Cool for America

by Andrew Martin

Expanding the world of his classic-in-the-making debut novel Early Work , Andrew Martin’s Cool for America is a hilarious collection of overlapping stories that explores the dark zone between artistic ambition and its achievement

The collection is bookended by the misadventures of Leslie, a young woman (first introduced in Early Work ) who moves from New York to Missoula, Montana to try to draw herself out of a lingering depression, and, over the course of the book, gains painful insight into herself through a series of intense friendships and relationships.

Other stories follow young men and women, alone and in couples, pushing hard against, and often crashing into, the limits of their abilities as writers and partners. In one story, two New Jersey siblings with substance-abuse problems relapse together on Christmas Eve; in another, a young couple tries to make sense of an increasingly unhinged veterinarian who seems to be tapping, deliberately or otherwise, into the unspoken troubles between them. In tales about characters as they age from punk shows and benders to book clubs and art museums, the promise of community acts―at least temporarily―as a stay against despair.

Running throughout Cool for America is the characters’ yearning for transcendence through the hope that, maybe, the perfect, or even just the good-enough sentence, can finally make things right.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Literature, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Short Story Collection

272 pages, Paperback

First published July 7, 2020

Reviews

[Eric Sutton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is one considered a pretentious writer if they write ironically about pretentious people?

Martin is an astute observer of contemporary millennial life, and his prime subjects are those the mainstream consider the "elites" - overeducated, entitled, artistic-minded - yet their highflown ethos contrasts sharply with our modern utilitarian economy, captured in multitudinous images where reality does not meet expectation: fading tattoos, burgeoning alcoholism and drug-abuse, low-wage adjunct teaching positions, broken limbs, infidelity, chronic unsatisfied wanderlust. The one-time best and brightest burn quickly and fabulously. Topically, it's Raymond Carver-esque, but despite the collection's ostensibly depressing subject matter and hard-luck characters, Cool for America is witty and funny, with incisive dialogue and the self-awareness not to glamorize nor too harshly criticize its occupants. Rather, it's a stony look at a generation who was promised the world and who still want to treat it with such unrequited munificence. They give of themselves - their talents, art, humor, intelligence, bodies - and society has little to offer in return. Who is to blame for this predicament? Martin doesn't tell; he instead documents, sympathetically (not empathically), the complexities of minor adulthood. Each story in the collection is strong in its own right, exploring, as any good collection should, the range of emotions experienced during a sea change.

I really enjoyed his debut, Early Work, but the writing has taken a step forward in Cool for America. The characters, for all their hypocrisy, are clearly drawn; the language a nice blend of literary and colloquial; and the insights - "elite" as they may be - thoroughly human.

[Kasa Cotugno · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I read Andrew Martin's debut, Early Work, I wondered what he'd come up with next, and here is his answer. An amazingly strong collection of interlocking stories featuring the generation known as millennials. Whether they are cool for Missoula or cool for America, each of the featured players is recognizable, and look out folks, ".... the baby's have found the liquor closet." By setting most of the stories in Missoula, Montana, Martin has chosen a place where everyone was "... from Back East, Around Here, or California." And several stories are reflective of that. But in none are they "...competing for a place in the world Series of banality."

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

A series of short and fun slice-of-life pieces about millennial life. Martin's prose and voice does so much at once with irony that sometimes his aim seems unclear. At the same time you sense a self-awareness of this emanating as you read. I think it's really something that only millennials and those younger could sympathize with. In the first three stories this balance was off, so that many of the characters felt unproductively unbearable. But things change up in the middle of the book, with "The Changed Party" through "Short Swoop, Long Line" There's an Iris Murdoch level understanding of relationship dynamics and dialogue in these stories that is just lovely to see on display. The title story is where Martin's humor shines best, and gives an interesting observation on the meaning of the title. So if you like how young folx emphasize the ironies and hypocrisies of society and culture, you'll probably like this book. I'm hoping to see improvements on every front in his next work.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

God I loved this. Incredibly vivid and engaging yet so endearingly Normal. Martin's voice is just fantastic and his characters are so vibrant and realized despite spending just a short while with them. I felt deeply comforted to hear stories of older-young adults (middle adults?) who are still Figuring It Out. I felt small and utterly unimportant in the absolute best way- just stories about people doing the thing!

[Maxfield Francis Goldman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I only put this down to get a burrito and take a shower. Each story induced an audible reaction. All felt as if perfectly crafted. Flawless book.

[Gillian Pasley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely one of my favorites of the summer, but in a certain Male Manipulator kind of way. Interconnected stories about overeducated millennials feeling lost and pretentious and old, which isn't exactly where I am now but definitely could be soon. Honestly lots of the characters could be interchangeable, but the real success for me was capturing emotions and traits that are so real but not usually portrayed so vividly--the idea that one character doesn't really have strong opinions on things, or the super visceral feeling of losing your car keys and feeling yourself go kind of crazy because of it. "Bad Feelings" was my favorite, just because the thoughts going through that guy's head were so familiar to me. If it sounds boring it's because it kind of... is, but in a way that really hit on something for me.

[Wendy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't hate it? I don't know. I go back and forth on how I felt, depending on the story. Overall, it kept me engaged, but the tone was... sort of unbearable at times.

[Gabrielle Francisco-Bogert · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Anyone who doesn't not want to be in Secret Book Club, say nothing" (Childhood, Boyhood, Youth)

that smarmy, sharp way of thinking runs through main characters of stories. not sure how much i loved it in the end, not many stories of america but just missoula, montana & anxious, pretentious, flailing ~writers~

andrew martin LOVES montana, so much so that i had to look it up and yeah he got his MFA from the University of Montana. makes sense, but if u don't want to put it in your dust jacket bio then idk write less stories about the place.

still was entertaining, had good one-liner mediations on life & other people

[Ellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved these short stories. Andrew captures the spirit of millennial listlessness very well in his characters. Can't wait to read more by him.

[John Galyas · Rating 3 out of 5]

perfectly fine stories about disaffected millennials written for disaffected millennials

[G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fuckups will fuck up.

[Jordan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Idk satirizing pretentious, overly-literate millennials who congregate in university towns doesn’t hit super hard when you’re so clearly a pretentious overly-literate millennial who has only ever lived in a university town

[aela · Rating 4 out of 5]

just some really consistent short stories tbh. no particular one stuck out to me as better or worse than the others (not a bad thing, theres nothing worse than getting stuck in a collection because you just can’t slog through all of the stories). great dialogue, fun characters.

[Iva · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed Martin's highly observant and always original characters. (The Boy Vet was a favorite.) The characters have snappy conversations which drives each story. Also having characters from the East Coast observing the contrast of settling in the west was fresh. Martin is a writer to watch.

[SMK · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having just finished Early Work, I jumped into Cool For America with moderate hopes. I was met with a number of short stories, some involving familiar characters and settings from Early Work — but all having a very similar feel: here, again, is the modern American 30-something on full display. Though many different male characters take center stage in these short stories, you wouldn’t know a difference between them if not for their names. They read a lot, obsess about sex even more, think too much about things that matter little, fail to take care of themselves, cheat on their girlfriends, bemoan their bad luck, wish for more in life but hesitate to commit or put forth great effort — the list goes on. I hate them, most of the time, but maybe that’s because I’m an almost-30 American male myself and fear I too have the potential to devolve into a Martin caricature? God help me ...

And so again, as with Early Work, I found myself more drawn to the less focused on but more subtly interesting females, whom Martin has a talent for painting in short, but sharp strokes. Side by side with the men, they often win as judged by morality, work ethic, creativity, wit. However, in the final story, “A Dog Named Jesus,” we see Leslie in the harsh light often reserved for the men: flailing for acceptance, embarrassing and demeaning herself in the process. After that final story, I closed the book sad, and remain that way a day later as I write this.

Certainly there are some good things about our generation Martin could have mentioned? We have so many problems to fix I sure hope there are at least.

[Drewberry · Rating 4 out of 5]

How It Feels To Not Be In Control

For those who’ve read Andrew Martin’s debut novel Early Work, there was a distinct feeling of aimlessness and anxiety throughout. At its core was a person who felt rudderless and as if they were falling behind as their peers gained control over their destinies and in a sense, left him behind. That feeling is present again in these collection of stories, but with a broader range of characters. Martin explores some familiar faces and places, with Montana featuring prominently once again some friends we met in Early Work, but he also introduces us to some new ones. The theme of substance abuse runs heavily throughout, but it points to the underlying helplessness that our characters feel. Someone always has it together better than they do. Someone always has expectations they aren’t living up to. It’s a very specific feeling, and Martin’s characters inhabit it in a myriad of ways.

The main theme I took away from this collection was not how many different ways someone can feel adrift and rudderless, but how many different ways there are to respond to it. We see some who continue to push on towards a goal they know deep down they will likely never reach. Others abandon any hope and spiral, regardless of the consequences. The feeling is not unique to our characters, but their responses are.

Like Early Work, these stories can make you laugh and then punch you right in the gut. We don’t get very long with each character, but most are still well-developed and given enough facets to see them clearly. A great collection of stories, and I’m excited to see what he writes next.

[Sara Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a huge fan of Cool for America. I love the ominousness, humor and surprising moments of tenderness these characters experience, especially regarding their parents. I feel like that is really hard to pull off and Martin just goes for it. Small Swoop Long Line is a favorite. As is the title story Cool for America. That one actually has kind of subtle twilight zone quality to it. I also found myself cracking up constantly. The emphasis in certain lines will make me chuckle thinking about it days later. As a character reflects on leaving Massachusetts for Montana: "He hadn't been able to deal with all the New England horse shit - the Barbour coats, the sports, the interest in the goddamn LEAVES." I just love it. As with Early Work, this book also helps shape a future reading list. Cynthia Ozick essays anyone??

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of 11 short stories following 20- and 30-somethings as they discover the same troubles persist well into mature adulthood. Perhaps a warning of what happened to youngish East Coasters who venture West during a quarter-life crisis?

The stories are funny while exasperating and precious. You come to care for the characters while thinking they are annoying and privileged with race, class, and education.

I found the stories very easy-to-read/engage with and wouldn't say "no" to reading more works by Andrew Martin, despite how obviously these stories were workshopped in a MFA or writer's workshop--not that there's anything wrong with that, but it reeks of the same race, class, and education privileges that make the characters a bit insufferable.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Martin can certainly write, and these stories are very readable. He also has the gift of making you think you are reading non-fiction; these things actually happened. The dialogue is utterly believable, and settings come through clearly, with the stories varying among seven locations in six states, though Missoula, MT, more often than any other location. And on finishing the book, I could remember each story vividly.

So why not five stars, then? The stories initially seem very different from each other, both in what happens and where things occur. The characters do have some individuality. But in the end there is a sort of sameness, a description of a bored and drifting generation with casual attitudes about sex, and overreliance on drugs and booze. Every story ends similarly -- not a conclusion, but a sort of meh indecision about life. I feel for these characters, but can't say I liked any of them.

Finally, there is a kind of pretentiousness about this group of stories. Correctly or not, one gets the sense of an author who is the product of elite schools (Princeton and Amherst appear in stories), and there is a surprising number of literary references (Tolstoy, Ozick, D H Lawrence, Orwell, Delmore Schwartz, Mark Rothko and more I did not record). Yet the characters do not seem to get any joy from books, they just drop the names, so there is something I found awkward about the quick allusions to books of consequence.

My negative comments, though, don't destroy the reading experience. I guess the generation Martin writes about may really be like this (though the ones I know are not). There is some very good writing here, and a distinctive set of stories which stay with on. That makes this a volume worth reading.

[Neil Griffin · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are generations, but in my humble opinion they are incredibly broad. No person really speaks for any of them, since it's impossible to do such across class, race, and cultural lines. So, yes, I threw a brick into my telly when Lena Dunham said she was the voice of a generation (yes, I know she said a voice in a generation, but I'm using this for a rhetorical gambit...and what a gambit!). But still, every so often a person comes along who really understand the nuances of, if not a generation, then maybe, a milieu.

So, yeah, this Martin guy really, really has people born from 1980ish to 1987ish who are educated, middle class, prone to substance abuse, vaguely into literature, and underemployed, pegged in an amazingly satisfying way. I know people say that writers should explore new topics and new ways of writing and all that, but maybe if you're incredibly skilled at something you should go with it, so people can continue to enjoy the writing. I mean, fuck, James Salter only wrote about people of a certain generation and disposition, and I don't recall Toni Morrison writing about Buffy Winterbottom's croquet match in Cambridge in 1924...or do I?

What I'm saying is my guy should continue to follow this path and watch us elder millennials age into the terrible people we are meant to be. We deserve a Boswell and we'll take him by hook or crook. And reader...I prefer the hook!

Oh, you should definitely read both, but read his novel Early Work first.

[Eric Hollen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Man, I love these stories. This is the best collection I've read in a while by a long shot. Martin does a good job of combining wry, ironic, deft, hold-the-world-away type humor and characters, with a baseline of pining, emotion, love. His characters sometimes feel like the kids at a high school dance party who think they're too cool to dance, all the while gazing longingly at the other couples that line the floor. The stories, too, have a pretty nice variety in how they're told, featuring a cast of similar characters but with enough variety to avoid the pitfall of other collections, where it feels like there's only one real character, narrator. I think my favorite had to be the "The Changed Party," though all the stories in this collection were good. Unlike some collections, where I feel like there's a handful of stellar stories with a backdrop of subpar ones, all the stories in this collection felt strikingly on their own. The one that least appealed to me might have been the Tolstoy titled one. And, I did feel like, while I liked how he ended on a line of dialogue in some of these, there were some stories, noticeably the last one, where I wanted it to go a beat or two further. I loved but felt cheated by one or two of these stories, is what I'm saying. Anyways, fantastic collection. Adding it to my Great Reads list.

[Weiling · Rating 3 out of 5]

An all-white crew of overeducated hipster millennials sucking on a surplus of intelligence that didn’t lead to employment, which capitalism already crushed, but rather some awareness of the impasse of being underachieving. Sobriety wouldn’t bring enough aspiration to get away from the passivity of substance abuse, unsuccessful rehab, wrecked marriage, and other messed-up relationships. It would sting if skepticism of the academia’s self-entitled elitism and of capitalism’s hypocritical promises of prosperity gets too clear and alarming.

Andrew Martin apparently knows very well how the muscles and cells of these hipster (again, white) millennials feel the numbing pain of the internal chaos his characters whom he tried to make visceral, and most likely his peers, have been wrestling with. Good for nothing but "lying flat" is the punishment of being educated in void after void after void. It is unclear whether the future still deposits any hope and meaning in it. It is also unclear, at least to me, whether the author sketched these portraits at any critical distance from this unentertaining reality.

[Graham Hotchkiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Throughout this collection, Martin renders rich characters with sharp voices, strong senses of humor, and a healthy blend of optimism and tragedy. Many of these stories center around east coast intellectuals that have ended up no longer in east coast cities, comedically highlighting the ridiculousness and futility of these upbringings in their newfound settings.

All of the characters in this book are struggling with some sort of loneliness, reaching out to others in hopes of reignited love, sex, or, in one case, a punch in the face at a punk concert. I loved the way this book captures how much art can mean in people’s lives while also showcasing the comedy of the pursuit.

Favorite stories include Cool for America, Short Swoop, Long Line, The Boy Vet, Deep Cut, and A Dog Named Jesus.

“The old anxiety bubbled in me, less fear than anticipation. I wanted, then, and always, to have the best night of my life, to do whatever thing would change me forever. Everything I read and listened to insisted that all was building toward catharsis. There could be no complete self without eruption, revelation, and the possibility of total defeat, however unlikely.”

[Marvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very solid collection focused on millennials generally someplace between the screwups of early adulthood and the settling out that follows, or at least is supposed to follow. Gonna be honest and admit I hated the artsy-hipster bullshit vibe of the first story so much I almost set it down, but I'm glad I didn't; the stories really won me over thereafter. Having said that, I'm sure everyone else probably loves that story. So, grain of salt &c. Highlights: A brother and sister home for Christmas dive into old bad habits in "With The Christopher Kids"; a man deals with the shambles of his marriage while vacationing with problematic friends in "The Changed Party"; a visiting professor suffers through a broken leg and the temptations of a colleague's wife in the title story; and a man involved with an older woman gets a visit from his divorced father in "Short Swoop, Long Line."

[Ray Kluender · Rating 5 out of 5]

The touchpoints of this story collection (depression, Rites of Spring and the teenage punk scene, Larry McMurtry novels, drinking to excess, a brand of self-loathing particular to the overeducated) are all things I’ve aspired to or indulged in at various points in my life, which made the each of these stories hit the way Martin presumably intended. I typically have a hard time getting through short story collections—as someone with a terrible memory for characters, finding my footing in a new story takes effort I’m not always willing to invest—but this was a delightful exception. I’m sure this is in part due to the familiarity of the emotions and experiences, but these stories were pitch-perfect for me. Looking forward to reading his novel.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

All the weight of self-awareness and irony so central to certain strands of Millennial culture seems to curve in on itself in this collection. Martin is a great writer, and he certainly has a strong antenna for sucky white elite Millennial vibes, real and/or perceived, which is a double-edged sword: many of these stories are just simply too stressful. So, depending on what you’re looking for, this is a great hate-read, cathartic scream session, or queasy ennui-inducer.

I will say, the stories, on average, get better as the book goes on, and there are a number of stunning and enjoyable moments, images, and sentences. I especially love “Deep Cut,” which was the story that drove me to pick up this collection from the library.

[Paul H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5 stars). This collection consists of what are, in essence, short-story-rough-drafts of Early Work published in various periodicals over the past decade. You can see Martin building up to the very high quality of that novel, but unfortunately some of the early stories are lacking. Recommended for huge fans of Early Work and probably no one else.

No Cops, 4 stars
With the Christopher Kids, 3
Childhood, Boyhood, Youth, 3.5
The Changed Party, 3
Attention, 2.5
Cool for America, 4
Short Swoop, Long Line, 4
The Boy Vet, 3
Deep Cut, 2.5
Bad Feelings, 3
A Dog Named Jesus, 4

[Timothy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short stories? Character studies? A record of piquant moments in others' lives? All of the above. A collection of highly readable short fiction examining the lives of the over-educated and under-employed. Somewhat melancholy with bursts of humor and light. I'm giving my general impression because I read it over the course of 7 months, picking it up when I had only a brief amount of time to read.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Both optimism and pessimism are doled out evenly enough to turn a played-out teeter-totter into a much needed park bench, pinpointing the humor in stress and excitement of the blah.
The stories share similar themes and flow together like a long peek into a randomized ‘What If?’ contraption. My favorites are the third person tales (’Attention’ = my vote for Prom Queeng) that left me questioning 'Do I love this character, the narrator or, why not, both?'

[James B · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly smart book filled with stories with just the right amount of humor and melancholy as several young, over educated, wildly underachieving men and women try to figure out how to make their lives have meaning instead of just getting by. With lots of drinking and weed and a few characters from the author’s debut novel making appearances.