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Act Normal: Stories
A new collection of short fiction from the Governor General’s Literary Award-winning author and Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist Greg Hollingshead.
Act Normal is a collection of sharp, new comic stories about sex, art, and the daily risk of having accidents. Highly original, occasionally dark, but always endearing, these stories are filled with characters who are forced to confront strange behaviour in both themselves and others.
In “The Amazing Insult,” a blow to the head in a boating accident increases a woman’s intelligence and alters her sexual orientation. A man flees a rural meditation camp in for a highway bar in “The Retreat,” where he does his best to get to know a Haitian stripper. A depressed carpenter has to take a break from building his client’s fence in “Unbounded.” In “Night Dreams of the Wise,” a man sleeping with the wife of the British Defense Secretary learns, after a particularly wild night, to stop doing foolish things. A cleric is haunted by the revenant of a member of his diocese in “Miss Buffet.” Nominated for a National Magazine Award, “The Drug-Friendly House,” is the story of a man who attempts to befriend a woman living in a house that the neighbourhood association has labelled “drug friendly.”
Intelligent, insightful, humorous, and occasionally bizarre, Act Normal is a masterful return by Hollingshead to the short story form. Set in the treacherous terrain of the everyday, this collection is about the quest to find love and truth in a broken world.
Act Normal is a collection of sharp, new comic stories about sex, art, and the daily risk of having accidents. Highly original, occasionally dark, but always endearing, these stories are filled with characters who are forced to confront strange behaviour in both themselves and others.
In “The Amazing Insult,” a blow to the head in a boating accident increases a woman’s intelligence and alters her sexual orientation. A man flees a rural meditation camp in for a highway bar in “The Retreat,” where he does his best to get to know a Haitian stripper. A depressed carpenter has to take a break from building his client’s fence in “Unbounded.” In “Night Dreams of the Wise,” a man sleeping with the wife of the British Defense Secretary learns, after a particularly wild night, to stop doing foolish things. A cleric is haunted by the revenant of a member of his diocese in “Miss Buffet.” Nominated for a National Magazine Award, “The Drug-Friendly House,” is the story of a man who attempts to befriend a woman living in a house that the neighbourhood association has labelled “drug friendly.”
Intelligent, insightful, humorous, and occasionally bizarre, Act Normal is a masterful return by Hollingshead to the short story form. Set in the treacherous terrain of the everyday, this collection is about the quest to find love and truth in a broken world.
- GenresShort StoriesCanada
198 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 21, 2015
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110 people want to read
About the author
Greg Hollingshead
24 books7 followersGregory "Greg" Hollingshead, CM is a Canadian novelist. He is currently a professor of English at the University of Alberta. He lives in Edmonton, Alberta. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto Schools and the University of Toronto. Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 31, 2025
2.5 overall. Not really my cup-of-tea. I liked the story “The Retreat” best.
February 5, 2016
I received this book for free as a Goodreads First Reads in exchange for an honest review.
I don't normally read short story collections, and yet somehow found myself reading two at the same time in the past couple of weeks.
I struggled with some of the stories in this collection because of the abrupt endings, and out-of-nowhere resolutions. There were times when I was just left feeling, "huh?", for lack of a better way of putting it. I'm guessing this is a stylistic choice on the part of the author, but not being really familiar with his work I couldn't say for sure.
I enjoyed some of the stories, and there were definitely some that were very amusing, but overall not a great collection for me.
I don't normally read short story collections, and yet somehow found myself reading two at the same time in the past couple of weeks.
I struggled with some of the stories in this collection because of the abrupt endings, and out-of-nowhere resolutions. There were times when I was just left feeling, "huh?", for lack of a better way of putting it. I'm guessing this is a stylistic choice on the part of the author, but not being really familiar with his work I couldn't say for sure.
I enjoyed some of the stories, and there were definitely some that were very amusing, but overall not a great collection for me.
January 18, 2016
It has been 20 years since we've had a new short story collection from Greg Hollingshead. Far too long. Hollingshead writes fiction for adults; that is, fiction rife with complexity. These are not simple stories. They are layered. They are structurally innovative. They challenge the reader to remain alert.
The title is a clue that there is much deviance from so-called normal in these stories, and much display of the diversity of human forms. Some of the stories are hyper-real, while others are more contained within the commonplace. There's some of John Cheever's suburbia here. That is, the wild, wonderful, and unexpected are companions.
Great stories for a winter's night.
The title is a clue that there is much deviance from so-called normal in these stories, and much display of the diversity of human forms. Some of the stories are hyper-real, while others are more contained within the commonplace. There's some of John Cheever's suburbia here. That is, the wild, wonderful, and unexpected are companions.
Great stories for a winter's night.
July 6, 2016
Act Normal Stories by Greg Hollingshead has some interesting stories told from a crisp perspective. I did not see some of the endings coming as the author wrapped the stories with twists. Unbounded was an interesting story about relationships, including neighbors living alongside and needing a fence to preserve themselves within the community. It also spoke about mental health and unique individuals with a bit of a surprise romantic ending. The Retreat was another examination of relationships told from a lens of an author wanting to express more than is normally told.
August 4, 2015
The synopsis made this collecion sound like a fantastic read. Unfortunately, I found the writing nearly incomprehensible. I think I actually understood what was going on as far as plot and ideas in an average of three sentences per story. It seemed like there was some great material there which the author was just not able to articulate in a coherent way. It was hard to stay interested as the stories, characters, and, really, the purpose of anything going on were often unclear.
Want to read
July 3, 2015I won this book via Goodreads First Reads Giveaway.
November 2, 2015
This collection of short stories is well-written, and I like the character development, but found some of the stories weird and didn't follow everything.
July 9, 2016
review pending
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews