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Pinkies: Stories
In Shane Hinton's debut collection, gritty Florida realism collides with the absurd, and paternal fears materialize in surreal scenarios. A young Shane Hinton catalogs his dead pets. A father-to-be Shane Hinton combats roving pythons in the suburbs. Yet another Shane Hinton throws a barbecue for all the Shane Hintons he's met on the Internet and fears his wife might leave him for one.
Hinton, a father of three, inserts himself into these fictions as a way of confronting personal anxieties. ''It's cliché to say that one thinks of writing as therapy,'' he says, ''but I think these stories represent an exorcism of intrusive thoughts.''
In ''Intersection,'' a father struggles to protect his frightened family from cars that keep crashing into their home, while in ''Driving School'' he's imagined as a vehicular menace. ''Fumes'' portrays a father crippled by a rabid dog, bedridden and unable to play catch with his son or help his wife pay the ever-growing medical bills.
A sharp commentary on the mundanity and absurdity of modern life, Hinton's stories explore the horrors of death, abandonment and insurance agents with spare prose and deadpan humor. The world of Pinkies is a terrifying and hilarious introduction to an unflinching new voice.
Hinton, a father of three, inserts himself into these fictions as a way of confronting personal anxieties. ''It's cliché to say that one thinks of writing as therapy,'' he says, ''but I think these stories represent an exorcism of intrusive thoughts.''
In ''Intersection,'' a father struggles to protect his frightened family from cars that keep crashing into their home, while in ''Driving School'' he's imagined as a vehicular menace. ''Fumes'' portrays a father crippled by a rabid dog, bedridden and unable to play catch with his son or help his wife pay the ever-growing medical bills.
A sharp commentary on the mundanity and absurdity of modern life, Hinton's stories explore the horrors of death, abandonment and insurance agents with spare prose and deadpan humor. The world of Pinkies is a terrifying and hilarious introduction to an unflinching new voice.
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
120 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2015
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91 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
May 1, 2015
Kind of reminds me of when reading short stories was a fun and weird experience. These stories are like humid dreams where everything is just a little blurry and off. A great debut.
July 18, 2015
I wish I had written this book. The stories are absurd, bizarre, funny, sad, and poignant. Shane Hinton is a writer to admire.
May 12, 2015
Two stories into "Pinkies," and I realized that while I wanted to devour this book on the spot, I couldn't bring myself to do it -- that's how much these off-kilter, sometimes downright gross, often hilarious stories pack a punch. This collection is the very definition of how the experience of short-story-reading differs from that of the novel. Read one or two at a sitting, savor, absorb, maybe leave it for a few days, then get hungry and go back again. Rarely do I finding myself laughing out loud and welling up with pleasure while reading. Yet I found myself doing so countless times with this book. Here's one of the lines, from the story, "Self-Cleaning": "There are times in your life when you realize the biggest obstacle between you and your dreams is your teeth." Time and again, I found myself envious of not only his premises and embodiment of this weird place we call Florida, but his prose. And first lines? Holy hell, does this guy know how to open a story. "Carol felt too much hair between her legs." "Seventy-five percent of America's trash gets exported right here, out of Tampa Bay," the cop said to me, his leather shoe on my neck, pushing my face down into a paper bag full of liquefied fried chicken."
This review may sound more blurby than critical, but that's how excited I am about this book. Hinton is one hell of a writer to admire, and learn from. And that's the highest praise I can offer.
This review may sound more blurby than critical, but that's how excited I am about this book. Hinton is one hell of a writer to admire, and learn from. And that's the highest praise I can offer.
August 26, 2015
Shane Hinton has a bit of Jon Konrath in him, or maybe Jon has a bit of Shane in him. Or maybe they both have a bit of someone I have yet to read in them both. But this collection shows that Hinton has an eye and ear for the absurd in daily life, though he ventures into the speculative more than Konrath does. And I only mention Konrath because I found myself chugging NyQuil Cough formula like it was soda the other day and ended up having a bad dream about that infant-mouse-covered snake on the front of this book. In my dream the snake had charmed the mice like a sort of reptilian Charles Manson and they were ready to do his bidding, except I also think the snake was female. A lot of it I’ve forgotten, which is probably a good thing. But I did have the nightmare. That much I do know.
Before I begin to discuss this book in earnest, I want to mention that there is some interesting meta going on in this collection, and meta I have seen in other books recently. I don’t think it’s happening enough to call it a trend, but this summer I managed to read three books wherein the characters were named for the authors. Hank Kirton named a couple of characters in his short story collection Bleak Holiday after himself. Brian Whitney’s Raping the Gods sports a protagonist named Brian Whitney, which may be because the book is autobiographical (and I am afraid to find out if it is indeed autobiographical). And every male protagonist in Pinkies is Shane Hinton. One story boasts dozens of Shane Hintons.
I can feel the desire to go on at extraordinary lengths rising up because I genuinely enjoyed this collection, so I’m going to limit myself to the stories I liked best. Every story works on some level – there wasn’t a clunker to be found – but I decided to limit myself to four of the sixteen stories in this slim volume. Let us all cross our fingers that such a measure keeps my verbosity more or less in check, but I think it’s safe to say this is going to be very long, because this is a good collection and because this is the first book review on Odd Things Considered and I feel self-indulgent with celebratory bookishness.
The first story I want to share is “All the Shane Hintons.” In this story, Shane Hinton is concerned that his wife regrets her choice in Shane Hintons and wants to be married to one of several more successful or good-looking Shane Hintons. He sends all the Shane Hintons he can find a questionnaire:
Do you realize that your initials are the same as the first two letters of your first name?
