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HONKY: stories
From COWBOY JAMBOREE PRESS
good grit lit.
Praise for BENJAMIN DREVLOW and HONKY
"The late, great Lewis Nordan assured our geographies made us, and I have a feeling Benjamin Drevlow would agree. The risky endeavors connecting the stories of Honky chart geographies from Northernass Wisconsin and the longings of a white boy with heroes like Air Jordan, Tupac, and Biggie to Southernass Georgia with that grown up boy trying to do right in a world he struggles to comprehend. Hot damn, Drevlow is on to something genuine, with prose so pure I guarantee you’ll fly through these pages so you can start all over again."
– Tom Williams, author of Among the Wild Mulattos and Other Stories
"Like all vital work, Honky raises about the nature of white American masculinity, about the choices we make for or against our upbringings. Drevlow’s work alternates between the crude, the touching, and the hilarious. If it were up to me, I’d name Drevlow the poet laureate of Northernass Wisconsin."
– Leland Cheuk, author of No Good Very Bad Asian
"In his new collection of linked short stories, Benjamin Drevlow creates a persona, a a bumbling white guy named Ben Drevlow who is over-eager to be accepted by the Black people in his life—on the basketball court, at work, in his neighborhood—but who also has an uncanny knack for faux pas that often gets in the way. The Ben Drevlow of Honky is a welcome counter to the aggrieved white guy trope we've had to suffer through for the last decade, actually for basically forever. He seeks acceptance, belonging, connection, and when he doesn't always get what he wants he doesn't turn to anger. He has the awareness to recognize not everything is about himself. He's always trying to be a good person, and always aware that he's not always as good a person as he wants to be, but he never stops trying, and that's the thing that makes him good, because the world is full of people who do stop trying. These stories are funny, absurd, heart-wrenching, sometimes cringe-worthy, but they're also real and filled with respect and introspection. Benjamin Drevlow writes his heart out."
– Alan Good, Malarkey Books and author of The Sun Still Shines on a Dog’s Ass
"Benjamin Drevlow writes, 'White guilt can be a powerful motivating factor in proving you’re not racist like your neighbors.' The moment encapsulates a lot of what Honky is about when it comes to well-meaning white people, performative anti-racist sentiments, and the complexities of navigating interpersonal relationships. More than an allegory or politicized rant, this collection is unapologetically blunt in using tools like basketball and hip-hop to give the reader much more food for thought than the narrator himself can digest. Honky is not for the faint of heart but it is a book that should go on the reading list of anyone interested in developing empathy, celebrating grit, and getting in a few good laughs along the way."
– Michael Chin, author of This Year’s Ghost and My Grandfather’s an Immigrant, and So Is Yours
"Honky is a tour de force. It is at once investigative and deeply personal. Often asking the hard questions directed/targeted at oneself, one’s whiteness, at Drevlow’s history and/or coming-of-age. In the same way Crew’s A Childhood turned the pen inwards, so does Drevlow's Honky.
good grit lit.
Praise for BENJAMIN DREVLOW and HONKY
"The late, great Lewis Nordan assured our geographies made us, and I have a feeling Benjamin Drevlow would agree. The risky endeavors connecting the stories of Honky chart geographies from Northernass Wisconsin and the longings of a white boy with heroes like Air Jordan, Tupac, and Biggie to Southernass Georgia with that grown up boy trying to do right in a world he struggles to comprehend. Hot damn, Drevlow is on to something genuine, with prose so pure I guarantee you’ll fly through these pages so you can start all over again."
– Tom Williams, author of Among the Wild Mulattos and Other Stories
"Like all vital work, Honky raises about the nature of white American masculinity, about the choices we make for or against our upbringings. Drevlow’s work alternates between the crude, the touching, and the hilarious. If it were up to me, I’d name Drevlow the poet laureate of Northernass Wisconsin."
– Leland Cheuk, author of No Good Very Bad Asian
"In his new collection of linked short stories, Benjamin Drevlow creates a persona, a a bumbling white guy named Ben Drevlow who is over-eager to be accepted by the Black people in his life—on the basketball court, at work, in his neighborhood—but who also has an uncanny knack for faux pas that often gets in the way. The Ben Drevlow of Honky is a welcome counter to the aggrieved white guy trope we've had to suffer through for the last decade, actually for basically forever. He seeks acceptance, belonging, connection, and when he doesn't always get what he wants he doesn't turn to anger. He has the awareness to recognize not everything is about himself. He's always trying to be a good person, and always aware that he's not always as good a person as he wants to be, but he never stops trying, and that's the thing that makes him good, because the world is full of people who do stop trying. These stories are funny, absurd, heart-wrenching, sometimes cringe-worthy, but they're also real and filled with respect and introspection. Benjamin Drevlow writes his heart out."
