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The Spoils: Stories
Deep in the landlocked heart of the Midwest, the characters in The Spoils are drowning under the weight of masculinity, paralyzed in the grip of things left unsaid. These men are broken and breaking, struggling to reckon with the decisions they ve made and those they have yet to face. Set mostly in and around Kansas, the stories in this powerful collection explore how men perform, in their jobs and personal lives, and investigate the gray area between doing what s best for oneself and acting a part to make others happy.
A man questions whether he should leave his drug-addicted girlfriend and her son or stay, sacrificing his own well-being to be the boy s father. Fed up with the role of the stooge, a Washington Generals player takes his A-game to the Harlem Globetrotters and has to face the unforeseen consequences. A rookie prison guard sent to procure a death row inmate s final meal commits a small, subversive act of humanity.
In a world where the line between right and wrong is constantly shifting, some struggle to do the right thing, while others eschew the line altogether and deal with the sometimes violent repercussions. The Spoils examines these difficult choices and will appeal to readers of literary fiction and short stories, especially readers of fiction based in the Midwest.
A man questions whether he should leave his drug-addicted girlfriend and her son or stay, sacrificing his own well-being to be the boy s father. Fed up with the role of the stooge, a Washington Generals player takes his A-game to the Harlem Globetrotters and has to face the unforeseen consequences. A rookie prison guard sent to procure a death row inmate s final meal commits a small, subversive act of humanity.
In a world where the line between right and wrong is constantly shifting, some struggle to do the right thing, while others eschew the line altogether and deal with the sometimes violent repercussions. The Spoils examines these difficult choices and will appeal to readers of literary fiction and short stories, especially readers of fiction based in the Midwest.
- GenresShort Stories
158 pages, Paperback
Published March 15, 2017
2 people are currently reading
178 people want to read
About the author
Casey Pycior
1 book24 followersCasey Pycior was born and raised in Kansas City, and he earned his MFA in fiction writing at Wichita State University and his PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His debut short story collection, The Spoils: Stories, is forthcoming from Switchgrass Books. He was awarded the 2015 Charles Johnson Fiction Prize at Crab Orchard Review, and his stories have appeared in Beloit Fiction Journal, Midwestern Gothic, Harpur Palate, BULL, Wigleaf, Yalobusha Review, as well as in the anthologies Stuck in the Middle: Writing that Leaves You in Suspense from Main Street Rag and Flash in the Attic 2: 44 Very Short Stories from Fiction Attic Press, among many other places.
He is currently an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Southern Indiana and is Fiction Editor of Southern Indiana Review.
He lives in Evansville, Indiana with his wife and son.
He is currently an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Southern Indiana and is Fiction Editor of Southern Indiana Review.
He lives in Evansville, Indiana with his wife and son.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 28, 2017
An excellent, must-read debut story collection, full of unique and compelling characters who are pushed to their absolute limits, with, often times, inadequate means to protect him/herself: a father-son duo visits a museum in the wake of the recent and sudden death of the son's mother; a correction officer is tasked with searching the city for an inmate's last meal; a drifter meets a woman in a pharmacy who demands him to do near impossible deeds. These stories linger and last, leaving us lucky readers with searing images from the Great Plains of Nebraska and Kansas.
May 1, 2017
Casey Pycior's debut, THE SPOILS, is a collection of tough stories about ordinary people taking life's beatings and trying to come out on the other end alive. Some of these stories have echoes of Chris Offutt in the fact that Pycior also focuses mainly on working-class men who are forced into action when they encounter flashes of violence, tragedy, and the absurd.
The best story in my opinion is "Disaster Carpenter." This story focuses on an under-the-table-paid carpenter who is kinda living off the grid and finds himself not only losing a finger but getting involved with a dangerous woman. Besides having wonderful lines such as, "I wanted to beat his ass right then, but I had more important things to do, like find my finger," Pycior infuses a Larry Brown-esque frankness to the tale that makes it feel real and honest while remaining gripping and wild. Similarly, "As Much As One Deserves" captures a tow-truck driver's feelings when he has to confront the tragedy of strangers. The journey the narrator makes is emotional and never flinches away from the harshness of the world. Almost all of the stories are set in the Midwest, specifically the heartland area around Kansas and Nebraska; Pycior captures the heat of the plains well, and he paints the region without relying on cliches or stereotypes. The book's title story goes in a different direction and is easily the most humorous of the batch. "The Spoils" focuses on basketball player, but not just any basketball player--this guy plays for The Washington Generals: the team that is ] pitted against the Harlem Globetrotters. Not only is the story funny, it explores feelings of self-hatred, triumph, and responsibility.
Ultimately, Pycior's book is an exciting debut, and I think fans of Frank Bill, Tom Franklin, and Aaron Gwyn will revel in the prose and the heartland infused dialogue. An exciting new voice in fiction.
The best story in my opinion is "Disaster Carpenter." This story focuses on an under-the-table-paid carpenter who is kinda living off the grid and finds himself not only losing a finger but getting involved with a dangerous woman. Besides having wonderful lines such as, "I wanted to beat his ass right then, but I had more important things to do, like find my finger," Pycior infuses a Larry Brown-esque frankness to the tale that makes it feel real and honest while remaining gripping and wild. Similarly, "As Much As One Deserves" captures a tow-truck driver's feelings when he has to confront the tragedy of strangers. The journey the narrator makes is emotional and never flinches away from the harshness of the world. Almost all of the stories are set in the Midwest, specifically the heartland area around Kansas and Nebraska; Pycior captures the heat of the plains well, and he paints the region without relying on cliches or stereotypes. The book's title story goes in a different direction and is easily the most humorous of the batch. "The Spoils" focuses on basketball player, but not just any basketball player--this guy plays for The Washington Generals: the team that is ] pitted against the Harlem Globetrotters. Not only is the story funny, it explores feelings of self-hatred, triumph, and responsibility.
