A Stranger in this World

by Kevin Canty

In the tradition of the works of Raymond Carver and Richard Ford, this fiction debut shines with verbal brilliance. Disturbing yet compellingly readable, the stories in this collection explore the gap between disappointment and hope, between life as it could be and life as it is.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Literature, Collections

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Kevin Canty writes novels and short stories. He is a faculty member in the English department at the University of Montana at Missoula, where he currently resides. He received his Masters degree in English from the University of Florida in 1990, and M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Arizona in 1993.

Reviews

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliantly sharp, poignant, superbly crafted stories. Beautifully written, swooping deep into his characters as they make bad decisions (mainly - these pieces are about fuck ups). Memorable images make them stick - the trailer on its side where a couple are entertained by a stranger who has just pranged their car; the open dance floor in the swamps of Florida (I think) at night where the female protagonist dances with her boyfriend's brother. Truly gripping.


Definitely be reading more of him - this one was written in the 90s - first collection?

[Owen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Each of Kevin Canty's short stories from this collection is so unique and completely different from the previous one. He is realistic, but in the same way that YA conemporary books tend to be realistic but optimistic: his stories are realistic but pessimistic, often in the worst-case-scenario. He shows that life is far from perfect. There are bad marriages. There is sadness. Not everyone likes themselves or their lives.

For me, the stories of this collection did not resemble anything in my life at all, but I was still able to acknowledge the messages they were sharing. It is not quite universal, in that not every theme can apply to everyone, but that is because these aren't meant to be fables or moral stories, they are fictional short stories that resonate well with the reader.

At first I thought the stories were all about boys, but I soon figured out that they could appeal to people of any age, male or female. Canty's characters come from all walks of life, so I'm sure each person will get something different out of this book. Kevin Canty perfectly evokes the human voice of imperfection.

[Dennis Holland · Rating 3 out of 5]

The world in which Canty’s stories and his strangers live might be this world but it is an entirely different world. A lot of the collection has something to do with cars or car trips and oh what a strange trip it was.

[lethe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well-written stories, but not really my thing.

[Corey Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a spectacular collection of short stories, very much in the vein of Raymond Carver. So good, in fact, that I am stunned I had never heard of this author until his works were recommended to me. The stories are all very humanistic, most have an undercurrent of sadness to them; of lost dreams; of destinies unfulfilled; of a youth long lost. The prose is simple yet sharp as a knife and filled with so many small revelations. I am now about to dive into Canty's other works, and am very much looking forward to it.

[Daisy · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best short story collections I’ve ever read..

Canty has a haunting, sad undertone to all his stories. He is a little too subtle for the general population (probably?) but if you’re into that, he is awesome. More explicit than Raymond Carver in describing his characters’ emotional reactions, but Canty won’t hit you over the head with the meaning of his stories. You have to do a bit of reading between the lines.

“Pretty Judy” and “Great Falls” may be the best short stories I’ve ever read.

[Kyle Schnitzer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty Judy is a short story. Courts slow today so read this one in a few sittings today.

[Ping · Rating 4 out of 5]

While personally not a huge fan of short stories, this stunted format most definitely worked in Canty's favor. Graphic, sharp, and often disturbing, Canty plays around just as much with what he doesn't say as what he does. His soundbites of well-written moral dilemmas fearlessly delve into the extremes of human fallibility and depravity.

[Jim Hunnicutt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This compilation of Kevin Canty’s short stories eloquently displays his unique power of setting, character and structure. After reading this novel, what stand out are his abilities to take characters in common situations that anyone could find themselves in and turn them around to chaos in the blink of a sentence or two. From a young boy dealing with an alcoholic parent, to a couple rear-ended by fate, to a woman still engrossed with the vivid memories of her long-dead husband, Canty creates these once-normal characters, suddenly finding themselves face-to-face with the tragic and unknown. Canty’s collection succeeds in taking his cast of characters and making them both real and accessible, even if the methods he chooses can sometimes become unsettling.
In “A Stranger in this World: Stories”, Canty has selectively chosen the short stories that are contained within the cover. Each tale is told from a unique perspective. One of the most unusual is “Dogs”, where Canty has chosen to use a second-person voice to tell the grisly details of what it is like to work the graveyard shift in a kennel, where the routine killing and disposal of unwanted strays is all in a day’s work. This point of view takes the readers from being casual observers and places them in the story, where the blood and death-dealing is on their hands. While this choice can be distressful even to the hardest of hearts, it is incredibly effective in conveying the feeling Canty wants you to feel, line by line. Canty’s daring storytelling style continues to impress in “The Victim”, where he cleverly breaks the whole of the short story into smaller pieces, each with their own title and mood. Through this method, he is able to alter the logical timeline to a point where even the setting the story takes place in becomes less like the ordinary and more like an intrusion into a Dali-like surreal nightmare of rape and murder.
Ending the novel is the title piece. It is interesting that Canty chooses to end with the story that he uses to title the entire collection but, upon reading, it makes beautiful sense. The final story serves as an excellent end piece because it brings many of Canty’s themes into a realistic setting, using the character of a woman trapped between lives to portray them. She possesses many of the traits that Canty isolates in earlier protagonists, such as Marian’s neurosis from “Safety”, Margaret’s unstable relationship in “Moonbeams and Aspirin”, Paul’s quest for control in “Pretty Judy” and even another Margaret’s quest for stability in “Junk”. In “A Stranger in This World’’, however, despite harnessing the reins of the collection together, the character of Candy still manages to stand on her own; a testament to Canty’s power of character development and storytelling.
For anyone unfamiliar with the style of Canty’s prose, “A Stranger in this World: Stories” is a wonderful introductions to one of the most unique authors of our time. Although his themes can be at the least unsettling to some readers and at the most pornographically violent, it is balanced by a genius use of sentence and mood. This is definitely not a collection for all readers but it is one that can be read and reread, for each time you embark on the journey that is Kevin Canty’s “A Stranger in this World: Stories”, you will return thankful you made the trip.

[Maggie Gardner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Published: First Vintage Contemporaries Edition, August 1995


“There is no other life… the person that you are is the person you’re going to be. Though it was tempting to pretend.”

Kevin Canty’s A Stranger in this World is full of stories about people in many different walks of life. Age, gender, disease, and drug abuse- it’s all covered within the book’s pages. The reader is granted the opportunity to take a look into the life of strangers, a life they may know all too well or may never experience. Life is a complicated matter and there is not one person who can be summed up by just one description. Canty reveals all of the beautiful flaws that shape human nature
Canty’s characters range from 15 year old sex-driven boys to grandfather’s looking back on life as they die from cancer. They all have different stories, different frames of mind but they all have one thing in common- they are complicated. Each character may have a main flaw, such as a girl going with her perfect boyfriend to meet his family for the first time. However, she still has feelings for her ex, who may or may not be dead- it is never made clear. Because of these frustrations she hooks up with his brother, who reminds her of her ex. Feeling bad about her actions- she steals the brothers car and leaves him stranded at a bar, with no pants. Actions they make no sense to a reader come to are brought to life within the text of A Stranger in this World. Canty carefully crafts his characters to be intriguing, whether it is in a positive or negative way. The reader becomes hooked on the plot, but keeps going because of the inside stories; they don’t stop because they want to know what makes the character tick, and Canty fills them in.
The strengths of A Stranger in this World lay within Canty’s character and situation development. Readers become attached and feel as if they are living vicariously through the main characters. Canty creates scenarios within his stories that may seem uncommon to most, but all to common to many. Readers cannot deny the opportunity to live a life so drastically different from their own (but a little too similar for comfort). Some may find Canty’s stories to be a little underdeveloped, often times they open in the middle of a scene- no real introduction. However, it also works as a strength by leaving readers wondering why characters are acting they way they are, it leaves the reader wanting more. Even Canty’s weakness can be a strength.
Throughout A Stranger in this World Canty focuses on one key theme- life is complex. You think you know someone, but in reality we are all strangers. Everyone has secrets, something deep within us, some far gone experience that leads us to act as we do. Some people are involved in drugs, some are dying of an illness and some have been in close relationships with some really bad people. No matter what the story of the character the theme of complexity and complication is always relevant. Young adults and older will all benefit from reading this novel. It brings to front truth about life and the people around us- we will never really know what is going no. It may even shine some light on what makes us tick.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

“A Stranger in This World”
Stories by Kevin Canty
First Vintage Contemporaries
New York, 1995

Prepare for the dramatic and unnerving as you begin to read Kevin Canty’s debut short story collection, seeing the world from the eyes of victims of chance and choice. His stories will leave you feeling like a stranger in his world, as he creates striking characters and unexpected events. But his stories aren’t all that strange. All of them set in a world not too different from our own, removed only by time, they show us possible paths that anyone can take and their consequences. These dark tales then become relatable, the plots and characters almost become real.

Beginning his collection with the short story “King of Elephants,” Canty starts with the dysfunction of a broken family. Told from the son’s point of view, the story opens with a police officer calling to tell the son that his mother is has been picked up as a transient. The boy takes this in stride, going to alert his father, an alcoholic. As the two leave the bar, the reader begins to see the son’s inner struggle, how he has to deal with his father’s alcoholism and his mother’s mental instabilities. This seems to be a major theme in this collection, that one character inherits the problems of those they love, or think they love. In “Pretty Judy,” Canty creates an odd tale of love and hate. When Paul figures out that he can easily take advantage of the mentally disabled girl who lives in his neighborhood, he begins to have mixed emotions. Knowing what he did was wrong, but still continuing to see her; he begins to believe that he has fallen in love with her. Following his affairs, a series of events unfolds that quickly show Paul the consequences of his actions.

From “Pretty Judy” to “Moonbeams and Aspirin,” Canty creates stories that could happen to both the best and worst of people. He crafts tales not so distant from what anybody could face, the overlying theme of all the stories being that of going down the wrong road. The use of characters and their feelings and thoughts, as well as the powerful usages of imagery make the stories seem even more real. Whether you are visiting an overturned trailer, or a small town in Florida, Canty is able to draw the reader in and keep them on his ride with every twist and turn of the story. The only drawback to this work is that his word choice seems a little odd at times. This doesn’t detract from meaning in the stories, and is excusable for his first work. Painting dark and moody pictures, full of the unexpected, Canty has managed to create an exciting set of unusual tales that aren’t all that unusual.

[Tuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

gah, this is sooooo overdue. this is where it all started. canty's signatures of grit, fucked up interpersonal relationships, struggles to connect, beautiful and redemptive nature (even if, or especially so if used and abused by humans), montana. oh, that interpersonal i always use? from this great novel Londonstani and canty? try the full length on for style Nine Below Zero

[Michele Berger · Rating 5 out of 5]

The characters in this book were simply unforgettable. Canty writes about people on the margins often making glaringly stupid choices. The characters are depressing, compelling and funny all at the same time. I loved every story in this collection. I wanted to understand how he created his short stories, so I took to writing out some of his sentences, studying how he began and ended his stories, what happened in the middle of his stories, etc. I fell in love with the writing all over again.

[José Vivas M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesante set de historias cortas, donde mandan las malas decisiones, las circunstancias horribles o anormales de vidas anónimas, la imposibilidad de escapar de circunstancias culposas y pasados vergonzosos. Y donde sin embargo se encuentra poesía y redención.

[Glen Helfand · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kevin Canty's stories are solid. His terrain is dark Americana, people on the edge, lost, loserly, disenfranchised. The cover has a Nan Goldin photo of a man (maybe David Armstrong), handsome in aviator sunglasses, a lit cigarette in his hands. This was published in the 90s, and it feels that way. The writing flows, but I kept thinking about why, in collections like these, everyone is damaged in a fundamental way. Their decisions are deeply flawed. That's how it works. Would I prefer reading stories with happy endings? Not exactly. But giving in to messy fantasies or falling into the ingrained traps of wrong relationships is a cliche. Do we feel better imagining situations that exaggerate our own inclinations? I wondered this as I tore through these narratives. Is happiness a literary problem?

[robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

All of the stories I sampled were good but the ugly, masculine darkness is so overwhelming that we get worn out and depressed. In other words, the stories are better than my rating but watching people hurt other people brings me down and I don't like the hopeless, helpless, frustrated way it makes me feel. JUNK, THE VICTIM, and BLUE BOY were all vivid bummers. The only story that wasn't quite as bleak to me as the others was the valedictory A STRANGER IN THIS WORLD.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This guy hits it hard, in all directions.
I've got his '05 novel on deck.

[Brandon Merkley · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

[Kees IJzerman · Rating 5 out of 5]

To err is human. Man, the humans in Canty's stories sure live up to that saying.

Beautiful writing, poignant observations, heartwrenchingly good 'slices of life'.

Will be reading more Canty.

[Samir Rawas Sarayji · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘Overwhelmed’ would be the appropriate word to apply when I thought of putting this review into words. Kevin Canty’s A Stranger in this World delivers on every aspect of the craft of writing while mesmerizing a reader in a diversity of eerie, tension-filled stories. This collection of 10 short stories is the first material I have read by this author and I must admit, it had been a while since a book made me stop reading all other books I was reading until I finished it. An even greater challenge was forcing myself to take it slow and savor the style and mastery of the executed words, suppressing the desire to succumb to the electrifying storytelling.

Opening Lines

I love a story (even in a novel) where an opening line grabs you and throws you into the story immediately. Most of Canty’s stories achieve this feat and here are a couple of my favorites:

On the verge of divorce, they headed for Florida: an island in the Gulf, a place they remembered as a refuge, dolphins, pelicans, vodka-and-Cheez Whiz picnics.
—from ‘Moonbeams and Aspirin’

Marian is in the bedroom, Saturday afternoon, talking to her sister on the telephone, when her two year old Will walks in with a plastic bag over his head.
—from ‘Safety’

Something Different

While the structure of the stories follows that of the traditional short story, one story, in particular, was different. They were snippets of scenes one or two paragraphs long, and they were each titled, which give them a theme: a character, an image, a function and so on. This had the marvelous effect of zooming me into each specific moment. I would interpret the title in the context of the story so far and make a prediction of its relevance to the forthcoming snippet. Canty then holds my hand and stirs me along down his trodden path. The genius is, the title is simple enough to give you a picture of where the story is heading, but how it unfolds remains the charm.

He slumps in the passenger seat, fat and regal, fumbling a Merit out of the crumpled pack on the dash. The inside of his car is like an ashtray with chairs.
—from ‘The Victim’

Themes that Rattle

There is an array of moving and disturbing themes in this collection that require a master storyteller to keep you interested and appreciative of the stories. Canty writes about a manipulative alcoholic mother whose husband and kid would rather disassociate with, in ‘King of the Elephants’. He writes about a mentally handicapped girl having sex with a guilt-ridden boy in ‘Pretty Judy’. He writes about a cancer patient who accepts his dying condition while everyone around him is in denial and won’t utter the word ‘cancer’ to him, in ‘Great Falls, 1966’. And the list goes on, one brilliant theme after another.

I would have to say that my favorite story is ‘the Victim’ mentioned above, both for its originality and the jolting tension. A scene that particularly stuck out was where a couple ended up in a looser’s overturned caravan, in the middle of nowhere, with a gun pointed at their heads:

“All right, girlfriend,” Lyle says. ” You can do me now.”

A sudden, sickening conviction sweeps through her, the knowledge that this was all her fault, that if she had been smarter or stronger or somehow better, this would never have happened, and tears of futility and rage – rage at herself, at her circumstances – began to form in her eyes.

“You think I’m fucking kidding?” Lyle says, tapping her temple with the barrel of the gun. “Take it now, girlfriend.”

“Leave her alone,” Bobby says quietly.

[David Breedlove · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kevin Canty gives the his admissions of humanity in A Stranger in This World. This a book of 10 individual short stories. Each story contains different characters and different events, while maintaining an overall theme of strife and personal reflection. The stories contain drug addicts, alcoholics, sexual desires, and everything dirty in the world. He contradicts this with human emotions, compassion, and beauty. There is blunt honesty oozing through the pages. Usually his main characters are those caught in the middle. They are the sons of alcoholics and runaway parents, girlfriends caught in life or death situations, youth on the brink of adulthood trying to make the grown-up decisions, middle-aged attempting to peace together broken lives, and a dog killer. They all face traumatic events, circumstances that would leave a person to choose a path. Some characters are faced with a fork in the road, they can either choose to keep on in the way they were, in sadness, behind bars, or free themselves of burden and responsibility. Most are just honest people trying to understand the world and deal with the problematic lives they’ve been thrown into (humanity).
The book begins with, “King of Elephants,” about a teenager, Raymond, with two alcoholic parents. In a story where the roles of parent and child have been reversed, Raymond is burdened with the volatility of his unpredictable and irresponsible parents. As he explains his mother, “we passed her around like the black queen in a game of hearts, the cops to the hospital, the hospital to my father, my father to me. I was the one who could not pass her on.” He dreams of a life far away and without them. “The Victim,” centers around a teenage girl, her insecurities and her half-caring boyfriend. When she’s put in a life or death situation and finds out a little more about herself. In these stories you get to feel what the main character feels. “Junk,” is a story about a middle-aged man, who is trying to live a less chaotic life now. With a new, strait-edge, girl with less dramatic hobbies. He’s turning a new leaf when the past catches up with him. Canty takes you on a wild ride, drinking, doing drugs, high speed chases avoiding gun wielding bikers, pistol toting drunks, car accidents.
Each story is perfectly crafted with specific details sparking your five senses. The language pulls you into the story world with images of mountain tops, the smell of waxy band-aids, the feeling of a breath on the back of your neck. You are in the car with a blind man behind the wheel. You are standing in a tipped over mobile home, grabbing beers out of a refrigerator on its side. You are in the kennel, feeling the insanity of constant barking. You are in a dark room, unaware of your surroundings. Canty paints the picture, surrounds us with the story, its inhabitants, its dangers, and its kindness. The language is brutally honest. Some stories are told in first person and some in third person, but all are so detail oriented and well crafted that you believe you’re reading non-fiction, actual accounts. His stories are fiction, but they become real and somewhat personal.

[Saxon · Rating 3 out of 5]

There’s very little BS with Canty’s writing. It’s terse, effectual and doesn’t have any need for lofty words and dictionary-grabbing adjectives. It works well for the context of are highly unromantic, bleak and anxious stories. His got a serious grip on his prose and it comes off smooth and easy. But then there are those stories, those seriously ridiculously, B-movie suspense flick-like stories and it bums me out. I can hear a voice-over, like for a trailer to a bad movie, when reading some of these. You know the ones; the guy with the deep voice who annunciates every word just a little too well:

“THE VICTIM”: “It was just another night at the beach with her lover. Until one accident would change their lives forever!”

”JUNK”: Parker was a small, town man with a jaded past just trying to get his life straight. BUT what happens if the past comes TO YOU??

Then there are other stories, like “Moonbeams and Aspirin” or “Elephant” that just feel incomplete. Not all is for a loss, though. There are a couple gems in here where the uninspiring, monotony of life’s letdowns leads to brief, fleeting moments that satisfy but never completely. In these stories, Canty’s quick, witty layman’s prose works perfect. Its just when he tries to do too much, (or too little) that things go awry.

[Travis Lindeman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really love the writing of Kevin Canty. His stories are all about being on the brink, that moment in which one is dragged inexorably in a direction they did not intend. Even when the actions which put them there are deplorable we do not admonish the protagonist, we see them as a victim. Creating this sense of empathy with questionable moral characters requires an attention to detail most writers could not be as succinct about. Canty owes a great deal to Carver and Cheever.

Wonderful short stories that are hard to put down. You could even read them aloud to someone but don't expect to stir up romance.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like Canty's sense of place in these stories. As the jacket copy reads, it's Ford-esque (I wouldn't say Carveresque), but most of the stories read like they come from a writer who really likes Ford, but just (obviously) isn't. Similar, and well written, but just not quite there. Some unearned and unnecessary violence as a few climaxes. Overall a good read, and as I said I like his attention to the landscape (virtually ignored by most/all east coast writers), but just a little something was missing here. I'll check out his other collections.

[John Jeffire · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just dig these stories. They are unsettling, but only because we know that Canty dares to expose something horribly real in life. For example, the story "Pretty Judy," in which a young boy is ultimately responsible for taking sexual advantage of a mentally handicapped neighbor. The mere thought of this is repulsive, yet such depravity is, unfortunately, part of our damaged human experience. Read this book only if you are prepared to feel your skin crawl.

[Jan-Jaap van Peperstraten · Rating 5 out of 5]

A powerful, beautiful collection of stories so searingly sad that it makes you wonder how the protagonists manage to keep themselves afloat at all. In this world there's no cheap grace, and possibly no costly grace either, and for their sins are denied even the relative, tragic pathos of the damned. But averting one's gaze from these crashes-in-(not-so)-slow motion? Impossible.

[Karie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great collection of short stories. Not an uplifting one, but anyone who sticks a Nan Goldin on the cover of his book has good taste. Luckily his writing is really, really good. I was glued to this book like pasties on a double-shift stripper.

[amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading these stories ruined my night. I went from telling myself that "nothing is fucked" and nearly believing it, to being absolutely convinced that "everything is fucked," and the transition was so easy. Very 90s, if that makes sense...

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

An unsettling collection of stories where each character seems to be hanging in the balance between two worlds: one of good choices, the straight-and-narrow, and happy endings; and the other of chaos, and disaster. This is probably the best, most engaging story collection I've ever read.

[Kendall]

Not as good as his other book of stories I read- the one published after this one. These stories were off kilter- to weird for me- depressing almost. I'm a little tired of this is life- look how much it sucks for us ordinary people type stories.