– Alan Good, Malarkey Books and author of The Sun Still Shines on a Dog’s Ass
"Benjamin Drevlow writes, 'White guilt can be a powerful motivating factor in proving you’re not racist like your neighbors.' The moment encapsulates a lot of what Honky is about when it comes to well-meaning white people, performative anti-racist sentiments, and the complexities of navigating interpersonal relationships. More than an allegory or politicized rant, this collection is unapologetically blunt in using tools like basketball and hip-hop to give the reader much more food for thought than the narrator himself can digest. Honky is not for the faint of heart but it is a book that should go on the reading list of anyone interested in developing empathy, celebrating grit, and getting in a few good laughs along the way."
– Michael Chin, author of This Year’s Ghost and My Grandfather’s an Immigrant, and So Is Yours
"Honky is a tour de force. It is at once investigative and deeply personal. Often asking the hard questions directed/targeted at oneself, one’s whiteness, at Drevlow’s history and/or coming-of-age. In the same way Crew’s A Childhood turned the pen inwards, so does Drevlow's Honky.
195 pages, Paperback
Published August 10, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 2, 2025
Benjamin Drevlow's rude and pissy collection of short stories Honky is divided into II PARTS, NORTHERNASS WISCONSIN and SOUTHERNASS GEORGIA, and begins, 'I was born in a doublewide out near the barrens.' I do not know where these particular barrens are, but the last time I was in a bar in Barron County, Wisconsin I had to fight my way out. Me, a white man. We were city slickers, foreigners, the other, and not just not welcome in northernass redneck shitcreek Wisconsin, but promptly expelled under threat of violence.
Now imagine being a black man up there. I for one can not, but Drevlow's obsession with white privilege, and his white characters' clumsy behavior around all of the black people they meet, which he pushes to The Gods Must Be Crazy levels of hysterical slapstick, is central to the collection. I do not think there is any big moral or even driving point to these tales, except just things be effed up racially in northernass, southernass America.
This is now my favorite book of Rusty: highly readable, accessible story by story, these are tales worth pondering, funny and slightly tragic, a maturer version of the Drevlow we know and love, insofar as that is possible.
Now imagine being a black man up there. I for one can not, but Drevlow's obsession with white privilege, and his white characters' clumsy behavior around all of the black people they meet, which he pushes to The Gods Must Be Crazy levels of hysterical slapstick, is central to the collection. I do not think there is any big moral or even driving point to these tales, except just things be effed up racially in northernass, southernass America.
This is now my favorite book of Rusty: highly readable, accessible story by story, these are tales worth pondering, funny and slightly tragic, a maturer version of the Drevlow we know and love, insofar as that is possible.
November 18, 2024
Benjamin Drevlow sets the tone for his collection of short stories, Honky: stories, at the end of his first story: “I have nothing but stories to tell you, some of them true, the stories you’ll never hear from anybody but me.”
What follows are slices of the narrator’s life, situational stories which spin the worst aspects of society: bullying, racism, prostitution, alcoholism, homelessness, homophobia and generational trauma to name a few. In each situation, Drelow achieves what most writers hope for — a narrative which surprises, inspires, and exposes darker topics with humor woven in. Understated, absurd, on-point humor. Situations so ludicrous that they seem unbelievable and yet the details included authenticate the experience.
His stories are interlaced with pop culture references — Barbie, rap music and its icons, basketball, film stars like Woody Harrelson, and fast food restaurants—all of which make each story relatable. He writes in a self-deprecating, brash, and tender style that engages readers who may not be familiar with its subject matter or may understand it all too well.
Content about race relations and the desire to do the right thing.
“White guilt can be a powerful motivating factor in proving you’re not racist like your neighbors.”
Or the conflict of wanting to be a feminist but caught up in thinking like a ‘traditional male.’
“But then it’s a tricky thing: being a feminist and an ally to women willing to do what some would sexistly call women’s work.”
And you may pause at this question: “Am I the main character here? A question for history to answer.” Isn’t that a question we all ask ourselves?
It’s been some time since I hurried through pages eager to read a story’s ending and then feel sad when I’ve reached it. That’s what happened today when I reached Honky: stories end.
What follows are slices of the narrator’s life, situational stories which spin the worst aspects of society: bullying, racism, prostitution, alcoholism, homelessness, homophobia and generational trauma to name a few. In each situation, Drelow achieves what most writers hope for — a narrative which surprises, inspires, and exposes darker topics with humor woven in. Understated, absurd, on-point humor. Situations so ludicrous that they seem unbelievable and yet the details included authenticate the experience.
His stories are interlaced with pop culture references — Barbie, rap music and its icons, basketball, film stars like Woody Harrelson, and fast food restaurants—all of which make each story relatable. He writes in a self-deprecating, brash, and tender style that engages readers who may not be familiar with its subject matter or may understand it all too well.
Content about race relations and the desire to do the right thing.
“White guilt can be a powerful motivating factor in proving you’re not racist like your neighbors.”
Or the conflict of wanting to be a feminist but caught up in thinking like a ‘traditional male.’
“But then it’s a tricky thing: being a feminist and an ally to women willing to do what some would sexistly call women’s work.”
And you may pause at this question: “Am I the main character here? A question for history to answer.” Isn’t that a question we all ask ourselves?
It’s been some time since I hurried through pages eager to read a story’s ending and then feel sad when I’ve reached it. That’s what happened today when I reached Honky: stories end.
January 31, 2025
Benjamin Drevlow’s HONKY came out in August, 2024 from Cowboy Jamboree Press. I got a copy from the author in late fall, 2024, to read and possibly review. The Holidays cramped my schedule, but read it I did (along with PRAISE FOR THE SWAYZE) and I’m better for it.
HONKY - What a read.
HONKY - What a collection of stories.
HONKY - What an array of coming-of-age-for-decades tales from a perennial, everyman misfit seemingly born to fit right in. Born on the white side of the tracks. The good side of town. The right room in the right hospital. Where white boys are born to succeed because, well, they just are. The Honky in this book was born with an ability to play decent (great?) basketball, a gift that eludes this reviewer to this day. An athletic ability that seemed to have brought the protag little peace, only a closer proximity to the young black males the protag’s school, coaches and town choose to overlook; another layer of a skewed system that eats away at the young man throughout his life.
Stories of a white kid born on the right side of town who’s perpetually uneasy with the dissonance that defines his existence.
The idea of today’s middle aged white guys having grown up in an overtly/subtly/quietly/loudly racist family or community is not unique. Many of those men may have never noticed, and that’s life. But Drevlow gives voice in HONKY to those who noticed. Everyday heterosexual boys and men who, from boyhood, ask themselves at night: do they really to fit in? Are they normal? How can things be the way they’re explained when the evidence is screamingly to the contrary? And, worst of all, would they measure up as ‘a man’ fast enough if the wrong challenge lands at an inopportune time? Familiar questions to many of us.
HONKY is a gritty, realistic yet poetic look at life in middle class and blue collar, white America.
I recommend you read it. I'm glad I did - glad Drevlow wrote it!
4.5 Stars.
HONKY - What a read.
HONKY - What a collection of stories.
HONKY - What an array of coming-of-age-for-decades tales from a perennial, everyman misfit seemingly born to fit right in. Born on the white side of the tracks. The good side of town. The right room in the right hospital. Where white boys are born to succeed because, well, they just are. The Honky in this book was born with an ability to play decent (great?) basketball, a gift that eludes this reviewer to this day. An athletic ability that seemed to have brought the protag little peace, only a closer proximity to the young black males the protag’s school, coaches and town choose to overlook; another layer of a skewed system that eats away at the young man throughout his life.
Stories of a white kid born on the right side of town who’s perpetually uneasy with the dissonance that defines his existence.
The idea of today’s middle aged white guys having grown up in an overtly/subtly/quietly/loudly racist family or community is not unique. Many of those men may have never noticed, and that’s life. But Drevlow gives voice in HONKY to those who noticed. Everyday heterosexual boys and men who, from boyhood, ask themselves at night: do they really to fit in? Are they normal? How can things be the way they’re explained when the evidence is screamingly to the contrary? And, worst of all, would they measure up as ‘a man’ fast enough if the wrong challenge lands at an inopportune time? Familiar questions to many of us.
HONKY is a gritty, realistic yet poetic look at life in middle class and blue collar, white America.
I recommend you read it. I'm glad I did - glad Drevlow wrote it!
4.5 Stars.
August 12, 2024
A unique American voice and a pleasure to read. These linked stories about a boy from "Northernass Wisconsin" navigating small town life as a guy that doesn't quite fit in, his place in a family characterized by strength and tragedy, and his broader odyssey in the racially diverse Americas beyond his horizon are in turn fascinating, funny, upsetting, and touching. Drevlow brings authenticity to his straight-shooting prose and characters. Its themes and ideas, like much of its pathos and humor, sneak up on you. You can't and shouldn't ignore that Drevlow is also the publisher of BULL, an excellent literary magazine. Package his accomplishments with HONKY with his other work and recognize him as a valuable literary treasure.
December 2, 2024
In Honky, Drevlow manages to strip himself of all airs and lay himself bare in front of an audience. It is raw and genuine with prose that allows you to access him and his struggles with navigating whiteness and masculinity and white masculinity. He is open and honest in his assessment of himself and his shortcomings. He is self-deprecating and at times self-loathing. There is humor and there are tender, touching moments. An absolutely wonderful read.
May 13, 2025
I'm very glad I read this book. These stories are a mix of trauma, humor, and pathos. Most of all, they are authentic. If there's a through line in the stories, it's that Ben cares about others and puts himself through some terrible situations as a result.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews