Simplify

by Tod Goldberg

From the author of the acclaimed novel Living Dead Girl , a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, come twelve haunting stories about people caught somewhere between love and madness. Simplify mines the often surreal terrain of people on the margins of from the man with a photo of Elvis bleeding on his wall in "Comeback Special," to the profoundly troubled boy genius of the title story "Simplify," to the family that must traverse "The Distance Between Us" to finally get to the truth about their son the murderer, each story hums with sharp drama, mystery, wonder, and startling humor. Simplify , the first collection of short fiction by Tod Goldberg, portrays a world where redemption, hope, and violence are never too far apart. "A keen voice, profound insight...Tod Goldberg's fine ear for dialogue and for the spoken nuances of social microstrata enable him to dispense with reams of descriptive background and cut straight to the heart of the matter. If sometimes his overwhelmed characters fail to fully engage emotionally, their deadpan delivery of jolting ironies reaches to laugh-out-loud heights of insight. Even the collection's title has a sardonic ring. While hardly simple, "Simplify" is devilishly entertaining." -- Los Angeles Times "Tod Goldberg's collection, "Simplify," contradicts its Goldberg complicates things, in brilliant and moving ways, in stories that live along the border between the mundane and the surreal." -- Chicago Tribune " Simplify by Tod Goldberg is lovely and odd." -- New York Journal-News Everybody dies at the end of a Tod Goldberg story. Well, almost. The ones who don’t die — violently, through hangings, shots to the heart, slit wrists, drownings, murders — are left to deal with the emotional and psychological fallout. They are the mothers, fathers, younger brothers and sisters in Goldberg’s creepy, strangely sardonic, definitely disturbing version of Middle America...And that, of course, is where the fun begins." -- LA Weekly "Goldberg's work is an eclectic collection of realist and surrealist storytelling...startling and shuddersome." -- TimeOut Chicago "It’s rare to find a book that can evoke such strong emotions within a single collection, however, Tod Goldberg’s Simplify is a force to be reckoned with." --Bookslut.com "The stories on the whole are powerful, provocative and a pleasure to read. The title entry, in particular, is a minor masterpiece." --Crime Fiction Dossier "The stories in this collection hum with speed and ferocity and a raw energy that exposes your nerve endings, wakes up places inside of you that you had happily lulled to sleep. The sharp-edged, hard-luck boys that populate these pages know exactly how you feel at two in the morning and are telling the truth about it. Simplify is ruthless and tender, truthful, full of heart and scary in all the right ways." --Pam Houston, author of Cowboys Are My Weakness; Sight Hound "Energized, engaging, highly readable-- each one of Tod Goldberg's stories is a nugget of originality. I started each new story with fresh interest, wondering where he would take me next-- to bleeding Elvis, or the Salton Sea, or through the strange way childhood cruelty rearranges adulthood. A terrific collection." --Aimee Bender, author of The Girl in the Flammable Skirt; Willful Creatures "With Simplify Tod Goldberg places himself in the company of such modern masters of short fiction as Dan Chaon, Rick De Marinis and Thom Jones, demonstrating a broad range of styles and moods that he manages to coalesce into a single and frankly, pretty disturbing whole." --Scott Phillips, author of The Walkaway; The Ice Harvest "Tod Goldberg is an amazing true original who plunges deep into the scary heart of our American life. Hilarious and unnerving, charming and creepy, dusted with a strange, ineffable melancholy, these stories made the hair on my head stand up and my eyes fall out. I recommend Simplify to everyone, everywhere. Read it right now!" --Dan Chaon, author of You Remind Me of Me; Among the Missing

184 pages, Hardcover

First published August 5, 2005

About the author

Tod Goldberg is the New York Times bestselling author of sixteen books of fiction, notably the acclaimed Gangsterland quartet: Gangsterland, a finalist for the Hammett Prize; Gangster Nation; The Low Desert, a Southwest Book of the Year; and Gangsters Don’t Die, an Amazon Best Book of 2023 as well as a Southwest Book of the Year. Other works include The House of Secrets, which he co-authored with Brad Meltzer, and Living Dead Girl, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His short fiction and essays have been anthologized widely, including in Best American Mystery & Suspense and Best American Essays, and appear regularly in the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and Alta. Tod Goldberg is a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside, where founded and directs the Low Residency MFA program in Creative Writing & Writing for the Performing Arts. His next novel, Only Way Out, will be released this fall from Thomas & Mercer.

Reviews

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

That Tod Goldberg is one sick f**k. I mean 'sick' in its old school and new school senses.

[Karl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short stories, some of which are pretty good, some of which read like they were written as writing exercises. Yet all are worth reading.

[Jay]

Simplify is a great title, now that I think of it. Tod breaks down the most complicated of life tragedies to a few fundamental principles to provide his readers access. Once he has them hooked into his story, that's when the apparent and normal become bizzarre and frightening. I like "The Living End" the best. It is about the witness of an abduction and a neighorhood girl. Little Teddy loves basketball, baseball and his brother. The fact that he may just be the last one to see little Sarah alive effects him, but it doesn't destroy his character in any visible way. Like all of Tod Goldberg's characters, Teddy is a sensitive and intelligent kid, and he'll learn his lessons in a brilliant moment of sadness and insight.

[Bryan Alaspa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book on a shelf of books at a place I joined call the Writers Workspace. The stories range from the terrifying to the bizarre and everything in between. I found Goldberg to be a solid and entertaining storyteller with a wild imagination and it sparked my own desire to write some short stories. Good ready.

[Lori Rader-Day · Rating 5 out of 5]

Saw a panel at the AWP Denver conference and it was so refreshing and enjoyable---take note, AWP conference planners---that I decided to buy one of the guys' books. I chose Tod, because I had read one of his stories before and enjoyed it. The whole book is great and weird and unexpected. I got stuck in the airport on the way back from conference and was glad I had this book.

[Allison Parker]

I don't rate books for which I've been involved in publishing, however...
My description coming soon...

[Gail · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book I will read every year to keep my commitment tof live a minimalist life.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first story in this collection is one of my favorite short stories of all time, I think.