The Surprising Place

by Malinda McCollum

A synchronized swimming coach pops pills during practice, a bagpiper cold-cocks a hawk, and an orphan puts her fist through a window and discovers, in the engine noise of a jet passing overhead, the perfect witness to her inner pain. In this debut collection from prizewinning short story writer Malinda McCollum, people adrift in the American Midwest struggle to find their way in the world, with few signposts for guidance. Set largely in Des Moines, Iowa, over the expanse of several decades, these twelve stories explore the surprising places where our outsized longings may lead us. In prose as lean and unflinching as an Iowa winter, these stories offer confrontation and consolation in equal measure.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

224 pages, Paperback

Published March 2, 2018

Reviews

[♑︎♑︎♑︎ ♑︎♑︎♑︎ · Rating 5 out of 5]

One crisp unexpected declarative sentence after another. Each sentence perfectly balances the tragic and the absurd. Gentle Reader of my Review, my star system is fully dysfunctional, because I honestly did not enjoy these stories much, but nonetheless these stories are exquisite representations of what you might call the "sassy" genre of story, a style that is popular just now, and for this reason the collection is well worth your time. They are written something in the style of Miranda July or Nell Zink, but with more heart.

I think my beef with the sassy genre is that characters remain cartoonish, and the reader is kept at an arms'-length distance by the sardonic undertone. Sometimes I feel these writerly decisions are made when a writer doesn't trust her ability to be sincere. It's easier to keep your characters in a kind of jokey limbo, where the stakes aren't real.

But read it.

[Jean · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is not what I expected. I was looking forward to short stories set in a city-- Des Moines, Iowa-- which was my hometown for 16 years. The site of DSM-- hometown of the main characters-- didn't matter in these stories. They could have taken place anywhere. And the characters-- mainly Green, his brother Roy, and wife Nora-- were unlike anyone I ever knew in Des Moines.

The only location in the book that had a sense of place at all was a desert near Joshua Tree National Park in California where Green and Roy had visited as children and where now they were attempting a camp out with Nora. Each of them would select a campsite where they'd be alone. There is a bit of humor when Green decides to crawl to Nora's campsite to spy on her and (as Green suspected) finds Roy visiting her tent. I enjoyed that story more than any others.

The stories seemed pointless and didn't make a lot of sense. So I only followed the tales about Green and his family, since they had been the first characters I read about (in the first story.) My interest followed Green, although I'm not sure why. He was a multi-flawed character, and I never "got" his goals or intentions. In the end, I never even learned whether he lived or died.

I had purchased an extra copy to give to a reader friend in Des Moines but I'm just donating the book elsewhere, as I can't match any friends' tastes with this book.

[Al Kratz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I grew up and still live in the Des Moines area, but that’s not why I read this book. I read it because McCollum is a bad ass short story writer. I’ve been reading multiple short story collections at the same time and I kept coming back to this one. My faves are Us Crazy, Sharks, and your big sister. Having a daughter who was a Shark at Roosevelt high school and an ex-wife who told me about teenage adventures at the Lost Planet makes me laugh at the person who reviewed this and said it could have been about any city, Des Moines was inconsequential. Maybe your Des Moines was, but mine wasn’t nor was this one which could only be the one I’ve lived in for 45 years. McCollum is also an excellent writing teacher and anyone with a chance should jump at taking a class with her.

[Elsa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh my. I haven't blitzed through a book in one afternoon in quite a while, but my college advisor recommended this one and I had to interlibrary loan it and it has to be back in two weeks. So it had to go next.

These are short stories, but all connected by the cast of characters and location. I think it was good to read through it in one, just to keep track of the details, as the timeline leaps about and the personnel shifts around.

How vivid! What horrible people! Was that supposed to be a happy ending? I'm not sure, but the writing is beautifully crisp, the absurdity is precisely deployed for shock and wonder, and the terror of these people caught me up.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was weird but engrossing. I liked the clean direct prose. I liked that the characters carried over between the stories. It reminded me of Gutshot by Amelia Gray. I thought it was strange because the characters each have their own peculiar personality, reeking of desperation, and they act accordingly, often with criminal intent.

[Jhawkinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hoping for more setting...there was one mention of Merle Hay road (!) not that specifics were needed but would have helped with the meth/hard drugs tone set against places like West Des Moines. Maybe I’m just homesick. First few stories were out of sight but then tailed off.

[Jeff Olson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of engrossing short stories. Complex characters, flawed and quirky, funny and tragic. I loved it.

[John Waterfall · Rating 5 out of 5]

A devastating, strange collection about an Iowa where everyone, and I do mean everyone, cooks meth. Filled with manic gallows humor and the occasional bright burst of hope. Great stuff.