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Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons: Stories
With Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons, award-winning author Keith Rosson once again delves into notions of family, identity, indebtedness, loss, and hope, with the surefooted merging of literary fiction and magical realism he’s explored in previous novels.
In “Dunsmuir,” a newly sober husband buys a hearse to help his wife spread her sister’s ashes, while “The Lesser Horsemen” illustrates what happens when God instructs the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse to go on a team-building cruise as a way of boosting their frayed morale. In “Brad Benske and the Hand of Light,” an estranged husband seeks his wife’s whereabouts through a fortune teller after she absconds with a cult, and the returning soldier in “Homecoming” navigates the strange and ghostly confines of his hometown, as well as the boundaries of his own grief.
With grace, imagination, and a brazen gallows humor, Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons merges the fantastic and the everyday, and includes new work as well as award-winning favorites.
In “Dunsmuir,” a newly sober husband buys a hearse to help his wife spread her sister’s ashes, while “The Lesser Horsemen” illustrates what happens when God instructs the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse to go on a team-building cruise as a way of boosting their frayed morale. In “Brad Benske and the Hand of Light,” an estranged husband seeks his wife’s whereabouts through a fortune teller after she absconds with a cult, and the returning soldier in “Homecoming” navigates the strange and ghostly confines of his hometown, as well as the boundaries of his own grief.
With grace, imagination, and a brazen gallows humor, Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons merges the fantastic and the everyday, and includes new work as well as award-winning favorites.
206 pages, Paperback
First published February 23, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 121 reviews
February 11, 2021
My first experience reading Keith Rosson was Road Seven, an off-kilter yarn about a disgraced cryptozoologist’s journey to a pumpkin farm in Hvíldarland to investigate a unicorn sighting. Oh yes, there is also a secret military base nearby potentially plotting to bring about the end of the world.
This sense of zany fun is definitely present in ‘The Lesser Horsemen’, which is Rosson’s wacky take on the fallout if God were ever to instruct the Four Horsemen to go on a team-building cruise. Yes, there is a corporate pecking order even with the Apocalypse.
Rosson then veers off into some truly unexpected and dark territory: ‘At this Table’ is a quietly effective ghost story about a haunted restaurant, while ‘Baby Jill’ relooks at the Tooth Fairy myth through a very twisted prism.
In line with the theme of ghosts and hauntings, ‘Their Souls Climb the Room’ is a harrowing look at the Good Acres Foods hog-slaughtering plant and one man in particular who works there, the ex-con Nolan, who “could feel the souls of all the dead hogs pressing on his chest, pressing down on his ribcage like something real.”
‘Yes, We are Duly Concerned with Calamitous Events’ is a quiet end-of-the-world tale confined to a single office building, which begins with the memorable sentence: “Twenty-three days after the world kind of ends, we all watch as Human Resources Randy strangles the temp with a mouse cord.”
An apocalyptic cult called the Hand of Light features in a couple of tales. What is interesting about this collection is that the bulk of the stories are very interior and low-key, focused on intense characterisation rather than narrative sleight of hand. A lot of stories also do not have traditional endings, leaving the reader with a strong sense of ‘in media res’, as if Rosson is merely giving you a glimpse of an alternate reality before shutting the door in your face.
It is a brave choice for a writer to make, and I am confident that readers attracted to this collection will enjoy the ambiguity and nuance that Rosson brings to this fresh crop of tales. I must say I was expecting the title to pop up in one of the stories. While music does play a large role in many characters’ lives, especially in the background, we never do find out what sort of folk songs trauma surgeons could possibly listen to.
If I had to characterise Rosson’s aesthetic as a writer, I would have to say that he is a hybrid of (dark) Ray Bradbury and (kooky) Stephen King. If reading short stories is not your cup of tea, I am sure that this book, with its careful curation of dreams and terrors, failures and lonely epiphanies, might just change your mind.
This sense of zany fun is definitely present in ‘The Lesser Horsemen’, which is Rosson’s wacky take on the fallout if God were ever to instruct the Four Horsemen to go on a team-building cruise. Yes, there is a corporate pecking order even with the Apocalypse.
Rosson then veers off into some truly unexpected and dark territory: ‘At this Table’ is a quietly effective ghost story about a haunted restaurant, while ‘Baby Jill’ relooks at the Tooth Fairy myth through a very twisted prism.
In line with the theme of ghosts and hauntings, ‘Their Souls Climb the Room’ is a harrowing look at the Good Acres Foods hog-slaughtering plant and one man in particular who works there, the ex-con Nolan, who “could feel the souls of all the dead hogs pressing on his chest, pressing down on his ribcage like something real.”
‘Yes, We are Duly Concerned with Calamitous Events’ is a quiet end-of-the-world tale confined to a single office building, which begins with the memorable sentence: “Twenty-three days after the world kind of ends, we all watch as Human Resources Randy strangles the temp with a mouse cord.”
An apocalyptic cult called the Hand of Light features in a couple of tales. What is interesting about this collection is that the bulk of the stories are very interior and low-key, focused on intense characterisation rather than narrative sleight of hand. A lot of stories also do not have traditional endings, leaving the reader with a strong sense of ‘in media res’, as if Rosson is merely giving you a glimpse of an alternate reality before shutting the door in your face.
It is a brave choice for a writer to make, and I am confident that readers attracted to this collection will enjoy the ambiguity and nuance that Rosson brings to this fresh crop of tales. I must say I was expecting the title to pop up in one of the stories. While music does play a large role in many characters’ lives, especially in the background, we never do find out what sort of folk songs trauma surgeons could possibly listen to.
If I had to characterise Rosson’s aesthetic as a writer, I would have to say that he is a hybrid of (dark) Ray Bradbury and (kooky) Stephen King. If reading short stories is not your cup of tea, I am sure that this book, with its careful curation of dreams and terrors, failures and lonely epiphanies, might just change your mind.
May 23, 2024
When you crack the pages of Keith Rosson’s ”Folk Songs For Trauma Surgeons,” you are entering a world which appears in some ways like our own, but the laws of physics and metaphors don’t apply. These are fifteen dips into a percolating pot of gumbo that may prove too spicy for many. It’s dark, haunting, and has rather few rainbows and unicorns. Starting with the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse who have been sent on a corporate training session on an Alaska Cruise. We later get a corporate office sealed off from the outside world kind of like Orwell’s Animal Farm, but creepier. We get a tooth fairy with ethical qualms. And, you will never look at hog slaughtering the same way after reading the stories in this book. It’s as if Rosson took one corner of our universe and shoved it out there into the twilight zone and now everything is kind of tilted out of kilter. Enjoy this read but be forewarned it’s a perilous journey.
September 27, 2023
Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons is, first of all, a book with an amazing title. It's also a collection of well written gritty, contemporary stories filled with hopelessness and some faint glimmers of light. Some of the stories reminded me a bit of Stephen Graham Jones, without the overt horror elements.
Opening with "The Lesser Horseman," about three of the four horsemen of the apocalypse being made redundant by an Almighty who takes the form of a lecherous middle management type provides a good springboard for the rest of the collection, although most of the stories don't reflect that element of humor.
My favorite stories in the collection were "Baby Jill" and "Homecoming," from which story the following quote is taken and which I think is pretty representative of the tone here:
"I don't know what to tell you," the old woman said. "There's no back, there's no forward. There's diminishment, and loss, and sorrow, and perhaps learning to find some dim purpose through the veil. That's it."
3.5 stars rounded up to 4 because those two stories I mentioned were definite 5 stars for me.
Opening with "The Lesser Horseman," about three of the four horsemen of the apocalypse being made redundant by an Almighty who takes the form of a lecherous middle management type provides a good springboard for the rest of the collection, although most of the stories don't reflect that element of humor.
My favorite stories in the collection were "Baby Jill" and "Homecoming," from which story the following quote is taken and which I think is pretty representative of the tone here:
"I don't know what to tell you," the old woman said. "There's no back, there's no forward. There's diminishment, and loss, and sorrow, and perhaps learning to find some dim purpose through the veil. That's it."
3.5 stars rounded up to 4 because those two stories I mentioned were definite 5 stars for me.
January 6, 2026
Dark and introspective, this collection insists that there is no tragedy so deep it necessarily drowns all hope. Some of the stories have a surrealist wit to them, especially at the beginning of the collection, but they soon get dark and heavy quite quickly. Although some of the stories feature supernatural elements I would be hard-pressed to categorize the entire collection as “horror,” that it is definitely dark fiction that is made for basements and cobwebbed corners. The fifteen stories fly by and vary in terms of characters, settings, and ideas, but they often feature characters who have been dealt a bad hand. Or, really, a few bad hands, again and again, with addiction and heartbreak being some of the recurring motifs. Yet many of the stories, as intense and heavy as they get, create a space for the human spirit to shine. These stories don’t have the grimdark, nihilistic approach to suffering and the justification of violence that would not be unexpected given the subject matter he is navigating. That isn’t to say these al have happy endings, just that, across the collection, Rosson shows that life at its bleakest is still life, and hence full of the potential for surprise.
The writing is consistently beautiful across the stories. It is playful and it cares for its characters, never judging them but instead presenting them as flawed, broken, and relatable. The writing doesn’t feel like it has a stark or brutalist edge, even though it is direct and not purple in any way. It feels efficient but emotional, uncompromising in its pacing and honesty but not trying to hold your face in the mud, never relishing any of the awful things that may befall its characters. These stories were not written for this collection, they were published widely elsewhere and brought together here, and because of that there is a sense of sameness, by the end. Not in the settings or topics or characters, necessarily, but certainly in the tone, especially exempting the first few stories. However, I read the collection straight through and this didn’t bother me, but it did make the final stories a little more predictable—not enough to steal my enjoyment from them, though. He does play with narrative form and voice across the collection, so even at a structural level there is enough to keep my interest even when I can guess what final turns a story may take.
The writing is consistently introspective, emotional, and just great, the characters are personable, multi-dimensional, and engaging, and the themes and ideas grounded and feel like they are approached with intent and care. While the stories do cover a lot of emotional ground they feel rooted in a sense of personal truth, exploring what it means to know yourself and how you respond to the difficulties and obstacles of life, whether you can preserve your humanity in a world intent on stripping it from you.
The writing is consistently beautiful across the stories. It is playful and it cares for its characters, never judging them but instead presenting them as flawed, broken, and relatable. The writing doesn’t feel like it has a stark or brutalist edge, even though it is direct and not purple in any way. It feels efficient but emotional, uncompromising in its pacing and honesty but not trying to hold your face in the mud, never relishing any of the awful things that may befall its characters. These stories were not written for this collection, they were published widely elsewhere and brought together here, and because of that there is a sense of sameness, by the end. Not in the settings or topics or characters, necessarily, but certainly in the tone, especially exempting the first few stories. However, I read the collection straight through and this didn’t bother me, but it did make the final stories a little more predictable—not enough to steal my enjoyment from them, though. He does play with narrative form and voice across the collection, so even at a structural level there is enough to keep my interest even when I can guess what final turns a story may take.
The writing is consistently introspective, emotional, and just great, the characters are personable, multi-dimensional, and engaging, and the themes and ideas grounded and feel like they are approached with intent and care. While the stories do cover a lot of emotional ground they feel rooted in a sense of personal truth, exploring what it means to know yourself and how you respond to the difficulties and obstacles of life, whether you can preserve your humanity in a world intent on stripping it from you.
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February 18, 2024N.B. I do not rate on Goodreads, so please read my review.
Having read this collection I'm not at all surprised it won the Shirley Jackson Award for best collection (2021).
My personal favourites were:
The Lesser Horsemen (opening story - dark, clever wit)
Baby Jill (a unique take on The Tooth Fairy, a brand new angle, and oh so human)
This World or the Next (Cultist story, oh so scary but also touching)
Gifts (A post-apocalyptic break-up story. Both atmospheric and claustrophobic)
Yes, We Are Duly Concerned With Calamitous Events (hilarious dark humor that captures the 'groundhog day' and alienation associated with working in an office to perfection)
Dunsmuir (just brilliant, and what an ending! Oh my heart!)
Homecoming (Surreal, dreamlike quality, explores PTSD to some degree, but it also has a dark fairytale vibe)
The Melody of the Thing (Again, the observational detail makes it so immersive, and the ending...OMG!)
Brad Benske and the Hand of Light (both funny and tragic - displays the best and worst in people)
The only story I couldn't read was Their Souls Climb the Room and this is because it's a story set in an abattoir. No doubt is was excellent, but I simply can't. (And yes, I am a vegetarian and have been for over 30 years, so I'm not being a hypocrite, before anyone raises an eyebrow.)
All the stories are uniquely conceptualized, but my biggest take is the incredible attention to detail. This is a writer who is highly observant of the world he lives in, and it is these details that for me made the collection so immersive. I lived the majority of stories, was actually there. Rosson is a talented and experienced writer at the top of his game.
Will I read more from him in the future? You bet ya!
Having read this collection I'm not at all surprised it won the Shirley Jackson Award for best collection (2021).
My personal favourites were:
The Lesser Horsemen (opening story - dark, clever wit)
Baby Jill (a unique take on The Tooth Fairy, a brand new angle, and oh so human)
This World or the Next (Cultist story, oh so scary but also touching)
Gifts (A post-apocalyptic break-up story. Both atmospheric and claustrophobic)
Yes, We Are Duly Concerned With Calamitous Events (hilarious dark humor that captures the 'groundhog day' and alienation associated with working in an office to perfection)
Dunsmuir (just brilliant, and what an ending! Oh my heart!)
Homecoming (Surreal, dreamlike quality, explores PTSD to some degree, but it also has a dark fairytale vibe)
The Melody of the Thing (Again, the observational detail makes it so immersive, and the ending...OMG!)
Brad Benske and the Hand of Light (both funny and tragic - displays the best and worst in people)
The only story I couldn't read was Their Souls Climb the Room and this is because it's a story set in an abattoir. No doubt is was excellent, but I simply can't. (And yes, I am a vegetarian and have been for over 30 years, so I'm not being a hypocrite, before anyone raises an eyebrow.)
All the stories are uniquely conceptualized, but my biggest take is the incredible attention to detail. This is a writer who is highly observant of the world he lives in, and it is these details that for me made the collection so immersive. I lived the majority of stories, was actually there. Rosson is a talented and experienced writer at the top of his game.
Will I read more from him in the future? You bet ya!
August 10, 2021
This collection of stories was very 'real' feeling. Intense, violent, and sad; but very truthful about how messed up the word is. If you want to feel better about your own life this is a set of short stories that is likely to help because these stories are brutal.
Story #1 - The Lesser Horsemen
I’ve always thought Death didn’t fit in with the other horsemen. I mean all of their powers result in death. This story really nails on the head this issue. As well as brings up a great ‘new’ horseman.
Although I can’t help but wonder if our buddy Pestilence should get a sequel since covid hit. (Nervous laughter?)
Story #2 - At This Table
Footnotes!! Gotta love a good (generally useless) footnote.
Sadly the story is meh.
Story #3 - Baby Jill
What is it about tooth fairy stories lately? This has to be like the fourth or fifth I’ve read this year! Granted three were in one fairy anthology; but still.
This one is odd… feels more like an opening to something bigger.
Story #4 - Their Souls Climb the Room
A. I like pork and no amount of gory slaughterhouse descriptions is likely to change that,
B. If this is attempting to compare slaughtering pigs to killing humans it misses the mark.
If the story is just about loving pigs and not eating them then I'm a poor target audience. *shrugs*
Story #5 - Hospitality
Wow, shocker of an ending. I can’t say anything about this without possibly tipping off too much. So I’ll just say wow.
Story #6 - This World or the Next
An interesting little story about the connection, or difference, between a head injury and what most would call a religious experience. Can they be one and the same?
Story #7 - Gifts
Dark, forbidding, and depressing. This story would make an amazing full length novel or movie.
Story #8 - Coyote
It feels like there are about 20 pages missing to this story. A piece where we learn about the brother a bit more; something other than his heartbreak.
Story #9 - Yes, We are Duly Concerned with Calamitous Events
Well this is very disturbing. A Lord of the Flies with office workers. Another visceral story in which I can't quite peg the reason that people are motivated to kill in awful ways. Very strange and a bit psychotic.
Story #10 - Winter, Spring, Whatever Happens After That
This is a very sad, yet realistic story of a family destroyed by alcoholism, poverty, and the failure of the ‘American Dream’. The children; a young boy and a teen girl, are stuck in the cross-fire of it all and suffer because of it. A good account of how circular life is and that the choices we make affect the children around us immensely and (all too often) negatively.
Story #11 - Forgive Me This
Another father to child (in this case a son) story that is sad all around. I can only wonder at Rosson’s relationship with his parents if he has garnered inspiration for his stories from them...
Story #12 - Dunsmuir
This may be the most hopeful story of this collection. While it has murder, drugs, and alcoholism. It also has rehab, (what passes for) justice, and a baby. Really well put together and could easily be a full fledged novel with a lot of introspective comments in it.
One critique is that snakes do not molt. They shed. These are very different activities. One involves feathers (molting), the other involves scales (shedding). It really bugs me when people get info on snakes incorrect! My poor babies are so misunderstood.
Story #13 - Homecoming
I’m not sure if Rossom means this afterlife to be a type of hell or not. But if hell is as desolate as described here then it might be worse than fires and constant physical pain. Bring on Satan and his whips instead please!
Story #14 - The Melody of the Thing
Brutally violent story about how one innocuous decision can bring everything to a grinding halt.
Also a reminder that we leave people with little proper care once they leave the hospital. Super sad; even if the ending has some hope in it. The violence here would warrant a warning; but then if you've read this many stories in the anthology, in order, you aren't likely to be surprised by this escalation in violence and gore.
Story #15 - Brad Benske and the Hand of Light
This final story is a bit odd but interesting. It is about a man with anger management issues (who is trying to 'handle' them); and a woman who is a bit flighty.
Overall
All of these stories so far are so well written and most have been very clever. I’m definitely going to keep my eye on Rosson. His early (first two) novels were only okay; but these stories suggest major talent. Highly recommend this for any horror fans or those who want some really dark insights into our lives as humans.
Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.
Story #1 - The Lesser Horsemen
I’ve always thought Death didn’t fit in with the other horsemen. I mean all of their powers result in death. This story really nails on the head this issue. As well as brings up a great ‘new’ horseman.
Although I can’t help but wonder if our buddy Pestilence should get a sequel since covid hit. (Nervous laughter?)
Story #2 - At This Table
Footnotes!! Gotta love a good (generally useless) footnote.
Sadly the story is meh.
Story #3 - Baby Jill
What is it about tooth fairy stories lately? This has to be like the fourth or fifth I’ve read this year! Granted three were in one fairy anthology; but still.
This one is odd… feels more like an opening to something bigger.
Story #4 - Their Souls Climb the Room
A. I like pork and no amount of gory slaughterhouse descriptions is likely to change that,
B. If this is attempting to compare slaughtering pigs to killing humans it misses the mark.
If the story is just about loving pigs and not eating them then I'm a poor target audience. *shrugs*
Story #5 - Hospitality
Wow, shocker of an ending. I can’t say anything about this without possibly tipping off too much. So I’ll just say wow.
Story #6 - This World or the Next
An interesting little story about the connection, or difference, between a head injury and what most would call a religious experience. Can they be one and the same?
Story #7 - Gifts
Dark, forbidding, and depressing. This story would make an amazing full length novel or movie.
Story #8 - Coyote
It feels like there are about 20 pages missing to this story. A piece where we learn about the brother a bit more; something other than his heartbreak.
Story #9 - Yes, We are Duly Concerned with Calamitous Events
Well this is very disturbing. A Lord of the Flies with office workers. Another visceral story in which I can't quite peg the reason that people are motivated to kill in awful ways. Very strange and a bit psychotic.
Story #10 - Winter, Spring, Whatever Happens After That
This is a very sad, yet realistic story of a family destroyed by alcoholism, poverty, and the failure of the ‘American Dream’. The children; a young boy and a teen girl, are stuck in the cross-fire of it all and suffer because of it. A good account of how circular life is and that the choices we make affect the children around us immensely and (all too often) negatively.
Story #11 - Forgive Me This
Another father to child (in this case a son) story that is sad all around. I can only wonder at Rosson’s relationship with his parents if he has garnered inspiration for his stories from them...
Story #12 - Dunsmuir
This may be the most hopeful story of this collection. While it has murder, drugs, and alcoholism. It also has rehab, (what passes for) justice, and a baby. Really well put together and could easily be a full fledged novel with a lot of introspective comments in it.
One critique is that snakes do not molt. They shed. These are very different activities. One involves feathers (molting), the other involves scales (shedding). It really bugs me when people get info on snakes incorrect! My poor babies are so misunderstood.
Story #13 - Homecoming
I’m not sure if Rossom means this afterlife to be a type of hell or not. But if hell is as desolate as described here then it might be worse than fires and constant physical pain. Bring on Satan and his whips instead please!
Story #14 - The Melody of the Thing
Brutally violent story about how one innocuous decision can bring everything to a grinding halt.
Also a reminder that we leave people with little proper care once they leave the hospital. Super sad; even if the ending has some hope in it. The violence here would warrant a warning; but then if you've read this many stories in the anthology, in order, you aren't likely to be surprised by this escalation in violence and gore.
Story #15 - Brad Benske and the Hand of Light
This final story is a bit odd but interesting. It is about a man with anger management issues (who is trying to 'handle' them); and a woman who is a bit flighty.
Overall
All of these stories so far are so well written and most have been very clever. I’m definitely going to keep my eye on Rosson. His early (first two) novels were only okay; but these stories suggest major talent. Highly recommend this for any horror fans or those who want some really dark insights into our lives as humans.
Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.
February 26, 2021
Absolutely the most moving debut collection of short fiction I'VE ever written, I can say that much without reservation!
November 16, 2024
4.75 / 5
An incredibly solid collection, filled with dread, unease, and horrors of many kinds.
Beautifully written and conceptualized.
Loved it!
4.75 / 5
An incredibly solid collection, filled with dread, unease, and horrors of many kinds.
Beautifully written and conceptualized.
Loved it!
4.75 / 5
November 19, 2024
This is my first experience with Rosson's work, and it will not be the last. This collection mingles lyrical, intensely descriptive imagery with straight-to-the-marrow characterization and narrative. Populated by bleak—and yet, somehow, bizarrely warm—depictions of lives spent grasping at the fraying threads of the fringes of society, the stories range from the disenfranchised Horsemen of the Apocalypse to a "No Exit"-style entry set in an office that then devolves rapidly into something more like Lord of the Flies. Cults, death, drugs, abandonment and bad serendipity pockmark the rest of the book, but more often than not, are used as more of a backdrop to portray the character's arc than a direct focus of the story.
I found this to be remarkably effective, though: Rosson has an incredible ability to conjure up believable protagonists—most of whom are somewhere near the end of their rope, suffering through a barrage of ill-fortune—and the fulcrum of many of these stories is what causes them to snap or take action. It is testament to Rosson's storytelling that though many of the set-pieces are languid and ruminative, much of the collection feels urgently driven—like a sick, strung-out heart pistoning beneath the pages, gone tachycardic but at the point of exhaustion.
Curiously, the book begins with the aforementioned Horsemen story ("The Lesser Horsemen,") though it's not the last time the author flirts with the speculative and supernatural. "At This Table," a very David Foster Wallace-style meditation on love and fear of commitment, is nigh-on a stream of consciousness tale, riddled with footnotes and haunted by the presence of something more. The next two stories continue on this vein—"Baby Jill" and "Their Souls Climb the Room" both invoke the supernatural, but more in a metaphorical sense, to highlight the protagonist's suffering.
"Baby Jill," "Their Souls Climb the Room," "Yes, We Are Concerned With Calamitous Events" (the "No Exit"-style story,) "Gifts," and "Homecoming," I think, could all be considered 'speculative,' despite those pieces being only vaguely defined. Because of this largely environmental use of genre elements, I was reminded very sharply of David Lynch's work—specifically examples like Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet—but also such collections as Andrew F. Sullivan's All We Want Is Everything and Nathan Ballingrud's North American Lake Monsters.
The other half of the book is more squarely in the so-called "literary" tradition, and despite the lack of speculative factors, these stories were by far my favorites. "Winter, Spring and Whatever Happens After" stopped me in my tracks with its heartfelt depiction of a family only a few molecules away from total dissolution; the primary agent being parental abandonment. "Coyote" had shades of Raymond Carver's terrible dioramas, invoking the misery of the domestic but also conjuring primal forces both within and without. Many of these stories also heavily involve themes of substance abuse, addiction, and loss—but it was a later entry, "Dunsmuir," that cemented for me how much I loved this book.
"Dunsmuir," narrated from the perspective of a hapless—yet somehow still incredibly likable—fuck-up, reminded me intensely of some of the best of Denis Johnson's work. It's hard to find a story like this—one that will shatter you and then spend the rest of its time carefully picking up your pieces to tenderly glue them back together again. It's been a long time since I've read something so caustic and sad but also so celebratory of love and the brightest moments that bond us. I wept at the end of "Dunsmuir," and for a brief moment, imagined it was the mist of Rosson's waterfall on my face. A truly magical experience, reading that story for the first time, and I imagine I will be recommending it to many, many others in the future.
I must also make note of the two parallel stories in this collection—"This World or the Next," which introduces the cult of the Hand of the Light, and "Brad Benske and the Hand of Light," which moves to the perspective of a character only obliquely referenced in the first. More of this in single-author collections, please.
Rosson's unique ability to turn on a dime when it comes to characterization is fascinating, which both underlines and italicizes what came before, as well as gives deeper insights into motivations for those concerned in both entries. I imagine that this it will serve him in good stead when it comes to long-form fiction, and so I am very much anticipating getting into his novels soon.
I found this to be remarkably effective, though: Rosson has an incredible ability to conjure up believable protagonists—most of whom are somewhere near the end of their rope, suffering through a barrage of ill-fortune—and the fulcrum of many of these stories is what causes them to snap or take action. It is testament to Rosson's storytelling that though many of the set-pieces are languid and ruminative, much of the collection feels urgently driven—like a sick, strung-out heart pistoning beneath the pages, gone tachycardic but at the point of exhaustion.
Curiously, the book begins with the aforementioned Horsemen story ("The Lesser Horsemen,") though it's not the last time the author flirts with the speculative and supernatural. "At This Table," a very David Foster Wallace-style meditation on love and fear of commitment, is nigh-on a stream of consciousness tale, riddled with footnotes and haunted by the presence of something more. The next two stories continue on this vein—"Baby Jill" and "Their Souls Climb the Room" both invoke the supernatural, but more in a metaphorical sense, to highlight the protagonist's suffering.
"Baby Jill," "Their Souls Climb the Room," "Yes, We Are Concerned With Calamitous Events" (the "No Exit"-style story,) "Gifts," and "Homecoming," I think, could all be considered 'speculative,' despite those pieces being only vaguely defined. Because of this largely environmental use of genre elements, I was reminded very sharply of David Lynch's work—specifically examples like Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet—but also such collections as Andrew F. Sullivan's All We Want Is Everything and Nathan Ballingrud's North American Lake Monsters.
The other half of the book is more squarely in the so-called "literary" tradition, and despite the lack of speculative factors, these stories were by far my favorites. "Winter, Spring and Whatever Happens After" stopped me in my tracks with its heartfelt depiction of a family only a few molecules away from total dissolution; the primary agent being parental abandonment. "Coyote" had shades of Raymond Carver's terrible dioramas, invoking the misery of the domestic but also conjuring primal forces both within and without. Many of these stories also heavily involve themes of substance abuse, addiction, and loss—but it was a later entry, "Dunsmuir," that cemented for me how much I loved this book.
"Dunsmuir," narrated from the perspective of a hapless—yet somehow still incredibly likable—fuck-up, reminded me intensely of some of the best of Denis Johnson's work. It's hard to find a story like this—one that will shatter you and then spend the rest of its time carefully picking up your pieces to tenderly glue them back together again. It's been a long time since I've read something so caustic and sad but also so celebratory of love and the brightest moments that bond us. I wept at the end of "Dunsmuir," and for a brief moment, imagined it was the mist of Rosson's waterfall on my face. A truly magical experience, reading that story for the first time, and I imagine I will be recommending it to many, many others in the future.
I must also make note of the two parallel stories in this collection—"This World or the Next," which introduces the cult of the Hand of the Light, and "Brad Benske and the Hand of Light," which moves to the perspective of a character only obliquely referenced in the first. More of this in single-author collections, please.
Rosson's unique ability to turn on a dime when it comes to characterization is fascinating, which both underlines and italicizes what came before, as well as gives deeper insights into motivations for those concerned in both entries. I imagine that this it will serve him in good stead when it comes to long-form fiction, and so I am very much anticipating getting into his novels soon.
March 1, 2021
Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons is a short story collection that combines the everyday mundane with the fantastic and extraordinary. Like all short story collections, there were stories I loved, and stories I could live without. Most of the stories in Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons were strong for me, taking everyday events and adding unexpected details to create something exciting.
The first story of the collection, The Lesser Horsemen caught my attention with three out of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse sent on a cruise to work on their team building. This unexpected scenario combined with such a commonplace work task created an interesting and amusing story.
Baby Jill another favorite story of mine creating an emotional rollercoaster with the tooth fairy and what seems like run-of-the -mill workplace dynamics.
Yes, We Are Duly Concerned With Calamitous Events creates a humorous look at the kind-of end of the world through a group of dysfunctional office coworkers.
Homecoming is a heartfelt examination of the choices we make in life and the consequences we face after.
These are just a selection of my favorites from the collection. These stories made me think and all had deep emotional connections. Many had open endings creating a world of imagination for the characters when I was done reading.
This book was received for free in return for an honest review.
The first story of the collection, The Lesser Horsemen caught my attention with three out of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse sent on a cruise to work on their team building. This unexpected scenario combined with such a commonplace work task created an interesting and amusing story.
Baby Jill another favorite story of mine creating an emotional rollercoaster with the tooth fairy and what seems like run-of-the -mill workplace dynamics.
Yes, We Are Duly Concerned With Calamitous Events creates a humorous look at the kind-of end of the world through a group of dysfunctional office coworkers.
Homecoming is a heartfelt examination of the choices we make in life and the consequences we face after.
These are just a selection of my favorites from the collection. These stories made me think and all had deep emotional connections. Many had open endings creating a world of imagination for the characters when I was done reading.
This book was received for free in return for an honest review.
August 5, 2025
I dnf'd this collection of short stories at 30%. The writing was ok, but the stories were all very strange and many of them I did read ended without a conclusion. Of the stories I did end up reading before I gave up, I only liked two. I am sure there are readers out there who can appreciate these stories like they deserve, I am just not one of those people.
January 6, 2023
Whew, this was a bold and incredibly strong collection of short stories! I picked it up entirely for the name and couldn't put it down after the first story, "The Lesser Horsemen", about God sending the four horsemen of the apocalypse on a cruise for team building exercises. Yes, it's just as quirky as it sounds.
I won't give a run-down of each story, I'll just say that they are all solid with humor and heart - and I don't say that often about short story collections!
For more reviews, visit www.rootsandreads.wordpress.com
I won't give a run-down of each story, I'll just say that they are all solid with humor and heart - and I don't say that often about short story collections!
For more reviews, visit www.rootsandreads.wordpress.com
February 24, 2021
The stories in Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons are haunting, the characters haunted. From the disillusioned cult member with bloody palms to the soldier returning to a place not quite like home, the employees trapped in the office and slowly losing their minds to the couple breaking up in a haunted diner, every character and their pain are vividly drawn. This is a unique collection of stories featuring the oddly gorgeous writing that has made me such a fan of Keith Rosson's work.
(Huge thanks to Meerkat Press for sending me an advance copy!)
(Huge thanks to Meerkat Press for sending me an advance copy!)
January 23, 2022
“‘You really are trying to hold on, aren’t you?’ he gasped, ‘Just hanging on tight as you can to the skin of the world.’”
Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons is collection of fifteen stories that all deal with the trauma of the characters’ lives. I’ll give my ratings and then go into more depth about my thoughts overall!
The Lesser Horsemen 🌟🌟🌟🌟
At This Table 🌟🌟🌟
Baby Jill 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Their Souls Climb the Room 🌟🌟🌟
Hospitality 🌟🌟💫
This World or the Next 🌟🌟
Gifts 🌟💫
Coyote 🌟🌟
Yes, We Are Duly Concerned with Calamitous Events 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Winter, Spring, Whatever Happens After That 🌟🌟🌟
Forgive Me This 🌟🌟
Dunsmuir 🌟🌟🌟💫
Homecoming 🌟🌟🌟
The Melody of the Thing 🌟🌟💫
Brad Benske and the Hand of Light 🌟🌟🌟💫
I had a lot of mixed feelings about these stories, some I really liked and some not so much. With the ones with lower ratings, for the most part, I wish they had a little bit more to say and sometimes it felt like they just ended right in the middle. I also expected this to be a horror collection but it’s definitely more weird/literary (which is no fault of the book, but I think it was marketed as being more horror?) The writing is very good, I just wish there was more it. I still think it has the best title ever, but it just wasn’t really for me. Overall, all my ratings averaged out to 3 stars!
Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons is collection of fifteen stories that all deal with the trauma of the characters’ lives. I’ll give my ratings and then go into more depth about my thoughts overall!
The Lesser Horsemen 🌟🌟🌟🌟
At This Table 🌟🌟🌟
Baby Jill 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Their Souls Climb the Room 🌟🌟🌟
Hospitality 🌟🌟💫
This World or the Next 🌟🌟
Gifts 🌟💫
Coyote 🌟🌟
Yes, We Are Duly Concerned with Calamitous Events 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Winter, Spring, Whatever Happens After That 🌟🌟🌟
Forgive Me This 🌟🌟
Dunsmuir 🌟🌟🌟💫
Homecoming 🌟🌟🌟
The Melody of the Thing 🌟🌟💫
Brad Benske and the Hand of Light 🌟🌟🌟💫
I had a lot of mixed feelings about these stories, some I really liked and some not so much. With the ones with lower ratings, for the most part, I wish they had a little bit more to say and sometimes it felt like they just ended right in the middle. I also expected this to be a horror collection but it’s definitely more weird/literary (which is no fault of the book, but I think it was marketed as being more horror?) The writing is very good, I just wish there was more it. I still think it has the best title ever, but it just wasn’t really for me. Overall, all my ratings averaged out to 3 stars!
April 18, 2021
I got this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This wasn’t really my cup of tea. I found that many of the stories started with strong premises and built and interesting, immersive worlds with good characters, and then just...stopped. I believe that this was an artistic choice, but it was one that I found unsatisfying. There was a story pairing I did like - two shorts, two sides of the same coin - but I still came away unsatisfied. It’s hard to put my finger on exactly why. Anyway, there’s no question that this is a talented author who’s worth a read. The stories are good. They’re just particular.
June 7, 2021
Thanks to the Metallica documentary Some Kind of Monster and Anthony Kiedis’ autobiography Scar Tissue, I arrived at a sudden insight back in 2004: drama is intrinsic to certain situations. The music world—with its huge egos, creative temperaments, friction between artists and businessmen, and tacitly condoned drug abuse—is a veritable agar plate for drama.
The social lives of the poor and working-class are often similarly afflicted. Bad circumstances lead to regrettable decisions, which in turn bring about even worse circumstances. Drama to the third power. This downward spiral provides grist for many of the remarkable stories in Keith Rosson’s Folk Songs For Trauma Surgeons .
The darkest example is “Their Souls Climb The Room,” where an ex-con and reformed meth addict gets a job in a slaughterhouse only to have a series of events drag him back down again. In “Coyotes,” a young man’s parents are killed in an automobile accident while en route to bail him out of jail, leaving him and his brain-injured brother to eke out an existence in rural Texas. And “Winter, Spring, Whatever Happens After That” chronicles a family’s agonising disintegration after the mother suffers a nervous breakdown and walks out.
When Rosson’s not unpacking the minutiae of the underclasses, he turns his attention to the colourless absurdity of the corporate world. “The Lesser Horsemen” portrays War, Famine and Pestilence as white collar workers facing redundancy while the Good Lord indulges office politics and plays favourites. In “Yes, We Are Duly Concerned With Calamitous Events,” staff at a novelty items manufacturer find themselves trapped inside their office while outside the world goes on as if they never existed.
The latter story also demonstrates Rosson’s employment of the fantastic and supernatural—usually in sparing fashion, like gold filament woven into a dress. Another is “At This Table,” where a restless spirit intervenes as a commitment-phobic woman commences yet another break up. The Tooth Fairy is the protagonist in “Baby Jill,” a disturbing rumination on humanity’s reluctance to question the status quo, no matter how depraved that status quo might be.
Then there are occasional excursions away from the collection’s recurring themes. In “Hospitality,” a Tarantino-esque story that employs a shifting perspective narrative, three troubled strangers are drawn together via the common thread of a Wisconsin water park. “Dunsmuir” offers a breath of hopeful air amid the misery, as love struggles to triumph in adverse circumstances. And in “This World Or The Next,” a woman who has devoted 18 months of her life to a revivalist religious group finds her belief in its 26-year-old preacher waning as his flock dwindles.
Folk Songs For Trauma Surgeons is literature of an increasingly scarce variety in the narcissistic and hyper-political 2020s: literature without pretension. Rather than posturing and craving intellectual validation, Rosson is content to stay behind the authorial curtain and let his stories and characters do the talking. His prose is fearless and masculine, yet elegant and often beautiful, even when conveying the most repugnant scenes. Take this line from “Their Souls Climb the Room”:
The next hog came down the line, forelegs twitching all dreamy amid the cataclysmic roar of the place, the reek of offal, the animal’s dark and bottomless eye, and Nolan stuck it quick in the throat, loosing a fire-engine red torrent that jetted against his apron and splashed against his boots, and then pulsed into the trough set into the floor as it moved on down the line.
It’s not gore for gore’s sake but gore for honesty’s sake: This is the brutal reality of Nolan’s post-prison life. Rosson doesn’t intend to truckle to spare some fainting-couch reader’s finer sensibilities. Nearly every story has a similar grounded, no-nonsense feel—the literary equivalent of steel-capped boots.
There is a lot to be said for “write what you know.” It’s clear Rosson isn’t some cloistered academic or inner-city snob deigning to create mangled and condescending interpretations of the working class; this is an author who knows his characters as intimately as family. “I understood he had lived a life before landing in the chair before me,” narrator Dave says about his addiction counsellor in “Dunsmuir,” and, if that isn’t also true of Keith Rosson, he is damned good at imitating someone who has. His characters exude the same effortless authenticity that was the secret ingredient to Stephen King’s early success.
If Folk Songs For Trauma Surgeons has a flaw, it’s that the characters and situations have a certain sameness after a while… and story quality does flag when Rosson tries his hand at more middle-class concerns. “The Melody of the Thing,” for example, imagines a musician’s life after a meth-head stomps his hands to a pulp… and culminates in a scene so whimsical it is almost callow.
Yet, even in his weakest moments, Rosson’s plain-spoken style, innovative use of language, well-oiled character development, and interesting story elements result in addictive entertainment and pleasing thematic weight. He’s an author with bestseller potential.
This review first appeared in Andromeda Spaceways #82.
The social lives of the poor and working-class are often similarly afflicted. Bad circumstances lead to regrettable decisions, which in turn bring about even worse circumstances. Drama to the third power. This downward spiral provides grist for many of the remarkable stories in Keith Rosson’s Folk Songs For Trauma Surgeons .
The darkest example is “Their Souls Climb The Room,” where an ex-con and reformed meth addict gets a job in a slaughterhouse only to have a series of events drag him back down again. In “Coyotes,” a young man’s parents are killed in an automobile accident while en route to bail him out of jail, leaving him and his brain-injured brother to eke out an existence in rural Texas. And “Winter, Spring, Whatever Happens After That” chronicles a family’s agonising disintegration after the mother suffers a nervous breakdown and walks out.
When Rosson’s not unpacking the minutiae of the underclasses, he turns his attention to the colourless absurdity of the corporate world. “The Lesser Horsemen” portrays War, Famine and Pestilence as white collar workers facing redundancy while the Good Lord indulges office politics and plays favourites. In “Yes, We Are Duly Concerned With Calamitous Events,” staff at a novelty items manufacturer find themselves trapped inside their office while outside the world goes on as if they never existed.
The latter story also demonstrates Rosson’s employment of the fantastic and supernatural—usually in sparing fashion, like gold filament woven into a dress. Another is “At This Table,” where a restless spirit intervenes as a commitment-phobic woman commences yet another break up. The Tooth Fairy is the protagonist in “Baby Jill,” a disturbing rumination on humanity’s reluctance to question the status quo, no matter how depraved that status quo might be.
Then there are occasional excursions away from the collection’s recurring themes. In “Hospitality,” a Tarantino-esque story that employs a shifting perspective narrative, three troubled strangers are drawn together via the common thread of a Wisconsin water park. “Dunsmuir” offers a breath of hopeful air amid the misery, as love struggles to triumph in adverse circumstances. And in “This World Or The Next,” a woman who has devoted 18 months of her life to a revivalist religious group finds her belief in its 26-year-old preacher waning as his flock dwindles.
Folk Songs For Trauma Surgeons is literature of an increasingly scarce variety in the narcissistic and hyper-political 2020s: literature without pretension. Rather than posturing and craving intellectual validation, Rosson is content to stay behind the authorial curtain and let his stories and characters do the talking. His prose is fearless and masculine, yet elegant and often beautiful, even when conveying the most repugnant scenes. Take this line from “Their Souls Climb the Room”:
The next hog came down the line, forelegs twitching all dreamy amid the cataclysmic roar of the place, the reek of offal, the animal’s dark and bottomless eye, and Nolan stuck it quick in the throat, loosing a fire-engine red torrent that jetted against his apron and splashed against his boots, and then pulsed into the trough set into the floor as it moved on down the line.
It’s not gore for gore’s sake but gore for honesty’s sake: This is the brutal reality of Nolan’s post-prison life. Rosson doesn’t intend to truckle to spare some fainting-couch reader’s finer sensibilities. Nearly every story has a similar grounded, no-nonsense feel—the literary equivalent of steel-capped boots.
There is a lot to be said for “write what you know.” It’s clear Rosson isn’t some cloistered academic or inner-city snob deigning to create mangled and condescending interpretations of the working class; this is an author who knows his characters as intimately as family. “I understood he had lived a life before landing in the chair before me,” narrator Dave says about his addiction counsellor in “Dunsmuir,” and, if that isn’t also true of Keith Rosson, he is damned good at imitating someone who has. His characters exude the same effortless authenticity that was the secret ingredient to Stephen King’s early success.
If Folk Songs For Trauma Surgeons has a flaw, it’s that the characters and situations have a certain sameness after a while… and story quality does flag when Rosson tries his hand at more middle-class concerns. “The Melody of the Thing,” for example, imagines a musician’s life after a meth-head stomps his hands to a pulp… and culminates in a scene so whimsical it is almost callow.
Yet, even in his weakest moments, Rosson’s plain-spoken style, innovative use of language, well-oiled character development, and interesting story elements result in addictive entertainment and pleasing thematic weight. He’s an author with bestseller potential.
This review first appeared in Andromeda Spaceways #82.
March 31, 2021
This is the first work I’ve read by Keith Rosson and I guarantee it will not be the last. The writing in each of these stories is amazingly well done. Everything flows naturally with just the right amount of dark undertones or raunch (in some places) to not feel pretentious.
I can’t pick a favorite story here. I loved them all so much. Each one has their own merits and I just refuse to pick a favorite. Sue me.
The writing about addiction in these stories is just so brutally honest but at the same time heart wrenchingly emotional. Everything works so well.
This is one of those collections I went into blind. I liked the title, quirky and just enough to get me interested. This is also one of those collections that I slowed down to a snails pace to read because I wanted to savor every word. It was worth it.
I can’t pick a favorite story here. I loved them all so much. Each one has their own merits and I just refuse to pick a favorite. Sue me.
The writing about addiction in these stories is just so brutally honest but at the same time heart wrenchingly emotional. Everything works so well.
This is one of those collections I went into blind. I liked the title, quirky and just enough to get me interested. This is also one of those collections that I slowed down to a snails pace to read because I wanted to savor every word. It was worth it.
July 27, 2023
It seemed that the sheriff had been exaggerating about the fearsomeness of the land but then he saw that the plumes of their breath made unnerving forms in the air - a sinking ship, a man dangling from a tree, a dead face rising up from a well.
Although it's said that these are horror stories, they really aren't. At least, not in the traditional sense. The stories contained within this collection are tales of dying worlds, of towns threadbare giving way to decay, they're stories that tell of souls crumbling, of lives turning to rot. Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons is a desolate, bleak novel entirely comprised of lonely, haunted people. Yes, the stories here could be considered horrifying, but you won't find anything lurking in the shadows ready to pounce. Here, the most prevalent notion is one of failed dreams.
Between these pages lies a world of intense, overwhelming dreariness, with each story depicting some kind of authentic human experience. These stories, and their author, are entirely honest about the brutality of living. There isn't anything held back, the sad, violent truth of the human condition is shown in all its foul glory. This is a collection of cruelty, one that could only be penned by an author so highly attuned to the world around him.
Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons might just be one of the most brutally honest story collections you'll ever encounter. From its unflinching depiction of a life ruled by addiction, to the crushing blow of depression, and the soul sucking realization that a life lived is stagnant and underwhelming, everything is presented with a gut-wrenching fervor. The most mundane, boring facets of life become something otherworldly the moment you open this novel.
This World Or The Next, Coyote, and Homecoming were my personal favorite stories.
One of the coyotes leans back, its throat exposed, and the howl drifts long and lamenting into the sky. My brother and I, we run headlong into the pack.
Although it's said that these are horror stories, they really aren't. At least, not in the traditional sense. The stories contained within this collection are tales of dying worlds, of towns threadbare giving way to decay, they're stories that tell of souls crumbling, of lives turning to rot. Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons is a desolate, bleak novel entirely comprised of lonely, haunted people. Yes, the stories here could be considered horrifying, but you won't find anything lurking in the shadows ready to pounce. Here, the most prevalent notion is one of failed dreams.
Between these pages lies a world of intense, overwhelming dreariness, with each story depicting some kind of authentic human experience. These stories, and their author, are entirely honest about the brutality of living. There isn't anything held back, the sad, violent truth of the human condition is shown in all its foul glory. This is a collection of cruelty, one that could only be penned by an author so highly attuned to the world around him.
"You stop at a gas station that glows in the valley like its own miniature city. A cement box of a store, a half dozen pumps under light as bright as a morgue table. Constellations of moths beat themselves senseless beneath the standing roof."
Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons might just be one of the most brutally honest story collections you'll ever encounter. From its unflinching depiction of a life ruled by addiction, to the crushing blow of depression, and the soul sucking realization that a life lived is stagnant and underwhelming, everything is presented with a gut-wrenching fervor. The most mundane, boring facets of life become something otherworldly the moment you open this novel.
This World Or The Next, Coyote, and Homecoming were my personal favorite stories.
One of the coyotes leans back, its throat exposed, and the howl drifts long and lamenting into the sky. My brother and I, we run headlong into the pack.
December 12, 2020
It's official, Keith needs very few words to paint the sum of someone's character in vivid color. Each of these 15 stories tells a tale of someone that feels familiar. I love how immersive his writing is, even in short stories, where you're only with the characters for a few thousand words. You can't help but understand their deepest emotions.
Honorable Mentions:
The Lesser Horsemen - This tales of the other 3 horseman is one I didn't know I needed about the fab 4. We all know that death his here to stay, but what happens with the other 3 are no longer working out? This hilarious take on how God rehabilitates them was fitting for the pandemic we're currently living in. Guess pestilence received a bit of contract work.
Winter, Spring, Whatever Happens After That - This one got me right in the feels. The way Becky feels about school, work, and her alcoholic father, so heartbreaking. The description in this was does so much for the emotional state of the characters, and the lives they lead.
Plus Brad Benske and the Hand of Light, and Dunsmuir - sooo many feels in such a short amount of words.
You'll love this collection of stories if you enjoy works of fiction that don't have an explicit plot, and are more character driven. If you like reading about topics that toe the line of magic and realism, and are tied together with deep emotions pick up this book!
Honorable Mentions:
The Lesser Horsemen - This tales of the other 3 horseman is one I didn't know I needed about the fab 4. We all know that death his here to stay, but what happens with the other 3 are no longer working out? This hilarious take on how God rehabilitates them was fitting for the pandemic we're currently living in. Guess pestilence received a bit of contract work.
Winter, Spring, Whatever Happens After That - This one got me right in the feels. The way Becky feels about school, work, and her alcoholic father, so heartbreaking. The description in this was does so much for the emotional state of the characters, and the lives they lead.
Plus Brad Benske and the Hand of Light, and Dunsmuir - sooo many feels in such a short amount of words.
You'll love this collection of stories if you enjoy works of fiction that don't have an explicit plot, and are more character driven. If you like reading about topics that toe the line of magic and realism, and are tied together with deep emotions pick up this book!
December 31, 2020
i received an arc in exchange for an honest review.
three star average for the stories. stand outs were "winter, spring, whatever happens next", which i thought ended rather well and i liked faith, the main narrator, "yes, we are duly concerned with calamitous events", which gave me dark 'the office' vibes (keep in mind i've never seen the show, just the odd clip here and there), and "the lesser horsemen", which was a great opener and really kind of cool and original.
extra star for the title, which i am obsessed with.
three star average for the stories. stand outs were "winter, spring, whatever happens next", which i thought ended rather well and i liked faith, the main narrator, "yes, we are duly concerned with calamitous events", which gave me dark 'the office' vibes (keep in mind i've never seen the show, just the odd clip here and there), and "the lesser horsemen", which was a great opener and really kind of cool and original.
extra star for the title, which i am obsessed with.
September 20, 2025
This book slaps and so does the title.
Short stories are usually hit or miss for me, but I enjoyed every single one in this collection. The stories are a good length (not too long), yet have the perfect amount of world-building to pull you into the characters’ lives. Weird shit happens and I love it. Chef’s kiss.
Standouts for me:
- The Lesser Horsemen
- Baby Jill
- Yes, We Are Duly Concerned With Calamitous Events (another banger of a title)
- Dunsmuir
- Homecoming
Short stories are usually hit or miss for me, but I enjoyed every single one in this collection. The stories are a good length (not too long), yet have the perfect amount of world-building to pull you into the characters’ lives. Weird shit happens and I love it. Chef’s kiss.
Standouts for me:
- The Lesser Horsemen
- Baby Jill
- Yes, We Are Duly Concerned With Calamitous Events (another banger of a title)
- Dunsmuir
- Homecoming
June 10, 2021
Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons from Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America
I am pretty sure the title for this anthology was specifically tailored to catch my attention—and it did! Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons? Sign me up!
It didn’t quite meet the expectations I developed from reading the title — it’s a lot heavier on the “trauma” than the “folk songs”
There is some really compelling and interesting imagery throughout, particularly in the stories that contain magical realism. There is also some graphic violence that while also incredibly evocative, was occasionally a little too much for comfort.
I think the problem I ended up having with this collection was the sense that there was a sort of “gleeful meanness” to some of the stories. Something I was struggling to put into words until that phrase itself popped up in one of the stories. There are points were it feels like these stories delight in being unkind when they don’t need to be that way, wielding words like knife intending to cause harm. Another story made this observation: “...she’s seen him pass up numerous opportunities to be cruel, which seems to her a clearly measurable currency in people her age, boys and girls alike.” And afterwards, I felt like that particular currency was one I desperately needed if I was going to finish this collection; I needed coin in the form of cruelty avoided.
(* marks my favorites in this collection)
*THE LESSER HORSEMEN
Fans of Good Omens will probably enjoy one, it has a similarly irreverent approach to the idea of the apocalypse and the four horsemen. However, there is something surreal and unnerving about Pestilence sitting on a cruise ship in forced semi-retirement and lamenting to the devil that the last time he was truly great was during the Spanish Influenza a hundred years ago. You know, given everything about the last year.
“Call Him whatever you want: The Good Lord, Jehovah, Yahweh, The Beginning and The End, God; we loved Him and we feared Him, and perhaps it was intentional but when He was in human form, we were also a bit disgusted by Him.” This god is gross and also a douche.
*AT THIS TABLE
Second person POV, which is unusual, along with a deliberate and matter of fact tone that sets a *vibe* that is so distant and uncomfortable—not as a criticism, but as a tonal and structural choice that is really interesting to see. It’s a ghost story and the end of a love story. “In the spirit—no pun intended—of pure kindness, something the living so rarely manage, he’s trying to give you the opportunity for a different ending.”
(warning for internalized homophobia)
BABY JILL
“The room is empty save for the tens of thousands of teeth carpeting the floor. Mounds of them. Hills and valleys of little pale teeth. The room is not particularly big, but still.”
The tooth fairy is having a moral crisis; how much can you witness without reaching out to try to help.
(warning for death of a child and implied child abuse)
THEIR SOULS CLIMB THE ROOM
“At night he could feel the souls of all the dead hogs pressing on his chest, pressing down on his ribcage like something real. A near-tangible weight that he could nearly touch. All those souls pinning him to the mattress, pressing down on the animal meat of his heart.”
(warning for drug use, animal cruelty, and gore)
*HOSPITALITY
A series of vignettes situated around a failing motel.
(warning for torture and gun violence)
THIS WORLD OR THE NEXT
Traveling revival/faith healer style religious spectacle. Some pretty lines, but little plot.
(warning for self harm)
GIFTS
I disapprove of killing women in stories simply to fuel some misplaced man pain. Otherwise a perfectly good dystopian apocalypse. Honestly, I think the story would have worked better in many ways if she wasn’t killed. Open with a breakup and not a murder: Struggling through a breakup at the end of the world is interesting—like watching the world end on multiple fronts.
*COYOTE
Upsetting is the word. Two brothers, in the aftermath.
YES, WE ARE DULY CONCERNED WITH CALAMITOUS EVENTS
“Twenty-three days after the world kind of ends, we all watch as Human Resources Randy strangles the temp with a mouse cord.” The words all hit the tone for comedy while the content dives fairly heavily into horror. And this story starts off strong. The , unfortunately, there is a truly disgusting section where it talks about a disabled child and “how hard it might be to love her in her shunted, curled little body and pink wheelchair,” and I was so grossed out by that bit of ableism I couldn’t finish this story for a long time. I almost put the book down entirely during this one. See, being “offensive” on purpose is more or less fine, occasionally effective, and usually more than a little flat, but still more or less a commonly accepted way to show off the broken bits of society. Satire shows love to do it. It’s usually not great, but you see it and people use it and it’s...fine. But, there is also a point where using politically incorrect language as a weapon feels vindictive and spiteful and so unproductive, as though the only goal of the words is to cause harm rather than to provide any kind of insight at all. The words in this story means to cause harm.
WINTER, SPRING, WHATEVER HAPPENS AFTER THAT
This is a really well written story about a pair of children whose mother has abandoned them with their alcoholic father. It is painfully realistic in a way that doesn’t really fit in with the other stories in this collection, which almost all have at least a hint of magical realism. I do think the structure of the story is hurt by the open ending; a stronger conclusion would have served better.
(Warnings for homophobic language and child abuse)
FORGIVE ME THIS
2nd person POV? I don’t know, a weird choice with no particular pay off that makes the POV choice worth it. Also has incesty vibes.
DUNSMUIR
A slice of life for an alcoholic going through rehab while his pregnant girlfriend copes with the murder of her sister.
(Warnings for addiction, alcoholism, domestic violence)
*HOMECOMING
“You really are trying hard to hold on, aren’t you?” he gasped, “Just hanging on tight as you can to the skin of the world.”
This is a really weird one, that starts off with some light magical realism, but by the end and before you have a chance to adjust you’ve been boiled in to something a lot more from and deeply fantastic.
THE MELODY OF THE THING
“The fan creaked back and forth, pushed our misery around the room.”
OK so this one has this really viscerally upsetting graphic violence where where a former ufc fighter just destroys a man the street who tried to intervene in a domestic violence dispute and then the story details the painstaking recovery from horrifying injuries that resulted. It is graphic and it left me with a sour feeling in the pit of my stomach.
BRAD BENSKE AND THE HAND OF LIGHT
“Splay-legged in my recliner, I’ve just returned from putting another note under Marcus’s door (In the next life your penis shall be multipronged, insectile, hot and bristling with pustules, gloriously prone to infection)”
I am pretty sure the title for this anthology was specifically tailored to catch my attention—and it did! Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons? Sign me up!
It didn’t quite meet the expectations I developed from reading the title — it’s a lot heavier on the “trauma” than the “folk songs”
There is some really compelling and interesting imagery throughout, particularly in the stories that contain magical realism. There is also some graphic violence that while also incredibly evocative, was occasionally a little too much for comfort.
I think the problem I ended up having with this collection was the sense that there was a sort of “gleeful meanness” to some of the stories. Something I was struggling to put into words until that phrase itself popped up in one of the stories. There are points were it feels like these stories delight in being unkind when they don’t need to be that way, wielding words like knife intending to cause harm. Another story made this observation: “...she’s seen him pass up numerous opportunities to be cruel, which seems to her a clearly measurable currency in people her age, boys and girls alike.” And afterwards, I felt like that particular currency was one I desperately needed if I was going to finish this collection; I needed coin in the form of cruelty avoided.
(* marks my favorites in this collection)
*THE LESSER HORSEMEN
Fans of Good Omens will probably enjoy one, it has a similarly irreverent approach to the idea of the apocalypse and the four horsemen. However, there is something surreal and unnerving about Pestilence sitting on a cruise ship in forced semi-retirement and lamenting to the devil that the last time he was truly great was during the Spanish Influenza a hundred years ago. You know, given everything about the last year.
“Call Him whatever you want: The Good Lord, Jehovah, Yahweh, The Beginning and The End, God; we loved Him and we feared Him, and perhaps it was intentional but when He was in human form, we were also a bit disgusted by Him.” This god is gross and also a douche.
*AT THIS TABLE
Second person POV, which is unusual, along with a deliberate and matter of fact tone that sets a *vibe* that is so distant and uncomfortable—not as a criticism, but as a tonal and structural choice that is really interesting to see. It’s a ghost story and the end of a love story. “In the spirit—no pun intended—of pure kindness, something the living so rarely manage, he’s trying to give you the opportunity for a different ending.”
(warning for internalized homophobia)
BABY JILL
“The room is empty save for the tens of thousands of teeth carpeting the floor. Mounds of them. Hills and valleys of little pale teeth. The room is not particularly big, but still.”
The tooth fairy is having a moral crisis; how much can you witness without reaching out to try to help.
(warning for death of a child and implied child abuse)
THEIR SOULS CLIMB THE ROOM
“At night he could feel the souls of all the dead hogs pressing on his chest, pressing down on his ribcage like something real. A near-tangible weight that he could nearly touch. All those souls pinning him to the mattress, pressing down on the animal meat of his heart.”
(warning for drug use, animal cruelty, and gore)
*HOSPITALITY
A series of vignettes situated around a failing motel.
(warning for torture and gun violence)
THIS WORLD OR THE NEXT
Traveling revival/faith healer style religious spectacle. Some pretty lines, but little plot.
(warning for self harm)
GIFTS
I disapprove of killing women in stories simply to fuel some misplaced man pain. Otherwise a perfectly good dystopian apocalypse. Honestly, I think the story would have worked better in many ways if she wasn’t killed. Open with a breakup and not a murder: Struggling through a breakup at the end of the world is interesting—like watching the world end on multiple fronts.
*COYOTE
Upsetting is the word. Two brothers, in the aftermath.
YES, WE ARE DULY CONCERNED WITH CALAMITOUS EVENTS
“Twenty-three days after the world kind of ends, we all watch as Human Resources Randy strangles the temp with a mouse cord.” The words all hit the tone for comedy while the content dives fairly heavily into horror. And this story starts off strong. The , unfortunately, there is a truly disgusting section where it talks about a disabled child and “how hard it might be to love her in her shunted, curled little body and pink wheelchair,” and I was so grossed out by that bit of ableism I couldn’t finish this story for a long time. I almost put the book down entirely during this one. See, being “offensive” on purpose is more or less fine, occasionally effective, and usually more than a little flat, but still more or less a commonly accepted way to show off the broken bits of society. Satire shows love to do it. It’s usually not great, but you see it and people use it and it’s...fine. But, there is also a point where using politically incorrect language as a weapon feels vindictive and spiteful and so unproductive, as though the only goal of the words is to cause harm rather than to provide any kind of insight at all. The words in this story means to cause harm.
WINTER, SPRING, WHATEVER HAPPENS AFTER THAT
This is a really well written story about a pair of children whose mother has abandoned them with their alcoholic father. It is painfully realistic in a way that doesn’t really fit in with the other stories in this collection, which almost all have at least a hint of magical realism. I do think the structure of the story is hurt by the open ending; a stronger conclusion would have served better.
(Warnings for homophobic language and child abuse)
FORGIVE ME THIS
2nd person POV? I don’t know, a weird choice with no particular pay off that makes the POV choice worth it. Also has incesty vibes.
DUNSMUIR
A slice of life for an alcoholic going through rehab while his pregnant girlfriend copes with the murder of her sister.
(Warnings for addiction, alcoholism, domestic violence)
*HOMECOMING
“You really are trying hard to hold on, aren’t you?” he gasped, “Just hanging on tight as you can to the skin of the world.”
This is a really weird one, that starts off with some light magical realism, but by the end and before you have a chance to adjust you’ve been boiled in to something a lot more from and deeply fantastic.
THE MELODY OF THE THING
“The fan creaked back and forth, pushed our misery around the room.”
OK so this one has this really viscerally upsetting graphic violence where where a former ufc fighter just destroys a man the street who tried to intervene in a domestic violence dispute and then the story details the painstaking recovery from horrifying injuries that resulted. It is graphic and it left me with a sour feeling in the pit of my stomach.
BRAD BENSKE AND THE HAND OF LIGHT
“Splay-legged in my recliner, I’ve just returned from putting another note under Marcus’s door (In the next life your penis shall be multipronged, insectile, hot and bristling with pustules, gloriously prone to infection)”
November 30, 2024
Many really brilliant premises here, with great descriptions and characters. Every story is immersive and colorful and easy to get into the world and characters’ heads. Usually gritty and dark, mostly sorrowful stories, but none feel like shock value only, and there’s not much gruesomeness.
After about the third story, I realized most (all?) of the stories had very open endings, which is usually not my favorite. But they were all so compelling, so entertaining, so “worth just being along for the ride” that I continued and enjoyed. Just like real life I guess.
I especially enjoyed one story’s depiction of the Wisconsin Dells, but all had very vivid settings. Since the portrayals of the places I have been were so accurate, I can only imagine the rest are just as spot on.
After about the third story, I realized most (all?) of the stories had very open endings, which is usually not my favorite. But they were all so compelling, so entertaining, so “worth just being along for the ride” that I continued and enjoyed. Just like real life I guess.
I especially enjoyed one story’s depiction of the Wisconsin Dells, but all had very vivid settings. Since the portrayals of the places I have been were so accurate, I can only imagine the rest are just as spot on.
March 27, 2021
When I was a teenager, REM were my favorite band. I started with Out of Time and then used allowances and Christmas present Sam Goody gift certificates to slowly buy the previous albums. Dead Letter Office came as a surprise to me. Not knowing much about music (or anything else, really) at that age, I assumed B-sides were songs that just weren't good enough for albums. Dead Letter Office showed me that the B-sides were a chance for the band to try something different. The songs were as good as the ones on their albums, just more playful or weird.
Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons is Keith Rosson's Dead Letter Office. The work is on par with his previous novels, but the short stories allow him to play around more. "The Lesser Horseman" is his "Voice of Harold", "Winter, Spring, Whatever Happens After That" is his "Ages of You".
I'm a big fan of Keith's novels and Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons does not disappoint.
Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons is Keith Rosson's Dead Letter Office. The work is on par with his previous novels, but the short stories allow him to play around more. "The Lesser Horseman" is his "Voice of Harold", "Winter, Spring, Whatever Happens After That" is his "Ages of You".
I'm a big fan of Keith's novels and Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons does not disappoint.
November 2, 2021
I loved this book! The writing style reminded me of older Stephen King. It's raw, sometimes shocking, and gets the point across in a short amount of time. Many of the stories had what I'd call a cliffhanger ending that left me thinking "what just happened?" And the possible outcomes could be endless! My favorite was by far The Four Horsemen. The view of them and of God was so crazy but almost believable. Though I think Pestilence needed a Covid follow-up story. My only complaint was that there was no story about actual trauma surgeons. But all in all, an awesome read that hit all the buttons for me.
April 2, 2021
Keith Rosson writes like a dream. Book blurbs can be pieces of puff, but the one on the front cover of FOLK SONGS FOR TRAUMA SURGEONS is accurate: “An unforgettable and often heartbreaking one-two punch of satire of and elegy for a decayed America.”
November 22, 2020
I previously read and enjoyed two novels by Mr. Rosson (“Smoke City” and “Road Seven”), so when Meerkat Press made this collection of short stories available via LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers program, I jumped at the chance. “Folk Songs” consists of 15 stories, each previously published elsewhere, and I found that I needed to read the book in chunks rather than all at once because of the sheer variety of tales being told. Many involve men in crisis, but there are loads of other situations too. My favourites include the first story in the book, “The Lesser Horsemen,” about War, Famine and Pestilence having to go on a cruise in order to learn how to get along with each other (Death, the superstar of the group, doesn’t need the training); “Baby Jill,” about how the Tooth Fairy bears - or doesn’t bear - her burden; the Lord of the Flies-ish “Yes, We Are Duly Concerned with Calamitous Events,” which manages to be both grim *and* hilarious at the same time; “Homecoming,” which involves a soldier returning to his hometown from war, but nothing is the same; and the last story, “Brad Benske and the Hand of Light,” wherein the title character’s wife leaves him for a cult and he more or less falls apart. Some of the stories are downright depressing, but all of them feature the same lyrical and visceral writing style that drew me to Mr. Rosson’s novels; recommended!
December 23, 2024
This author wrote an absolutely amazing horror duology (if you haven’t yet, read the Fever House books immediately) so I figured I’d try this earlier set of short stories. Despite the fact that short stories aren’t generally my thing.
Most of these aren’t horror… IDK what they are. They were fine. I can’t rate short stories. They mostly go nowhere. The big standout was the one where people were stuck in an office while the outside world carried on without them; that was pretty interesting. Others were pretty dismal… not meant as an insult, just dismal. Like the genre was Dismal Shit Happens to Dirtbag People.
Most of these aren’t horror… IDK what they are. They were fine. I can’t rate short stories. They mostly go nowhere. The big standout was the one where people were stuck in an office while the outside world carried on without them; that was pretty interesting. Others were pretty dismal… not meant as an insult, just dismal. Like the genre was Dismal Shit Happens to Dirtbag People.
February 16, 2025
I was really unimpressed with this book. It's a collection of short stories, which I knew before reading. However, every short story feels the exact same. Basically, it starts with a lack of details that you have to wait to be revealed. You're reading and thinking "what is happening?". Then just as the short story gets interesting and approaches a climax, the story is over. None of them are fully flushed out. All of these stories are very unsatisfying to read. A collection of half-baked ideas. Needless to say, I was very disappointed with this. Thus, it took me forever to actually finish this whole book (and it's not a long book).
October 26, 2021
I took my sweet ass time reading this collection and I'm glad I did. Rosson is a wizard with words. Each story, 15 in total, is some of the finest modern literary fiction you can find. He'll break your heart, laugh uncontrollably, and bestow an experience you won't get anywhere else. His wit is sharp and his ability to reach a reader where they're at is off the charts. Cannot recommend this enough.
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