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PLANET GRIM
A woman muses on the influential men in her life, and the enduring significance of white pants. A grisly trial for a murder in which a son witnessed his mother’s stabbing forces a juror to come to terms with the absence of her missionary son. A young father tries to resist lusting after his adoptive son’s birth mother at a Mother’s Day picnic. A widow tends to her mother-in-law’s garden to ameliorate their shared grief. In twenty-eight stories that draw blood while making you laugh, Alex Behr’s debut collection PLANET GRIM is a vivid, unsettling portrait of the gritty fringes of San Francisco and Portland, where complicated characters long for connection just out of reach. Behr is an idiosyncratic, unpredictable prose stylist with an edge and willingness to cut to the bone that makes her writing truly original.
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
224 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 12, 2017
4 people are currently reading
252 people want to read
About the author
Alex Behr
6 books10 followersAlex Behr authored PLANET GRIM: STORIES (7.13 Books, 2017). Her essays, interviews, and stories have appeared in Salon, Tin House, Bitch, The Rumpus, Nailed, and elsewhere. An adoptive mom, she has written about being in a transracial family for National Geographic School Division, Oregon Humanities, Mutha, and The Manifest-Station. She played bass, keyboards, and guitar for years in underground bands in San Francisco and in Portland, and contributed to fanzines. She has performed nationwide in the comedy show Mortified, sharing the worst from her teen diaries. An MFA graduate in creative writing from Portland State, she is a copyeditor, former educational publishing author, and a teacher through Writers in the Schools. She lives in Portland, OR, with her son and cat.
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October 10, 2017I'll be promoting Alex's debut collection over the next couple of months. The stories within are gritty, glorious, and gorgeously written. Drugs, sex, divorce, and grief all find homes here.
If you'd like a digital review copy, please DM me here!
If you'd like a digital review copy, please DM me here!
July 15, 2017
I've enjoyed this collection. It had a quiet, almost muted charm that reminded me of John Cheever stories. Even at her most spectacular and on the fringe of the natural world, Alex Behr remains fascinated by people's normalcy and how even the strangest and most broken people remain human. I loved particularly White Pants, Teenage Riot, This is Not a Love Story and my overall favorite (and perhaps Behr's most Cheeveresque) The Garden. Sure, there are a couple clumsy stories. It's a common thread to most debut collections, but this one's still well worth reading.
October 13, 2017
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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I've been dreading the day when I had to write about this book for a month or so now -- I just don't know that I'm up to it. While I can't say that I enjoyed every story, there was something in each of them that impressed me. I'd do better discussing this book over a beverage with someone who's read the stories rather than in the abstract.
In a few sentences -- at most a couple of paragraphs -- Behr gets you into a world with fully realized characters, completely different situations -- many of which you've never even thought about before. You will be disturbed, moved, saddened, surprised, fascinated, and occasionally, struck by a darkly comic moment.
I want to stress the "dark," -- Planet Grim is probably underselling it. There's not a lot o flight to be found in these pages. I'm not suggesting that you'll end up depressed at the end of every story, but you won't be chuckling or uplifted. These are real people going through some pretty real problems and situations. It's hard to slap a genre tag on these -- there's the barest hint of SF (but not really, you'll see); these would all nicely fit in with a noir novel (without the knight errant); technically a lot would fit in "Women's Fiction" (but . . . no); so I guess you stick it in the "General Fiction" section, but hopefully that doesn't mean you overlook it.
A piece of advice: do not read more than two or three of these stories in one sitting. Actually, I think the volume of stories in this collection is the biggest problem with it. If there were seven of these stories in one volume, I'd probably be raving about it and demanding more. As it is, I was a little overwhelmed -- there's just too much to deal with (which is why it took me 5 weeks to get through it).
I've said it before here, and I'll probably say it again, I"m not a huge short story guy. A few more collections like this could change me. There's not a dud in the batch -- there are a couple that I think I didn't fully appreciate (or even "get") for one reason or another -- but there's not one that's not worth a second or third read. Alex Behr can write, period. If you give her a chance, she'll convince you of that. I can't say that I enjoyed this book, I don't know if I liked it, but man, I was impressed with it, I'm glad that I got to read it, and I know it's some of the best writing I've come across this year.
