Tired People Seeing America

by Claire Hopple

From historical reenactors to water bed owners to professional mermaids, these stories show eccentric characters grappling with the postmodern American landscape and how it affects personal identity.

Genres: Short Stories

138 pages, Paperback

Published July 31, 2019

Reviews

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew I liked Hopple's writing from various pieces on the internet, but reading this collection has turned her into one of my favorite new small press voices. These stories (most of them a tight six pages) were unexpectedly odd in the best ways: crazy sentences, glitchy non-linear observations, and mysterious Diane Williams-ish endings. Either these are simple stories told in an unpredictable way or they're unpredictable stories told in a simple style--I'm not sure which, but they struck me as shining brilliantly, cleanly, hilariously, inside their strange structures. I've been reading about ten different books during this quarantine and this one stuck out as my favorite.

[Tyler Barton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Claire Hopple must define ‘story’ differently than any other writer. And I mean that in the best way. I haven’t read stories like this. Many unforgettable moments, details, asides, jokes, and metaphors.

[Goodreeds User · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dizzying!

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stories in this book, as someone very erudite would say, defy paraphrase. Things happen in them, but explaining them would take longer than reading these mostly short stories, and telling about what happened wouldn't really convey the disorientation of actually reading the stories. It happened to me regularly while reading these stories to be surprised about who was telling the story-- I'd think, middle aged man, and have it turn out to be a prescient 12 year old girl. Some of the stories definitely change the POV character partway through. And that sense of confusion carries over to the events of the story, which are striking and fully-realized while also being incredibly strange. Working at zoos, for example, or house sitting for a relative, can be at once so clearly developed by Hopple and also so puzzling for the way in these common-enough settings, upsetting and strange things happen, all presented in clear, lucid prose. Though we are in the heads of the characters in most of these stories, they are not the one who are unreliable. It's their reality.

Strange, elliptical, and made up of pieces that don't always come together the first time you read them. The design on this book is really attractive. Good stuff.

[C · Rating 4 out of 5]

I *love* this collection.

I ran into Hopple's work through a Twitter link and immediately had to order this book and I am so glad that I did. It is weird in the most wonderful of ways. These stories wander, they set you off of your footing. They're a little mysterious and a little infectious. These are not stories that you have read before. They're a little comfortable and a little unsettling, calm and frenzied. They're just that good.

If I had to put a negative at all, I would say that the story chosen to open the book was my least favorite of the collection. It's a little thing - and personal preference -but it did worry me about the book. That went away really quickly though. (I mostly say this only for anyone who doesn't necessarily "feel" the first story so that they continue on.)

I also want to say that Dostoyevsky Wannabe press publishes some gorgeous books.

[Josh Sherman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of these stories remind me of Edward Hopper paintings, but contemporary (and better). They also remind me of Miranda July stories (but way better) and early William Saroyan, in a way. Some of my favourite things about these stories are little details, small features: a father sends Google calendar invites to address his shortcomings, rather than events; someone interprets a front-desk hotel worker's generic comments as life advice; and another character leaves bits of themselves — hair, nails, etc. — all over the place, cataloguing all the places they remain.

Anyways, I'll be buying copies for all my (reading) friends, showing them what contemporary fiction can be and proof of what BS Johnson said it should be: "Funny, brutalist, and short."

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Both mysterious and ordinary, absorbing and exasperating, gentle and abrasive, you read and re read and get more from these short pieces each time. They're about dementia, old age, death, zoos, hotels, conferences, neighbours, cars stopping and starting and driving to new states/States. Attempts to begin new lives in new places to be lonely in, hopes are often crushed but new ones start up, new approaches open up. We all seem like characters in these flash pieces. I will re-read again.

[Daniel DiFranco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tired People Seeing America is a collection of stories that hover, full of the brief, fleeting, and poignant moments that are tucked away in the small closets of our hearts and minds—those private, transient, and almost ethereal moments that live on the other side of the self we project. Claire Hopple’s characters are lost and worn and they are examined with a pin perfect exactness that reaches for and touches the sublime. Tired People Seeing America is modern American short fiction in top form.

[Jan Stinchcomb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Claire Hopple's stories always make me nostalgic for things I didn't even know I was missing. In her second collection she does it again: tilts ordinary American life until it appears extraordinary, unexpected, alternately disconcerting and amusing. This is a quick, enjoyable read ideal for airplanes and subway rides.

[Josh Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is the product of exfoliating the face of America. While some stories were sleepy and reflective, there were also some that were gripping and cautious. Like all of us, we may not see the whole, but we can surely find understanding in the bits and pieces.

[Joshua Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

As soon as I picked up this book I was immediately hooked! I would have read it all in one setting if I hadn't have had to tear myself away to make dinner and do chores. I was a complete stranger to Claire Hopple's writing before picking up this collection of short stories, buying the book on a whim when placing a bulk order from the publisher, Dostoevsky Wannabe. I can say with confidence that Tired People Seeing America was an excellent choice.

The stories are absurd, witty, seriously funny and also starkly observant. 'A Catalogue of Leavings' questions "your truths" against "my truths", presents ideas for multiple realities, and how that affects our identities. It's a story of being, leaving with heaps of surreal humour, existential beauty and beautiful writing. The titular story 'Tired People Seeing America' is another story of being, leaving - and becoming. In the story a woman finds an abandoned house, and decides to move in. This story had me wanting to know the answer to questions such as "Why do I never see female ice cream drivers?" This story, and all the other stories in the collection, had me pondering these questions with equal parts humour and sincerity.
I couldn't recommend this book enough!

Favourite stories:
A Catalogue of Leavings
Tired People Seeing America
Isthmus
Fifty-Two Pickup

[Mart Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full disclosure: I know Claire through work. Also full disclosure: I am so glad I do, particularly after reading this collection of her stories. After the first story, I had to grab a highlighter so that I could return to jewels like this: "Heading back from the conference, Nellie scribbled in a notebook for close to 40 minutes. I imagined her writing a letter to the chapstick company for making her dependent upon their product 'to an unmanageable degree.'" I can honestly say that there's nothing quite like it on my bookshelf.

[Alexandra · Rating 1 out of 5]

Partly a victim of expectations-- for some reason I thought this would be a semi-sociology nonfiction in the vein of Dispatches from Pluto or Alienated America. It is instead a strange collection of short stories. The 3 I read before giving up didn't develop plot wise or give any particular insight into the characters. Undeveloped writing, moving on.