephen Graham Jones

Fiction. Native American Studies. Stephen Graham Jones' first collection of flash fiction, STATES OF GRACE, is aptly named: these stories balance drama, play, and puissance, like forty-nine high-wire feats. While some stories arc through the briefest moments and interstices, others seem to examine an entire lifetime in a page. There are alcoholic fathers, definitions of infidelity, conversations in the middle of the ocean, murder, plotting murder, polite murder, shooting fish in a barrel, sons, and daughters. Never predictable, from the real to the surreal; there's no knowing what to expect from an attempt at a state of grace.

Genres: Indigenous, Fiction, Short Stories

120 pages, Paperback

First published February 26, 2014

About the author

Stephen Graham Jones is the NYT bestselling author thirty-five or so books. He really likes werewolves and slashers. Favorite novels change daily, but Valis and Love Medicine and Lonesome Dove and It and The Things They Carried are all usually up there somewhere. Stephen lives in Boulder, Colorado. It's a big change from the West Texas he grew up in.

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the things I like about Jones' style is his unique way of turning a phrase, seeing a scene, or creating his atmosphere in just a few words or sentences. States of Grace is a collection of short-short stories (the longest one in this collection runs just five pages), which gives him ample time to show off that unique talent, over and over again.

This isn't an easy book to find, but for anyone who likes his style, it's well worth the effort to track it down.

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful little book filled with micro-short stories. It's just astounding to me how Jones is able to tell a full narrative in such small literal spaces. But he does. And these tastes or maybe peeks into the brief moments of these characters are stunning and gorgeous and so intriguing. So much emotion captured but not in a showy, overdone way. Actually, it's all very quiet and perfect.

You'll sit down with this tiny book of tiny stories and blink and you'll be through them all. That's okay! You can go back and reread and still blink and be done.

I don't want to scare off any non-writers off with my next comment. But this is definitely a book for writers. However, it's easy to stop paying attention to how Jones crafts these shorts, when the stops are so compelling; so be aware. Pay attention. And also allow yourself to fall in. And enjoy!

[Dana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jones' writing is always conversational in tone. One feels as though they are sitting with a master storyteller, sharing his horrific tales first hand.

But short stories are where you feel like you're getting little glimpses of SGJ's brain, his genius and his madness. If I were stranded on a desert island with his short fiction, I could read them again and again and again, and still learn something new each time. The gift that keeps on giving...

[Jeff Wait · Rating 4 out of 5]

First off, shoutout to my library for tracking down a copy of this book. All the way from Maine!

There’s some real gems in here. Lots of great stories that pack a punch in a tiny package. I might have to reread some to better understand them, but overall, the ones I understood rocked!

[_ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stephen's closest contending with prose poems. With impressionist swirls. Yeah painterly.

[LitReactor]

After examining the facts for eight-odd years, in which both his wife and his job fell away like a second, unnecessary skin he’d never even known he had, Rick finally decided that it had been obvious, really, and, being not just rational but bound by the smallest of indicators, he had no choice but to admit that that day he’d taken his four-year old son to the beach it had, yes, been almost solely to have him dragged out by a shark.

—From “Seafood”

The above sentence is but one example of SGJ’s literary prowess. That is, in fact, the first sentence of “Seafood,” and all his hooks go that way. For instance, the next story in the collection, “Cops & Robbers,” begins thusly: “My wife’s glasses were driving her crazy, so before too long she started killing people in quiet ways.” Words can’t really express the genius of a line like that. It works more like a painting—a vast visual expression that you stand back and absorb as a whole, rather than pick apart and micro-analyze. And this is the case with every word in the book.

While there are certainly stories that stood out more than others (the aforementioned “The Piano Thief,” “Seafood,” “Cobs & Robbers,” as well as “The Sadness Of Two People Meeting In A Bar,” “Bulletproof,” “Dirty Sanchez,” “Backsplash,” “The Bridge,” “Easy Money,” and last but certainly not least, the title story were personal favorites), there really aren’t any all-out stinkers here. Because this is a collection of flash fiction, States of Grace is a lightning-fast read, and yet each piece feels as fleshed-out and dense as a novel, with SGJ often spanning decades and a wide range of emotions in no time flat. You’re probably familiar with Stephen Graham Jones if you frequent this site, but if not, this is a good place to start.

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Review by Christopher Shultz

Check out more from this review at LitReactor (http://litreactor.com/reviews/booksho...)!

[Sarah Read · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the perfect book to keep in my purse and pocket. Great for the few minutes here and there, bits of stolen time, where you desperately need to read and make a connection to a character or another world for a moment, but you only have two minutes till you’re at the front of the line/the bell rings/break is over/the phone is going to ring/the killer leaps out of the bushes. Dr. Jones fits a whole world onto a single, small page. And there are enough layers in each short, short story to keep you thinking about it for the rest of the day. These stories are like concentrated, medicinal doses of literary impact. Take two and call me in the morning.