Disclaimer: I was provided with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
---
I've been dreading the day when I had to write about this book for a month or so now -- I just don't know that I'm up to it. While I can't say that I enjoyed every story, there was something in each of them that impressed me. I'd do better discussing this book over a beverage with someone who's read the stories rather than in the abstract.
In a few sentences -- at most a couple of paragraphs -- Behr gets you into a world with fully realized characters, completely different situations -- many of which you've never even thought about before. You will be disturbed, moved, saddened, surprised, fascinated, and occasionally, struck by a darkly comic moment.
I want to stress the "dark," -- Planet Grim is probably underselling it. There's not a lot o flight to be found in these pages. I'm not suggesting that you'll end up depressed at the end of every story, but you won't be chuckling or uplifted. These are real people going through some pretty real problems and situations. It's hard to slap a genre tag on these -- there's the barest hint of SF (but not really, you'll see); these would all nicely fit in with a noir novel (without the knight errant); technically a lot would fit in "Women's Fiction" (but . . . no); so I guess you stick it in the "General Fiction" section, but hopefully that doesn't mean you overlook it.
A piece of advice: do not read more than two or three of these stories in one sitting. Actually, I think the volume of stories in this collection is the biggest problem with it. If there were seven of these stories in one volume, I'd probably be raving about it and demanding more. As it is, I was a little overwhelmed -- there's just too much to deal with (which is why it took me 5 weeks to get through it).
I've said it before here, and I'll probably say it again, I"m not a huge short story guy. A few more collections like this could change me. There's not a dud in the batch -- there are a couple that I think I didn't fully appreciate (or even "get") for one reason or another -- but there's not one that's not worth a second or third read. Alex Behr can write, period. If you give her a chance, she'll convince you of that. I can't say that I enjoyed this book, I don't know if I liked it, but man, I was impressed with it, I'm glad that I got to read it, and I know it's some of the best writing I've come across this year.
Disclaimer: I was provided with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
October 23, 2017
Alex Behr’s newly-published collection of stories, Planet Grim, is a stunning debut work by an important writer all of us should get to know.
Ernest Hemingway said, “A writer’s job is to tell the truth.” Easier said than done. The “Truths” of our lives typically change as we struggle along the path that life lays out before us. And along the way, we are assailed by self-doubt: “Is this the ‘Truth,’ or am just fooling myself? And how in the world can I know?”
So it takes great courage to live up to the challenge of “telling the truth.” In that regard, Alex Behr is one of the most courageous writers I have ever known.
Because she is writing at a painful time in her life, her “Truth,” as shared in her aptly-named collection of stories, Planet Grim, is hard, almost unbearably honest.
“I cry in therapy. Divorce is violent. My husband. A nice person. Except when he swears. Except when he looks at me sobbing on the chair, on the rug. Anywhere. Our house is welcome to all tears. Moths eat the felt pads inside the piano.”
And what wonderful writing! She is a magician with language, even if it often bites hard – even if single words, phrases, and images fall like hammer blows.
“My husband breaks a slat of the bed I grew up in. It’s a mahogany sleigh bed from the 1800s. The headboard is stained with handprint ghosts from our son’s dreams.”
Wounds bleed. They really do. Amputated limbs still throb with phantom pain. And a broken heart can still ache.
“I cut off my left arm with nail clippers. It hangs on. I can’t snip the final pieces of dried-out skin.
“The initial hurt: I saw it on my arm, too. “I’m in love with —.” A flap cut into the shoulder. The cuts extend on either side, forming a bloody jelly roll. Not till death. Till legal documents coming through the email.”
I’m considerably older than Alex, and so have endured and suffered more. In reading her tough, truthful narrative, I sense yet another, deeper truth: one can embrace love even when the pain is greatest.
Here’s how she ends her story “Wet.”
“My husband drives to the dump with the futon stained with pee and tears. He tells me he wanted to drive off a bridge. Two days later he leaves the country for a year. My son and I spin in our rooms. Two months pass. Then: snow.
“’Mom, come out.’ The son, twelve, shirtless, in shorts and sandals. He runs into the night, now white, like a healthy uterus, its tissue open to life. Flakes cover the harm: the cat’s grave, the thorns. The suburban failure machine. I laugh at the son for his snow dance, his delicious chaos.
“I make a snow angel. The metaphor fails. The son stomps it out. No angels here, so we raise our tongues to the stars: we taste what melts.”
This is important: wry laughter echoes through these stories. As Carrie Seitzinger, editor of Nailed magazine tellingly points out, Alex’s stories “ draw blood while making you laugh.” Just as tellingly, when you look at the cover of Planet Grim, the heart pictured on it is still whole.
Alex Behr’s writing is an invitation for all of us to fully embrace all of our messy, at times frightening lives − to live courageously in the face of our own “Truth.” All of us, I think, owe it to ourselves to read and get to know this extraordinary writer.
Finally, an essential disclaimer. My last name is, in fact a tip off; I am Alex Behr’s uncle. I’ve enthusiastically supported her career as a writer because I love her. As a published author myself, I also love brilliant writing. And that’s what readers will find in her newly published story collection Planet Grim.
So my standards in reviewing this book are the same that I apply to any writer (including myself). It’s an obligation I have to anyone who reads, and I hope, trusts my reviews.
Ernest Hemingway said, “A writer’s job is to tell the truth.” Easier said than done. The “Truths” of our lives typically change as we struggle along the path that life lays out before us. And along the way, we are assailed by self-doubt: “Is this the ‘Truth,’ or am just fooling myself? And how in the world can I know?”
So it takes great courage to live up to the challenge of “telling the truth.” In that regard, Alex Behr is one of the most courageous writers I have ever known.
Because she is writing at a painful time in her life, her “Truth,” as shared in her aptly-named collection of stories, Planet Grim, is hard, almost unbearably honest.
“I cry in therapy. Divorce is violent. My husband. A nice person. Except when he swears. Except when he looks at me sobbing on the chair, on the rug. Anywhere. Our house is welcome to all tears. Moths eat the felt pads inside the piano.”
And what wonderful writing! She is a magician with language, even if it often bites hard – even if single words, phrases, and images fall like hammer blows.
“My husband breaks a slat of the bed I grew up in. It’s a mahogany sleigh bed from the 1800s. The headboard is stained with handprint ghosts from our son’s dreams.”
Wounds bleed. They really do. Amputated limbs still throb with phantom pain. And a broken heart can still ache.
“I cut off my left arm with nail clippers. It hangs on. I can’t snip the final pieces of dried-out skin.
“The initial hurt: I saw it on my arm, too. “I’m in love with —.” A flap cut into the shoulder. The cuts extend on either side, forming a bloody jelly roll. Not till death. Till legal documents coming through the email.”
I’m considerably older than Alex, and so have endured and suffered more. In reading her tough, truthful narrative, I sense yet another, deeper truth: one can embrace love even when the pain is greatest.
Here’s how she ends her story “Wet.”
“My husband drives to the dump with the futon stained with pee and tears. He tells me he wanted to drive off a bridge. Two days later he leaves the country for a year. My son and I spin in our rooms. Two months pass. Then: snow.
“’Mom, come out.’ The son, twelve, shirtless, in shorts and sandals. He runs into the night, now white, like a healthy uterus, its tissue open to life. Flakes cover the harm: the cat’s grave, the thorns. The suburban failure machine. I laugh at the son for his snow dance, his delicious chaos.
“I make a snow angel. The metaphor fails. The son stomps it out. No angels here, so we raise our tongues to the stars: we taste what melts.”
This is important: wry laughter echoes through these stories. As Carrie Seitzinger, editor of Nailed magazine tellingly points out, Alex’s stories “ draw blood while making you laugh.” Just as tellingly, when you look at the cover of Planet Grim, the heart pictured on it is still whole.