Ultimately, Pycior's book is an exciting debut, and I think fans of Frank Bill, Tom Franklin, and Aaron Gwyn will revel in the prose and the heartland infused dialogue. An exciting new voice in fiction.
May 27, 2017
I'm glad to see a writer like Pycior holding up his end of flyover country. The Spoils is a hard, rough-edged collection of stories about men and women struggling to stay afloat--at whatever level that may be. At times violent, at times touching, but always in touch, Pycior illuminates the struggles, losses, and quiet triumphs of the Midwest.
September 11, 2022
Ok, as always, the stars reflect how I feel about the book, they are not a commentary on how good or bad the book is. Listen, this collection of stories I liked, and had to round it up to 4 stars because some of the stories were really good. I have been writing quite a bit lately and got this book because the author wrote a review of something else I had read here on Goodreads and I thought he sounded as if he knew a thing or two about writing. He does, know something about writing, and these stories reflect that.
Here is the thing, there are quite a few ultra-macho themed stories, testosterone fueled stuff about very male characters doing very male stuff. Content-wise some of this stuff is close to over the top. Thing is, for all my wokeness, I have been in macho situations and done quite a bit of testosterone fueled stuff. You don't spend 25 years as a big-city firefighter without having seen or done some bigger-than-life things. This guy's stories read pretty true though, I recognize most of what he is writing about. He also has some fragile characters as well, and describes the indecision in some of his hard characters, no matter how he has them act.
As far as the craft of the collection, well, it is very good. There are some stories that are quite short and some a bit longer. There are hard-assed narrators and some weakling protagonists as well. The thing I noticed was that every story was very well worked, I could figure, for the most part, what every story was about and there were not a lot of them that ended where you wanted to write a question mark in the margin because you didn't follow where the author was headed. This is a collection of complete stories.
I bought this with points on my Amazon card. It was a bit of an impulse purchase and I paid full price to benefit the author. You could get it cheaper used if you wanted, and there might be more value as a reader in buying one of the "Best American Short Story" collections. This serves my purpose well though, I will break down several of the stories to note how he did stuff and I will look at the different journals these were first published in to see what kind of work, what level of craft, that the journals are looking for. I am also going to write a nice email to the author in the next couple of days to thank him for his efforts.
Here is the thing, there are quite a few ultra-macho themed stories, testosterone fueled stuff about very male characters doing very male stuff. Content-wise some of this stuff is close to over the top. Thing is, for all my wokeness, I have been in macho situations and done quite a bit of testosterone fueled stuff. You don't spend 25 years as a big-city firefighter without having seen or done some bigger-than-life things. This guy's stories read pretty true though, I recognize most of what he is writing about. He also has some fragile characters as well, and describes the indecision in some of his hard characters, no matter how he has them act.
As far as the craft of the collection, well, it is very good. There are some stories that are quite short and some a bit longer. There are hard-assed narrators and some weakling protagonists as well. The thing I noticed was that every story was very well worked, I could figure, for the most part, what every story was about and there were not a lot of them that ended where you wanted to write a question mark in the margin because you didn't follow where the author was headed. This is a collection of complete stories.
I bought this with points on my Amazon card. It was a bit of an impulse purchase and I paid full price to benefit the author. You could get it cheaper used if you wanted, and there might be more value as a reader in buying one of the "Best American Short Story" collections. This serves my purpose well though, I will break down several of the stories to note how he did stuff and I will look at the different journals these were first published in to see what kind of work, what level of craft, that the journals are looking for. I am also going to write a nice email to the author in the next couple of days to thank him for his efforts.
June 28, 2017
'The Spoils' is a terrific collection of short fiction that’s comfortable moving back and forth between those absurd moments in life we can almost laugh about and those absurd moments in life that are deadly serious. One of the strongest elements of the stories is how quickly they get up to speed. Pycior manages to set up his compelling scenarios in a paragraph or two, in a way that seems almost effortless, and the reader is quickly and wonderfully caught up in the slipstream. “Home Shopping” and “Pasteurization” were among my favorites, both of them giving us glimpses of criminals at work where we’d least suspect them. But my other favorites all play around with the idea of non-traditional actors… people on the fringes of performance. “Cashing In”—told in the form for a local NPR interview—is a highly inventive piece about a business that hires professional mourners to attend funerals. There’s the title story, which is a hell of a lot of fun, about a player for the Washington Generals, who decides to go into business for himself and attempt defeating the mighty Harlem Globetrotters. And the piece that has most stuck with me is “Pinchbeck,” about a struggling actor playing a cowboy in a Wild West show. Like so many of the others, this piece features a guy wanting a better life for himself and his family—or the family he never had—and how quickly dreams can disintegrate.
September 13, 2017
The Spoils is a wonderful collection of stories set in the Midwest but with a truly universal feel. Pycior is a natural storyteller with a tremendous range. If this collection is his debut, I can't wait to see what he does next.
January 15, 2025
This is a gripping collection of short stories. Fiction about primarily poor or working class folks in the Midwest often risks either condescending politeness or dehumanizing grotesqueness. His stories examine rich interior lives, occasionally grim choices, and unsentimental humanity.
October 23, 2022
Honest and funny, thought-provoking and heartbreaking, “The Spoils” is a southeast Kansas masterpiece. Storytelling at its finest.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews