How We Do Things Here

by Matt Cashion

218 pages, Paperback

Published February 17, 2026

Reviews

[Jenny Robertson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Matt Cashion's linked short story collection How We Do Things Here is gorgeous, complex, tenderly-rendered and hilarious. Cashion employs multiple narrators to show limitations in the worldview of his flawed protagonist, Marty, a man who "preferred life with headphones" and perpetually disappoints his music professor wife with his inappropriate outbursts and bad decisions. We travel with Marty and his wife, Maria, Southern transplants to the college town of La Crosse, Wisconsin, through time and circumstance, buoyed by Cashion's virtuoso deployment of dialogue, narrative voice, and a tour of life's absurdities in the form of bats, Elvis, the Confederate dead, and a torture museum at the Wisconsin Dells. The stories, individual polished jewels, expose the tragicomedy in the emotional limitations of Midwestern men, the hell of high school reunions, and the prickly relationships adult children have with their aging parents. Cashion allows his characters to rush pell-mell to rock bottom in order to save them from themselves. Even self-absorbed, misanthropic Marty is forced to acknowledge his responsiblity to his neighbors, seeing the human project, "the walking wounded hauling their histories," anew.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

You know that artist from your small town who makes you wanna scream from the rooftops about their undiscovered greatness? That’s Cashion.

This collection of stories has me craving the long-form versions (and their subsequent films, of course).

My personal favorite was “Please Pass the Flotsam”, which, other than learning me two new words, had me shedding a tear for the broken beauty of its characters. This “broken but beautiful” theme recurs through the entire book.

Looking forward to unearthing this review when Cashion hits the big time in the next decade.

[Mookie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd give this six stars if I could. These are stories that drip with authenticity and humor. The side-by-side construction of "What Unites Us" is illuminating and insightful. "Music Appreciation for Dead People" is a gut punch. In these stories, themes of class and place are richly represented. What it means to be a neighbor, a citizen, a wife, a husband, a father.

[David Nash · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wildly funny, beautiful, sad book, which is to say, it is innately human. I am better for reading it. The characters toe the line between intolerable and loveable which is so hard to do, but Matt does it wonderfully.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished reading HOW WE DO THINGS HERE a week or so ago. In my opinion, it gets 5 of 5 💫💫💫💫💫 With the flow, the humor, and the heart that Cashion weaves into this collection, well, it is truly one of my favorites of the year.

[Susan Forrester · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it! I felt the beauty of our everyday broken lives. Funny, compassionate and great music references, especially Bon Iver.

[Patricia Bidar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enthralling! I can't think of the last time I enjoyed a short story collection more!