Alex Behr’s writing is an invitation for all of us to fully embrace all of our messy, at times frightening lives − to live courageously in the face of our own “Truth.” All of us, I think, owe it to ourselves to read and get to know this extraordinary writer.
Finally, an essential disclaimer. My last name is, in fact a tip off; I am Alex Behr’s uncle. I’ve enthusiastically supported her career as a writer because I love her. As a published author myself, I also love brilliant writing. And that’s what readers will find in her newly published story collection Planet Grim.
So my standards in reviewing this book are the same that I apply to any writer (including myself). It’s an obligation I have to anyone who reads, and I hope, trusts my reviews.
August 23, 2017
Alex Behr writes with an unfiltered freedom of thought and feeling that reminds me a bit of Denis Johnson's Jesus' Son. Like Johnson's characters, Behr's seem so real in their very particular aches and wants that you forget they are constructions of the author. It's as if the characters are behaving of their own free will, and Behr is simply taking notes. That kind of invisibility on the part of the writer is what makes these stories feel, to me, inspired. I especially loved "A Reasonable Person," though there are several in this collection that I can imagine returning to again and again for writing inspiration, or when I need a healing dose of humanity.
November 28, 2017
Loved this short story collection. “White Pants,” “Wet,” and “Prelude to a Kiss” really stood out for me. Even though many of her characters and situations are singular/unusual, there’s a pulsing humanity to all of Alex’s stories.
September 26, 2020
Refreshingly weird, colorfully visceral, and timeless like old school punk.
November 14, 2017
This book has a lot of short stories with captivating story lines. The descriptive writing really helps you to relate with the stories. I do have to say that they are dark and somewhat depressing as they deal with heavy subjects so I would not advise for anyone under the 9th grade. Alex is a very talented writer that deal with subject matter that is normally not addressed and for that I commend her.
November 28, 2017
Alex Behr's debut collection of short stories appeals to the side of me that likes my reading dark. These characters are, indeed, grim, along with their circumstances, homes, families, and futures. But, it's not all bleak in Behr's world; she has a wicked sense of humor that provides an odd counterpoint of hilarity throughout the grim. I love it when an author compels me to feel two opposite things at the same time, and Behr did just that with this amusing and wry read.
October 23, 2017
Incredible book
July 31, 2017
Full Review
Planet Grim shows Alex Behr to be a talented writer with a lot of potential. However, because of a number of forgettable stories and the collection seeming to lack a direction as a whole, it's not the best showcase of her talents. All that said, I did find the good parts of this good enough to still give this a recommendation.
Planet Grim shows Alex Behr to be a talented writer with a lot of potential. However, because of a number of forgettable stories and the collection seeming to lack a direction as a whole, it's not the best showcase of her talents. All that said, I did find the good parts of this good enough to still give this a recommendation.
October 6, 2017
Full review and others here: http://www.shelfstalker.net/blog/plan...
These stories burn brightly, with a fierce determination, by turns dark and by others comedic, and it all keeps turning like those merry-go-rounds we used to play on as kids until it’s one swirl of nausea-inducing color that makes more sense than the painful world outside.
Behr captures that sense of unrestrained wildness, that captive clarity, the moment of crazed hilarity breaking through the horror.
The stories here, sometimes intertwining, with a consistent tone and dark eye turned toward the world, are narrated by characters lost, broken, set to repeat, and caught up in the uncertain fears we all force on ourselves.
I’ve been ruminating on children in fiction a lot, what with the huge release of It in theaters (and I’ve seen it three times, so sue me, it’s great), and the kids on the page here are hard as nails. They have that bright, intuitive sense of the world that kids so easily grasp and are dealing with so much more than they should have to carry. Brilliantly rendered.
The stories do tend to drop off at their conclusions like that step you forgot in the dark, leaving a bewildered sense of incompleteness. Perhaps stylistic and purposeful, but when overused, one tends to not feel as deeply for the characters, sensing no real conclusion for them will be achieved.
I found the standout stories in the collection to be the ones that center on darkness in more permanent ways, but ways that were only glancing for the narrators, like “A Reasonable Person,” where a juror reflects on her own life and the grisly case she has been assigned to assess, and “Afterword,” where a character reminisces about a young boy she knew growing up who was brutally murdered and how it still affects her.
Stories like these have a deeper resonance, a darkness that sinks to the bones and sits there, chilling and spreading, a real feeling that there is true evil in the world. They show the sparks of a true talent developing in these pages and I’d be glad to see where they go in the author’s work in years to come.
These stories burn brightly, with a fierce determination, by turns dark and by others comedic, and it all keeps turning like those merry-go-rounds we used to play on as kids until it’s one swirl of nausea-inducing color that makes more sense than the painful world outside.
Behr captures that sense of unrestrained wildness, that captive clarity, the moment of crazed hilarity breaking through the horror.
The stories here, sometimes intertwining, with a consistent tone and dark eye turned toward the world, are narrated by characters lost, broken, set to repeat, and caught up in the uncertain fears we all force on ourselves.
I’ve been ruminating on children in fiction a lot, what with the huge release of It in theaters (and I’ve seen it three times, so sue me, it’s great), and the kids on the page here are hard as nails. They have that bright, intuitive sense of the world that kids so easily grasp and are dealing with so much more than they should have to carry. Brilliantly rendered.
The stories do tend to drop off at their conclusions like that step you forgot in the dark, leaving a bewildered sense of incompleteness. Perhaps stylistic and purposeful, but when overused, one tends to not feel as deeply for the characters, sensing no real conclusion for them will be achieved.
I found the standout stories in the collection to be the ones that center on darkness in more permanent ways, but ways that were only glancing for the narrators, like “A Reasonable Person,” where a juror reflects on her own life and the grisly case she has been assigned to assess, and “Afterword,” where a character reminisces about a young boy she knew growing up who was brutally murdered and how it still affects her.
Stories like these have a deeper resonance, a darkness that sinks to the bones and sits there, chilling and spreading, a real feeling that there is true evil in the world. They show the sparks of a true talent developing in these pages and I’d be glad to see where they go in the author’s work in years to come.
February 12, 2018
In this collection of short stories, Alex Behr brings a world of unseen places to light: from childhood diary entries, to the '90s punk scene, to the heartbreaking collapse of a marriage, to the twisted mind of someone who may - or may not be - living on Mars. These stories pull you in and it is impossible to rip your eyes from the page. The stories are short, sometimes just a page or two, but carefully and skillfully packed with physical and emotional details of the external and internal worlds in which the characters exist.
Alex Behr doesn't shy away from all the aspects of life, even the gross ones. Scabs, boils, vomit. Mental illness, suicidal ideations, disappointment, loneliness. Sex, strangers, spit. Graffiti, liter, broken bits of one's heart. One foot in the punk world of yesteryear, a toe or two in a girlhood in the South, and a few toes tethered to the Portland of today: it's all here.
Cheers to this debut collection! Here's to many more from this talented author.
Alex Behr doesn't shy away from all the aspects of life, even the gross ones. Scabs, boils, vomit. Mental illness, suicidal ideations, disappointment, loneliness. Sex, strangers, spit. Graffiti, liter, broken bits of one's heart. One foot in the punk world of yesteryear, a toe or two in a girlhood in the South, and a few toes tethered to the Portland of today: it's all here.
Cheers to this debut collection! Here's to many more from this talented author.
March 15, 2018
‘Planet Grim’ is one of those rare books that remind me of gritty shells on the beach. They are beautiful, unique oddities filled with tiny stones and the memory of dead things, but they are treasures and full of truth: that life keeps turning. Something lived and then that something died, something that knew a life alien to me and yet the remains of it were in my hands, between the fingernails I gnawed to the quick. There is an ‘unfiltered’ feel to Behr’s twenty-eight dark stories, an unprocessed authenticity and originality that really gives this collection its striking voice. READ FULL REVIEW AT WWW.SELCOUTHSTATION.COM
December 11, 2023
Planet Grim is a triple threat- hilarious, tender, and smart!
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