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Sex World
Ron Koertge eagerly tries his talented hand at Flash Fiction. In “BFF,” a teenage girl from the near-future orders friends from Amazon. A few pages later, a robot who travels what is left of the world and observes through “well-engineered eyes” claims that the sound of turbines is his lullaby. A fed-up daughter finds a foolproof way to do away with her awful mother, while in “Jesus Dog” a mysterious animal helps a broken man recover. A page from Lois Lane’s diary reveals a shocking secret. Many mothers and daughters will see themselves in Ron’s version of the Persephone & Demeter story. Readers are ushered aboard a mysterious train and later invited to listen in as a teacher chats with a peculiar student named Oliver Oliver. A distant relative of Leda takes her boyfriend to the arboretum with grisly results, and Mr. Weenie tells his daughter how he and her mother met. “Sex World,” the title story, turns out to not be about sex at all, but heartbreak. In these and dozens more, Ron lives up to his reputation as someone who is funny the way the truly serious often are.
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
112 pages, Paperback
First published September 16, 2014
1 person is currently reading
70 people want to read
About the author
Ron Koertge
71 books103 followersAsk Ron Koertge what he brings to the realm of young adult fiction, and the seasoned author responds matter-of-factly. "I write dialogue well, and I'm funny," he says--an assessment few would argue with. "I like iconoclasm and practice it in my fiction. I don't like pretense or hypocrisy. I'm almost always irreverent."
A faculty member for more than 35 years at Pasadena City College, where he has taught everything from Shakespeare to remedial writing, Ron Koertge is the author of several acclaimed novels, most of them for young adults. That Ron Koertge is a master at capturing teenagers' voices--often in witty repartee--is fully evident in MARGAUX WITH AN X, the story of a sharp-tongued beauty and a quirky, quick-witted loner. "MARGAUX WITH AN X started as a short story, but the heroine wouldn't let me alone," the author says. "She had a story to tell, and she wanted a whole novel to tell it in." Another unlikely pairing is found in STONER & SPAZ, Ron Koertge's funny, in-your-face tale of a young cinephile with cerebral palsy and the stoner who steals his heart. "My wife works with the disabled," the writer says of his inspiration for the novel, which quickly garnered critical acclaim. "One night she came home and told me about a young man she'd been working with. He had C.P. and a terrific sense of humor. Coincidentally, that day I had talked to a former student of mine who'd recently been in rehab for substance abuse. What would happen, I wondered, if those two knew each other?"
In addition to his young adult novels, Ron Koertge writes poetry, and has been dubbed "the wisest, most entertaining wiseguy in American poetry" by poet-laureate Billy Collins. SHAKESPEARE BATS CLEANUP is narrated by a straight-talking, fourteen-year-old first baseman who has been benched by mono and decides to take a swing at writing poetry. Written entirely in free verse, with examples of several poetic forms slipped into the mix--including a sonnet, haiku, pastoral, and even a pantoum--SHAKESPEARE BATS CLEANUP is a veritable English teacher's dream. "The interest in SHAKESPEARE BATS CLEANUP is less with the arc of the plot than with the individual poems, some of which demonstrate poetic form, some of which tell the story," the author says. "One of my biggest challenges was to write like a fourteen-year-old who has a knack for writing poetry, and not just sound like a sixty-one-year-old pretending to be one!"
The author's first book with Candlewick, THE BRIMSTONE JOURNALS, is also a novel written in free verse, with 15 different teenage characters narrating four or five poems each. "The book started to nag me a few months before the shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado, and I started to make notes in the form of poems," he says of the hauntingly prescient work. "BRIMSTONE needed to move at high velocity, and this form is perfect for that: no tail fins, no leather seats, no moon roof. Just get in and go."
Ron Koertge grew up in an agricultural area in an old mining town in Illinois, just across the Mississippi from St. Louis, Missouri. There he learned to "drive a tractor and buck hay bales, which are clearly useful skills in Los Angeles," he quips. He and his wife live in South Pasadena, California.
A faculty member for more than 35 years at Pasadena City College, where he has taught everything from Shakespeare to remedial writing, Ron Koertge is the author of several acclaimed novels, most of them for young adults. That Ron Koertge is a master at capturing teenagers' voices--often in witty repartee--is fully evident in MARGAUX WITH AN X, the story of a sharp-tongued beauty and a quirky, quick-witted loner. "MARGAUX WITH AN X started as a short story, but the heroine wouldn't let me alone," the author says. "She had a story to tell, and she wanted a whole novel to tell it in." Another unlikely pairing is found in STONER & SPAZ, Ron Koertge's funny, in-your-face tale of a young cinephile with cerebral palsy and the stoner who steals his heart. "My wife works with the disabled," the writer says of his inspiration for the novel, which quickly garnered critical acclaim. "One night she came home and told me about a young man she'd been working with. He had C.P. and a terrific sense of humor. Coincidentally, that day I had talked to a former student of mine who'd recently been in rehab for substance abuse. What would happen, I wondered, if those two knew each other?"
In addition to his young adult novels, Ron Koertge writes poetry, and has been dubbed "the wisest, most entertaining wiseguy in American poetry" by poet-laureate Billy Collins. SHAKESPEARE BATS CLEANUP is narrated by a straight-talking, fourteen-year-old first baseman who has been benched by mono and decides to take a swing at writing poetry. Written entirely in free verse, with examples of several poetic forms slipped into the mix--including a sonnet, haiku, pastoral, and even a pantoum--SHAKESPEARE BATS CLEANUP is a veritable English teacher's dream. "The interest in SHAKESPEARE BATS CLEANUP is less with the arc of the plot than with the individual poems, some of which demonstrate poetic form, some of which tell the story," the author says. "One of my biggest challenges was to write like a fourteen-year-old who has a knack for writing poetry, and not just sound like a sixty-one-year-old pretending to be one!"