Do people always call you Sean? How do you respond?
Has my wife tried to contact you?
Of course I trust my wife, but sometimes it’s good to make sure.
Shane Hinton sends a five dollar check enclosed with the questionnaire to the Shane Hinton who is a “charity marathon organizer in Tennessee.” That Shane Hinton replies to the questionnaire:
“About six months ago, your wife sent a check for twenty dollars. People always call me Sean. It kind of hurts my feelings.”
You can read the rest of my extremely verbose discussion over on Odd Things Considered.
Before I begin to discuss this book in earnest, I want to mention that there is some interesting meta going on in this collection, and meta I have seen in other books recently. I don’t think it’s happening enough to call it a trend, but this summer I managed to read three books wherein the characters were named for the authors. Hank Kirton named a couple of characters in his short story collection Bleak Holiday after himself. Brian Whitney’s Raping the Gods sports a protagonist named Brian Whitney, which may be because the book is autobiographical (and I am afraid to find out if it is indeed autobiographical). And every male protagonist in Pinkies is Shane Hinton. One story boasts dozens of Shane Hintons.
I can feel the desire to go on at extraordinary lengths rising up because I genuinely enjoyed this collection, so I’m going to limit myself to the stories I liked best. Every story works on some level – there wasn’t a clunker to be found – but I decided to limit myself to four of the sixteen stories in this slim volume. Let us all cross our fingers that such a measure keeps my verbosity more or less in check, but I think it’s safe to say this is going to be very long, because this is a good collection and because this is the first book review on Odd Things Considered and I feel self-indulgent with celebratory bookishness.
The first story I want to share is “All the Shane Hintons.” In this story, Shane Hinton is concerned that his wife regrets her choice in Shane Hintons and wants to be married to one of several more successful or good-looking Shane Hintons. He sends all the Shane Hintons he can find a questionnaire:
Do you realize that your initials are the same as the first two letters of your first name?
Do people always call you Sean? How do you respond?
Has my wife tried to contact you?
Of course I trust my wife, but sometimes it’s good to make sure.
Shane Hinton sends a five dollar check enclosed with the questionnaire to the Shane Hinton who is a “charity marathon organizer in Tennessee.” That Shane Hinton replies to the questionnaire:
“About six months ago, your wife sent a check for twenty dollars. People always call me Sean. It kind of hurts my feelings.”
You can read the rest of my extremely verbose discussion over on Odd Things Considered.
June 14, 2015
There’s a wonderfully dark precision to these stories. Columns of simple declarative sentences march the reader into the absurdities of rural Florida, where cars and bodies come crashing through houses, pythons prey on children, and misplaced lawnmower keys turn up in cysts. Hinton doesn’t waste the reader’s time; the stories are efficient, short, and fast-paced without ever feeling rushed. You could read the entire book in a couple of hours, except that the many surprising little explosions are best savored one at a time and replayed in slow-mo. If you want to see why the indie press world is so important to the present and future of contemporary lit, this book is an excellent place to start.
October 13, 2015
This was the worst book I ever read. Horribly stupid!
July 23, 2020
These short stories were deeply weird and surreal and unexpected, and I loved going into each one having absolutely no idea what would transpire. A very unique and thoughtful read!
December 15, 2019
The dark humor is witty, thick, and delicious.
May 18, 2016
the freedom and imagination with which he writes is so unique, this collection felt really fresh. i would have written it off as too bizarre if it weren't for his impeccable timing and storytelling. a fun book, though I had to pace myself in order to be ready for the inevitable twists into the absurd and the quirky bits.
"Central Florida is full of retirees. They come here for the sun, because who wants to die in the middle of a blizzard? The snow muffles sound, so nobody can even hear your last words. Down here, everyone can hear you scream. Also, we have a vibrant shuffleboard community."
"Central Florida is full of retirees. They come here for the sun, because who wants to die in the middle of a blizzard? The snow muffles sound, so nobody can even hear your last words. Down here, everyone can hear you scream. Also, we have a vibrant shuffleboard community."
July 26, 2015
These hyper realistic short stories are the scent of lightning in an upcoming storm. The hot rain distorting the sun, Hinton's novel, certain to appear from the intensity and purpose of these stories, will be the calm petrichor that comforts the isolation of zany southern citizenship. The alligators vacating sewers, smoking cigarettes and dragging limbs across the lonely interstate 75.
June 20, 2016
This collection is subtly poignant, capturing the ridiculous through the mundane interactions with others. It extends the WebMD cancer-conclusion-compulsion and takes your worst nightmares to a level you'd never imagine. The kind of weird that makes your weird feel normal as the nausea takes hold goading you into laughing at awful and gross situations.
May 27, 2018
Read this book. Please. Nearly every story streamed tears of joy down my face. For those of you who find it harder and harder to provide the world with your genuine laughter in your old age, read this book. It feels so good to feel the need to hold your laughter because you’re afraid onlookers won’t believe anything is that funny. This book scratched things I didn’t know itched.
November 25, 2015
I liked these stories. The writing is solid and the touch of weirdness is good. "All the Shane Hintons" is probably my favorite of the bunch, "Self-Cleaning" probably second, but I had a good time reading each.
April 3, 2019
Can I give this thing 6 stars? This book changed me on an elemental level.
December 3, 2015
Fantastic. "Low Octane" is about as perfect a short story as I've read.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews