Calm Face

by Bud Smith

Welcome to Bud Smith’s New York, where you run out of gas on your way to work; where a set of keys goes missing at a New Year’s Eve party; where your neighbors are either nosy, naked, or screaming; where putting an inflatable hot tub in your apartment seems like the best/worst idea ever; where little kids break-dance on the subway; where the corner bodega becomes your only salvation in a city overtaken by nail salons; where friends text you selfies of themselves dying in hospital beds; where sometimes the only thing a person can really do to stop from exploding is to keep a calm face.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

60 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 16, 2016

About the author

Bud Smith is the author of Teenager (Tyrant Book), Double Bird (Maudlin House), WORK (CCM), Dust Bunny City (Disorder Press), among others. He works heavy construction, and lives in Jersey City, NJ.

Reviews

[Janie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like this author. If I saw him, I would not throw water balloons at him. I would walk down the street swinging my arms and singing, holding a paperback copy of this book. I'd have happy face.

[Brian Alan Ellis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I mean... wow... just... wow... CALM FACE!

[Paul Beckman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bud Smith's writing is so good because he makes you feel he's having a conversation with you or you're listening in on a conversation between him and others. He goes about his daily business and takes you along for the ride. It would be hard to not be a fan.

[Tex Gresham · Rating 5 out of 5]

I fully love this book. It's the day-to-day shit of a narrator who is Bud Smith. But it bottles that energy, that reality, and shows us that there's a lot to love in the day-to-day bullshit. There's also a lot to hate, but what're you gonna do? Let 10 seconds of shittiness ruined the rest of the day. Bud doesn't. This book is goddamn funny too. Like I laughed at least once a page. I've read it at least three times. It's one of those books that you can read in an afternoon and use the good vibes in it to fuel you for the weeks to come. It's a feel good book. I've read Bud's other stuff and this is a short hotshot for those who want a quick introduction to the way he writes and his world. Do it. Be glad you did.

[KKUURRTT · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found myself laughing out loud at multiple parts. Bud Smith has quite a nice way of looking at the world. Or New York. I've been wanting to read him for a while and this was an excellent jumping off point because now I want to read everything else he's got. Is there a discount code for buying an author's entire oeuvre.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a story in this collection that's told in a sequence of reviews of a local neighborhood bodega and if you're not interested in reading something like that, well there's all kinds of other stories in here but that one was my fave. I now have Calm Face; you too can have Calm Face, and I suggest you do...

[David Catney · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is some really good stuff. Bud Smith is a fucking killer.

[Zach Werbalowsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

fun little book.

[Janice Yiu · Rating 5 out of 5]

real

[Aaron Dietz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love it when Bud Smith is just being 100% real in his stories, or at least when he 100% convinces me it's 100% real. I don't care which it is in reality because what seems, is.

This was a great collection of slice of life details from what I'm assuming is Bud Smith's life even though I never like to assume that sort of thing, because of the shiftiness of people who are capable of writing realistic fiction.

Anyway, I'm on to the next one he wrote: Dust Bunny City. Coming soon to a Goodreads review near you.