The author's first book with Candlewick, THE BRIMSTONE JOURNALS, is also a novel written in free verse, with 15 different teenage characters narrating four or five poems each. "The book started to nag me a few months before the shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado, and I started to make notes in the form of poems," he says of the hauntingly prescient work. "BRIMSTONE needed to move at high velocity, and this form is perfect for that: no tail fins, no leather seats, no moon roof. Just get in and go."
Ron Koertge grew up in an agricultural area in an old mining town in Illinois, just across the Mississippi from St. Louis, Missouri. There he learned to "drive a tractor and buck hay bales, which are clearly useful skills in Los Angeles," he quips. He and his wife live in South Pasadena, California.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 3, 2015
What is a story, I wonder, reading Sex World by Ron Koertge. And how the hell do you pronounce Koertge? Sometimes he is a character in his own stories. Ron. Ronnie. Does Ronnie rhyme with Koertge?
These stories are flash fiction. Fifty-six of them, each under 1,000 words. I counted the stories, but not the words. Ronnie’s stories are sometimes whimsical, sometimes ironic, sometimes brutal. I like the brutal ones, like when a man whose father taught him to pack efficiently looks at his father’s coffin and thinks, “Look at all that wasted space.”
Many stories are populated with characters from fairytales or Greek mythology. I think this is cheating, bringing pre-formed characters into flash fiction. These characters carry baggage with them, baggage much heavier than one thousand words. We know the story of Little Red Riding Hood, I don't care what it feels like inside the wolf's belly. We know who the Sirens are, I don’t care to see them trained to sing.
What is a story? We expect characters to change, even if they don’t understand how they’re different. A boy understands his dead mother better by wearing her clothes. Two unloved boys call a sex line and request, simply, a mother, not a MILF. A couple of virgins pretend to have sex, pretend to fight, pretend to break-up, and one of those games comes true. A boy goes hunting with his father and uncle and fears he will one day become them.
Many of these stories are less than a page. Some are not. With those that are longer, I get to the bottom of the page and think, “That’s it? That’s the ending?” But I turn the page and there’s more. I do that a few times. I never learn. Why does the false ending leave me unsatisfied, but the actual ending on the next page feel like closure?
What is an ending? The Jesus-Dog disappears. Lois Lane wears kryptonite as perfume and regrets it. A young teacher considers if his sacrifices are worth it. A father tells his daughter the story of how he met his wife. Now go to sleep.
I turn the page and read another story. Until I read the final story. Then I turn the page. The next page is blank. So is the next one. I am older, if only by an hour.
These stories are flash fiction. Fifty-six of them, each under 1,000 words. I counted the stories, but not the words. Ronnie’s stories are sometimes whimsical, sometimes ironic, sometimes brutal. I like the brutal ones, like when a man whose father taught him to pack efficiently looks at his father’s coffin and thinks, “Look at all that wasted space.”
Many stories are populated with characters from fairytales or Greek mythology. I think this is cheating, bringing pre-formed characters into flash fiction. These characters carry baggage with them, baggage much heavier than one thousand words. We know the story of Little Red Riding Hood, I don't care what it feels like inside the wolf's belly. We know who the Sirens are, I don’t care to see them trained to sing.
What is a story? We expect characters to change, even if they don’t understand how they’re different. A boy understands his dead mother better by wearing her clothes. Two unloved boys call a sex line and request, simply, a mother, not a MILF. A couple of virgins pretend to have sex, pretend to fight, pretend to break-up, and one of those games comes true. A boy goes hunting with his father and uncle and fears he will one day become them.
Many of these stories are less than a page. Some are not. With those that are longer, I get to the bottom of the page and think, “That’s it? That’s the ending?” But I turn the page and there’s more. I do that a few times. I never learn. Why does the false ending leave me unsatisfied, but the actual ending on the next page feel like closure?
What is an ending? The Jesus-Dog disappears. Lois Lane wears kryptonite as perfume and regrets it. A young teacher considers if his sacrifices are worth it. A father tells his daughter the story of how he met his wife. Now go to sleep.
I turn the page and read another story. Until I read the final story. Then I turn the page. The next page is blank. So is the next one. I am older, if only by an hour.
May 20, 2018
Flash fiction. One or two page stories. The provocative title is a great example of how two words tell a story. The actual book isn’t salacious, but filled with a fun mix of stories, some as short as one sentence .
April 4, 2024
Sharp shell with a heart inside.
Love how fast these go and how fast they hold together. The last one got me sitting up straight. Omg Jesus-Dog.
I found it a bit draining (deflating?) to read many of these at once. Because they are so consistently bittersweet (and sad)? Or is it the rapid pace this size of prose? (Don't know.)
Love how fast these go and how fast they hold together. The last one got me sitting up straight. Omg Jesus-Dog.
I found it a bit draining (deflating?) to read many of these at once. Because they are so consistently bittersweet (and sad)? Or is it the rapid pace this size of prose? (Don't know.)
April 26, 2021
An interesting and humorous collection by Koertge who I know primarily as a poet. But this is worthwhile reading also.
August 29, 2014
Fun and creative, an enjoyable spin on the tropes of romance and other relationships in pop culture and classic myth.
January 3, 2015
An absolutely fabulous collection of story/poems. If I were a filmmaker, I'd steal (er, acquire the rights to) about a dozen of these and turn them into treatments. Wonderful stuff.
October 14, 2015
The cover art sold me on this one, but truthfully I only really liked about less than half of the stories.
March 23, 2016
[2016 Reading Challenge: A satirical book]
February 28, 2017
Very, very good. I don't think there's one piece in here that isn't fantastic.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews