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The Ones Who Don't Say They Love You: Stories
NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • A collection of raucous stories that offer a “vibrant and true mosaic” ( The New York Times ) of New Orleans, from the critically acclaimed author of We Cast a Shadow
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ERNEST J. GAINES AWARD • LONGLISTED FOR THE STORY PRIZE • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR— Garden & Gun, Electric Lit • “Every sentence is both something that makes you want to laugh in a gut-wrenching way and threatens to break your heart in a way that you did not anticipate.”—Robert Jones, Jr., author of T he Prophets , in The Wall Street Journal
Maurice Carlos Ruffin has an uncanny ability to reveal the hidden corners of a place we thought we knew. These perspectival, character-driven stories center on the margins and are deeply rooted in New Orleanian culture.
In “Beg Borrow Steal,” a boy relishes time spent helping his father find work after coming home from prison; in “Ghetto University,” a couple struggling financially turns to crime after hitting rock bottom; in “Before I Let Go,” a woman who’s been in NOLA for generations fights to keep her home; in “Fast Hands, Fast Feet,” an army vet and a runaway teen find companionship while sleeping under a bridge; in “Mercury Forges,” a flash fiction piece among several in the collection, a group of men hurriedly make their way to an elderly gentleman’s home, trying to reach him before the water from Hurricane Katrina does; and in the title story, a young man works the street corners of the French Quarter, trying to achieve a freedom not meant for him.
These stories are intimate invitations to hear, witness, and imagine lives at once regional but largely universal, and undeniably New Orleanian, written by a lifelong resident of New Orleans and one of our finest new writers.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ERNEST J. GAINES AWARD • LONGLISTED FOR THE STORY PRIZE • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR— Garden & Gun, Electric Lit • “Every sentence is both something that makes you want to laugh in a gut-wrenching way and threatens to break your heart in a way that you did not anticipate.”—Robert Jones, Jr., author of T he Prophets , in The Wall Street Journal
Maurice Carlos Ruffin has an uncanny ability to reveal the hidden corners of a place we thought we knew. These perspectival, character-driven stories center on the margins and are deeply rooted in New Orleanian culture.
In “Beg Borrow Steal,” a boy relishes time spent helping his father find work after coming home from prison; in “Ghetto University,” a couple struggling financially turns to crime after hitting rock bottom; in “Before I Let Go,” a woman who’s been in NOLA for generations fights to keep her home; in “Fast Hands, Fast Feet,” an army vet and a runaway teen find companionship while sleeping under a bridge; in “Mercury Forges,” a flash fiction piece among several in the collection, a group of men hurriedly make their way to an elderly gentleman’s home, trying to reach him before the water from Hurricane Katrina does; and in the title story, a young man works the street corners of the French Quarter, trying to achieve a freedom not meant for him.
These stories are intimate invitations to hear, witness, and imagine lives at once regional but largely universal, and undeniably New Orleanian, written by a lifelong resident of New Orleans and one of our finest new writers.
192 pages, Paperback
First published August 17, 2021
137 people are currently reading
16256 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 243 reviews
May 31, 2021
I loved Ruffin’s debut novel so it was cool to see his short form work. Individually, these are great stories. He is as adept with flash fiction as he is with longer prose. The voices in these stories are distinctive and if there is a theme binding the work together it’s the city of New Orleans and the black people whose stories and struggles are often overlooked. I was impressed by the range. Every type of person imaginable can be found here. At times it felt like this should be two separate collections and the narrators sometimes blurred across the stories. These are small quibbles. I couldn’t put the book down and I will be thinking about these characters for some time to come. Ruffin is an imaginative, exuberant writer and these stories reflect that.
March 29, 2023
The city of New Orleans is full of characters and their unique voices. I’m far from the first to say that. (New Orleans also loves to love itself. I can’t remember where I heard it expressed thus, but it’s true.) Ruffin’s stories are full of characters and unique voices. That’s not surprising: He’s an acute observer and a native son. I vividly remember the first time I heard him read at the Tennessee Williams Fest (years before his debut novel). He was on a panel of several writers, but for me his story rose above the rest.
The styles range from a prose poem to flash to longer; from humorous to gritty to a mixture. The characters vary in age, and the stories of adolescents and their daily survivals are especially wrenching. New Orleans has a lot of problems: poverty, racism, marginalized citizens. All these things go hand-in-hand and are in the background of every story; without them, there’s no accurate representation.
New Orleans knows its problems and many are outspoken about them, but we also prefer not to hear criticism from outsiders when what they want to change is what makes New Orleans itself, like the music rising from the streets, as it has done so from the beginning. The last (and longest) story is about a woman who works multiple jobs to keep her Tremé home. Her struggles are of the moment and, as I neared the end, I inwardly smiled, my heart strengthened at her—and the story’s—resolve.
The styles range from a prose poem to flash to longer; from humorous to gritty to a mixture. The characters vary in age, and the stories of adolescents and their daily survivals are especially wrenching. New Orleans has a lot of problems: poverty, racism, marginalized citizens. All these things go hand-in-hand and are in the background of every story; without them, there’s no accurate representation.
New Orleans knows its problems and many are outspoken about them, but we also prefer not to hear criticism from outsiders when what they want to change is what makes New Orleans itself, like the music rising from the streets, as it has done so from the beginning. The last (and longest) story is about a woman who works multiple jobs to keep her Tremé home. Her struggles are of the moment and, as I neared the end, I inwardly smiled, my heart strengthened at her—and the story’s—resolve.
October 18, 2021
As usual, this collection of short stories set in New Orleans was a mixed bag, but I enjoyed most of them. Some were very short, only a few pages. One of those short ones that stood out for me was “Token”. Written as a single sentence, this is a guide for how Black people can be deemed acceptable. It really rang true “…one of you is desirable, but more than one of you is a rebellion”. I also liked “Before I Let Go” about a woman who works multiple low-paying jobs to avoid having to sell her house. It explores the character of New Orleans and gentrification. In “Caesara Pittman, or a Negress of God” a former slave finds her own kind of justice in 1866.
In “Ghetto University” an unemployed Black professor mugs white tourists. “I throw in a ‘whitey’ for effect, even though I know that lukewarm racial epithets hasn’t been popular since the 1970s, but how exactly does one insult white people? Hey, Casper? Fork it over, paleface? There simply isn’t a word equivalent to the N-bomb when you’re trying to make Caucasians feel uncomfortable, unless you count the most terrifying noun, my skin.” Then he encounters some who confound him. “But note the thick glasses, the stiffness of his gate, the comically tight high waters. In other words, this man is part of my tribe. He’s a bona fide nerd.”
“The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You” may be the story I’ll remember the longest. An unnamed young male prostitute has a steady customer, a tourist from Idaho. He has been picking up boys on this corner for 20 years. “He got a fat neck and skin like old peaches. His wallet fat, too; that all you care about.” He’s the only john who buys him a meal after he’s through. The john offers to bring him to Idaho and let him live in a storage shed. The boy is a foster child and this sounds like a good deal to him. Rich guy must have a big storage shed, right?
I also liked the novel “We Cast a Shadow” by this author and I would read more by him.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
In “Ghetto University” an unemployed Black professor mugs white tourists. “I throw in a ‘whitey’ for effect, even though I know that lukewarm racial epithets hasn’t been popular since the 1970s, but how exactly does one insult white people? Hey, Casper? Fork it over, paleface? There simply isn’t a word equivalent to the N-bomb when you’re trying to make Caucasians feel uncomfortable, unless you count the most terrifying noun, my skin.” Then he encounters some who confound him. “But note the thick glasses, the stiffness of his gate, the comically tight high waters. In other words, this man is part of my tribe. He’s a bona fide nerd.”
“The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You” may be the story I’ll remember the longest. An unnamed young male prostitute has a steady customer, a tourist from Idaho. He has been picking up boys on this corner for 20 years. “He got a fat neck and skin like old peaches. His wallet fat, too; that all you care about.” He’s the only john who buys him a meal after he’s through. The john offers to bring him to Idaho and let him live in a storage shed. The boy is a foster child and this sounds like a good deal to him. Rich guy must have a big storage shed, right?
I also liked the novel “We Cast a Shadow” by this author and I would read more by him.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
May 27, 2022
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The Ones Who Don't Say They Love You: Stories is a humorous yet unsparing ode to New Orleans. In this polyphonic collection Maurice Carlos Ruffin presents his readers with an unforgettable portrayal of New Orleans, from its unique culture that separates it from other American cities to its people. These stories tap into contemporary issues so that more than one is actually set during the still-ongoing pandemic. The author also touches on BLM, lgbtq+ themes, as well as issues related to unemployment, connection, and loneliness.
What I most appreciated in this collection, other than its strong sense of place, was that the author doesn’t try to moralise nor condemn his characters’ behaviour. The conversational nature of many of these stories makes it so that the character in question is simply recounting the events and or circumstances that led them to make certain choices. They are simply trying to survive or to cope with a certain situation. The dialogues rang true to life and so did the scenarios the characters are in. I appreciated the openness of these stories and the author’s realistic approach to serious and contemporary issues. While I still feel weird when I read a book that acknowledges COVID, it also, weirdly enough, helps me somehow (learning of how these ‘fictional’ characters cope with it etc.). Many of the stories focus on characters who are caught at a crossroad and discover, for better and worse, that the line between right and wrong is a fine one.
Sadly, a major drawback of this collection was the relatively short length of these stories. I would have preferred longer stories, as that would have allowed me to feel more immersed by the characters and their experiences.
Still, I really liked the author’s prose and I’m curious to read his debut novel, We Cast a Shadow.
The Ones Who Don't Say They Love You: Stories is a humorous yet unsparing ode to New Orleans. In this polyphonic collection Maurice Carlos Ruffin presents his readers with an unforgettable portrayal of New Orleans, from its unique culture that separates it from other American cities to its people. These stories tap into contemporary issues so that more than one is actually set during the still-ongoing pandemic. The author also touches on BLM, lgbtq+ themes, as well as issues related to unemployment, connection, and loneliness.
What I most appreciated in this collection, other than its strong sense of place, was that the author doesn’t try to moralise nor condemn his characters’ behaviour. The conversational nature of many of these stories makes it so that the character in question is simply recounting the events and or circumstances that led them to make certain choices. They are simply trying to survive or to cope with a certain situation. The dialogues rang true to life and so did the scenarios the characters are in. I appreciated the openness of these stories and the author’s realistic approach to serious and contemporary issues. While I still feel weird when I read a book that acknowledges COVID, it also, weirdly enough, helps me somehow (learning of how these ‘fictional’ characters cope with it etc.). Many of the stories focus on characters who are caught at a crossroad and discover, for better and worse, that the line between right and wrong is a fine one.
Sadly, a major drawback of this collection was the relatively short length of these stories. I would have preferred longer stories, as that would have allowed me to feel more immersed by the characters and their experiences.
Still, I really liked the author’s prose and I’m curious to read his debut novel, We Cast a Shadow.
July 2, 2025
re-read
still incredibly ambitious. Maybe didn't;t love it as much as the first time. but there is one story that is even better than first time so it will stay at 5
still incredibly ambitious. Maybe didn't;t love it as much as the first time. but there is one story that is even better than first time so it will stay at 5
May 30, 2025
A lot of these stories felt sort of unfinished
September 10, 2021
Loved this book of short stories by Maurice Carlos Ruffin.
Set in New Orleans, you get a viewpoint of the realities behind the tourist haunts and what the pandemic has been like for Black and Brown folks. These are not all stories about the pandemic tho, they capture post-Katrina life and folks trying to make their way, trying to live another day after going through thee most.
I like the obvious nods in this work. The very first nod off rip was to Zora.. the writing in the first and title story, The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You, has got so much style. A hard story about a young male sex worker being offered a way out by a john, it captures the city’s sound and pace through Ruffin’s use of NOLA’s unique accents, colloquial language, and more.
The last story Before I Let Go was a meditation on creeping gentrification and what that can do to people trying to hold on to their homes as vultures aided by the city descend upon working people. It exposes through the eyes of the main character, Gailya, what it’s like to try to keep your sanity when white people come for your community doing what they’ve done in New York and various other major cities, in your neighbourhood. What it’s like to experience the ripping away of the unique beauty and colour of your area to have it colonized with Starbucks and neighbourhood watch, watching for Black folks playing their trumpets too loud on their own back porches. The title of the story being from the legendary Frankie Beverly/Maze track is fire, and another great nod!
Speaking of nods, The Pie Man being a seemingly obvious nod to John Singleton’s Baby Boy was another fantastic story about adverse surrounding influences, familial disconnection, poverty, stretched-too-thin parents, and an unsettled home life leading to trouble for kids with minimal oversight. A definite highlight of the series.
Lastly, my favourite story of them all was Ghetto University. It was so well executed and darkly comical, I paced around my house with every paragraph thinking - no way.. this is what it’s come to aye.. and at its sad yet hilarious ending I thought.. fuck, that’s hard. I like how of-the-moment Ruffin is, this story and its title being an obvious nod to Kanye West’s All of the Lights.
Anyway, I’m down to read more from this author whenever they’re offering up some more hearty pagefuls!
Set in New Orleans, you get a viewpoint of the realities behind the tourist haunts and what the pandemic has been like for Black and Brown folks. These are not all stories about the pandemic tho, they capture post-Katrina life and folks trying to make their way, trying to live another day after going through thee most.
I like the obvious nods in this work. The very first nod off rip was to Zora.. the writing in the first and title story, The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You, has got so much style. A hard story about a young male sex worker being offered a way out by a john, it captures the city’s sound and pace through Ruffin’s use of NOLA’s unique accents, colloquial language, and more.
The last story Before I Let Go was a meditation on creeping gentrification and what that can do to people trying to hold on to their homes as vultures aided by the city descend upon working people. It exposes through the eyes of the main character, Gailya, what it’s like to try to keep your sanity when white people come for your community doing what they’ve done in New York and various other major cities, in your neighbourhood. What it’s like to experience the ripping away of the unique beauty and colour of your area to have it colonized with Starbucks and neighbourhood watch, watching for Black folks playing their trumpets too loud on their own back porches. The title of the story being from the legendary Frankie Beverly/Maze track is fire, and another great nod!
Speaking of nods, The Pie Man being a seemingly obvious nod to John Singleton’s Baby Boy was another fantastic story about adverse surrounding influences, familial disconnection, poverty, stretched-too-thin parents, and an unsettled home life leading to trouble for kids with minimal oversight. A definite highlight of the series.
Lastly, my favourite story of them all was Ghetto University. It was so well executed and darkly comical, I paced around my house with every paragraph thinking - no way.. this is what it’s come to aye.. and at its sad yet hilarious ending I thought.. fuck, that’s hard. I like how of-the-moment Ruffin is, this story and its title being an obvious nod to Kanye West’s All of the Lights.
Anyway, I’m down to read more from this author whenever they’re offering up some more hearty pagefuls!
April 17, 2022
Dynamite!!! All the stories center around New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. You have a story of regentrification of established Black neighborhoods. After the hurricane white people came to help Black people rebuild their homes. Now, they are here to buy the neighborhood and make it their own by driving property taxes up and dislocating the present citizens. Gailya fights to keep her home is an award-winning story in perseverance.
The situation of the alcoholic mother who wants to quit drinking and a ten-year-old son who wants to be the man and provider since his mother drove his father away. A fourteen-year-old young male who wants to have some power in a world that has killed his brother Chaney. The teenage male prostitutes are they good for business or not as bad as dudes shooting dudes? A father is back from prison wanting a new life. Life is not going as he expects. Can his ten-year old son make a difference? What goes thru a child’s mind is amazing. The deputy only duty is to make sure Mercury Forges do not escape. He turns his back Mercury is gone. Will the deputy find him? It is not what you think. A rapist finds a free Creole woman is not easy prey. The bloodline is important in marriage. These and other short stories that cascade around New Orleans will make you scurry, squirm, laugh, and leaves you utterly speechless. A very good read.
Quotes:
In all the times you done business with Jellnik, he never say he love you. That's the only reason you listen to him at all.
If anything, I have only a face and body that are, in a sense, weaponized.
I wish I could have told my boys the truth about everything I'd seen at that gala, all those people just living, but I knew they wouldn't get it.
I think Go On Girls! will like this read because it is a fun, eye-opener, and provocative read with stories that you hear in the news and would like more details about the people. If gives insight into the everyday working person who is trying to live in this mix up world of injustices or perceived injustices.
The situation of the alcoholic mother who wants to quit drinking and a ten-year-old son who wants to be the man and provider since his mother drove his father away. A fourteen-year-old young male who wants to have some power in a world that has killed his brother Chaney. The teenage male prostitutes are they good for business or not as bad as dudes shooting dudes? A father is back from prison wanting a new life. Life is not going as he expects. Can his ten-year old son make a difference? What goes thru a child’s mind is amazing. The deputy only duty is to make sure Mercury Forges do not escape. He turns his back Mercury is gone. Will the deputy find him? It is not what you think. A rapist finds a free Creole woman is not easy prey. The bloodline is important in marriage. These and other short stories that cascade around New Orleans will make you scurry, squirm, laugh, and leaves you utterly speechless. A very good read.
Quotes:
In all the times you done business with Jellnik, he never say he love you. That's the only reason you listen to him at all.
If anything, I have only a face and body that are, in a sense, weaponized.
I wish I could have told my boys the truth about everything I'd seen at that gala, all those people just living, but I knew they wouldn't get it.
I think Go On Girls! will like this read because it is a fun, eye-opener, and provocative read with stories that you hear in the news and would like more details about the people. If gives insight into the everyday working person who is trying to live in this mix up world of injustices or perceived injustices.
August 23, 2021
This is a collection of slice of life stories, stories in which you step inside a life for a moment in time and don't always know what a final resolution will hold no matter how dire that character's situation. And these people are all in dire situations. I was in awe of Maurice Carlos Ruffin's novel, We Cast a Shadow. It haunts me as will these stories. Some of which are less than a page but which are so finely drawn you feel you've seen these people first hand. Set in New Orleans post-Katrina and forward (there are even those addressing presentday pandemic and Black Lives Matter), the denizens of the Ninth Ward try keeping their families together, some against inhuman odds. Whether it's a father returning home after a "stay" in Angola trying to find work or a woman doing every job possible in the gig economy in order not to lose her home that has been in her family for three generations due to escalating taxes thanks to gentrification of her Treme district neighborhood, or a young tapper in the tourist section, every single story is proof of resilience and hope. Kudos.
September 6, 2021
The Ones Who Don't Say They Love You is a collection of short stories set in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The main characters are all Black, but like the diaspora they come from a multitude of experiences and Ruffin is quite adept at showing the reader how distinct and special each character is. In the title piece a young male prostitute is offered a chance to leave the streets of the Big Easy and go live in Idaho. He appreciates that the john is upfront with him and doesn't pretend to have feelings. There is some honor in this in that he has come into this life to feed his younger siblings and has been lied to and taken advantage of far too often.
All of the stories are about surviving and "making a way out of no way". Despite the characters' different hustles, there is no condemnation or morality plays. Life just is what it is. This wide range of stories deal with such topics as BLM, the LGBTQ+ experience, respectability politics, gentrification . . . Also here is mention of the Covid 19 pandemic. It was weird seeing this play out in the stories while presently living it. I must say it felt a bit surreal.
Although The Ones Who Don't Say They Love You is not a satire like We Cast a Shadow, Ruffin does play around with a little irony in some of his stories like "Ghetto University" where a couple who have resorted to nefarious means to come up with their rent falls prey to another.
This story collection is clever and evocative. Every characters reads authentic. Each story, whether 1 page or 40, is a moving experience. Maurice Carlos Ruffin is the real f-ing deal.
All of the stories are about surviving and "making a way out of no way". Despite the characters' different hustles, there is no condemnation or morality plays. Life just is what it is. This wide range of stories deal with such topics as BLM, the LGBTQ+ experience, respectability politics, gentrification . . . Also here is mention of the Covid 19 pandemic. It was weird seeing this play out in the stories while presently living it. I must say it felt a bit surreal.
Although The Ones Who Don't Say They Love You is not a satire like We Cast a Shadow, Ruffin does play around with a little irony in some of his stories like "Ghetto University" where a couple who have resorted to nefarious means to come up with their rent falls prey to another.
This story collection is clever and evocative. Every characters reads authentic. Each story, whether 1 page or 40, is a moving experience. Maurice Carlos Ruffin is the real f-ing deal.
August 15, 2021
Loved this collection!
January 3, 2022
Short stories + contemporary literature: Two of my favorite things. Well, it didn't quite work out here. At the end of each story, I was looking for the next paragraph, scratching my head and thinking maybe there was a page break. It was very odd because I was enjoying the story one minute then wondering where the rest of it was the next. But I always have a tough time with story collections whose stories leave the ending to the reader. Were it not for that, I'm thinking 5-stars. Every single one of these stories is captivating and tugs at your heartstrings. They feel like they are set in a place, unlike novels that have a specific setting but feel like it could be anywhere. And since YA is not my favorite genre, I appreciate that this story collection captures children's voices without being that. So, not my favorite book, but it is easy to see how it could be someone else's.
March 27, 2021
Maurice Carlos Ruffins’s short story collection is rooted in and about New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. These are desperate times for desperate people resorting to desperate measures. Most are doing their best to survive sacrificing their dignity, pride assuming any and every menial job available in hopes of making enough to care for themselves and their loved ones.
Some of the stories are less than a page (Zimmerman, Spinning) but are weighted with just as much sentiment, melancholy, and depth as the longer pieces. Some of my personal favorites were the title story, The Ones Who Don't Say They Love You, where a young, neglected foster child resorts to a debasing profession to feed his siblings. Beg Borrow Steal features the return of a boy’s father from prison and the havoc that ensues as he looks for employment. Ghetto University examines respectability politics when a college professor and his chemist wife lose their esteemed positions and face eviction.
While unemployment and despair recur throughout many of the stories, there is still hope and determination to rebuild, reclaim, and maintain the city’s spirit and the love of its inhabitants. This collection has heart! Well done!
Some of the stories are less than a page (Zimmerman, Spinning) but are weighted with just as much sentiment, melancholy, and depth as the longer pieces. Some of my personal favorites were the title story, The Ones Who Don't Say They Love You, where a young, neglected foster child resorts to a debasing profession to feed his siblings. Beg Borrow Steal features the return of a boy’s father from prison and the havoc that ensues as he looks for employment. Ghetto University examines respectability politics when a college professor and his chemist wife lose their esteemed positions and face eviction.
While unemployment and despair recur throughout many of the stories, there is still hope and determination to rebuild, reclaim, and maintain the city’s spirit and the love of its inhabitants. This collection has heart! Well done!
October 18, 2021
This is how you put on for your city.
June 26, 2022
June Bookclub Read
Wow, I really struggled with this book and this rating. During bookclub we were asked to pick a couple of stories that were of interest to everyone. I actually enjoyed and could relate to 6 stories, not very many, but I liked what I liked. So my bookclub rating was a 3 star, however my goodreads rating is a one star.
Short stories are not really my thing and if this is how most of short stores read it will never be my cup of tea.
I wanted to like this book for the sake of the author and the residents of New Orleans whom I believe may truly appreciate the stories told about their city and culture, however it was just not for me.
Many of the stories had no closure, no understanding and were just flat and not interesting.
It's hard enough to read a book with no interest but I expect a short story to bring it, how hard is that?
Again, no shade to the author or anyone who enjoyed the book, but I will stick to what I know best and that's Historical Fiction!!
Wow, I really struggled with this book and this rating. During bookclub we were asked to pick a couple of stories that were of interest to everyone. I actually enjoyed and could relate to 6 stories, not very many, but I liked what I liked. So my bookclub rating was a 3 star, however my goodreads rating is a one star.
Short stories are not really my thing and if this is how most of short stores read it will never be my cup of tea.
I wanted to like this book for the sake of the author and the residents of New Orleans whom I believe may truly appreciate the stories told about their city and culture, however it was just not for me.
Many of the stories had no closure, no understanding and were just flat and not interesting.
It's hard enough to read a book with no interest but I expect a short story to bring it, how hard is that?
Again, no shade to the author or anyone who enjoyed the book, but I will stick to what I know best and that's Historical Fiction!!
September 27, 2021
I really thought I would enjoy this collection of stories but it was not to be. The first couple of stories were enjoyable but then after about the fourth story I became disinterested. Oh well, can’t like them all.
November 23, 2021
Beautiful, heart-wrenching stories about the Black folks of New Orleans. Finalist for the Ernest J. Gaines Prize. Excellent work.
July 2, 2021
He has the range! Equally great flash fiction and regular short stories all over the map (but not literally because they're all in New Orleans) that are without fail clever, touching, or more often both. The title story is so good, "Catch What You Can" I'm obsessed with, and there's not a clunker to be found.
February 7, 2022
I liked this book overall. I enjoyed each of the short stories while I read them but the reason it’s not quite 4 for me is that most of the stories were unremarkable and forgettable. The day after reading I only remembered like 3 of them and
maybe a part of another. The titular story was good but disturbing when you realize the main protagonist is in middle school. I liked the story about the criminal professor too. I loved the setting of this story and how he represented multiple parts of New Orleans. I would be open to rereading because maybe my mind and my full self never really came to the book but anyways if you like short stories it’s worth a read for the variety of types of short stories and the New Orleans setting and culture embedded within each.
maybe a part of another. The titular story was good but disturbing when you realize the main protagonist is in middle school. I liked the story about the criminal professor too. I loved the setting of this story and how he represented multiple parts of New Orleans. I would be open to rereading because maybe my mind and my full self never really came to the book but anyways if you like short stories it’s worth a read for the variety of types of short stories and the New Orleans setting and culture embedded within each.
December 14, 2021
Maurice Carlos Ruffin's debut novel, We Cast A Shadow, was, among other literary accolades, a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. An original dystopian post-racial masterpiece (where you can be beautiful, more beautiful than before), that wore me out, We Cast A Shadow is sublime.
... so Ruffin's next effort better match or exceed, right?
Emphatically, it does.
Where we can at times only imagine We Cast A Shadow, in this new collection of short stories, some first published elsewhere, i.e. Kenyon Review, Ruffin gets raw and real.
There are no imaginings here.
From its eponymous first story, of a child placed in a precarious position (because I don't want to give it away); yet somehow willingly, Ruffin is able to interject humor, abject horror, and uncomfortable longing in a 6-page story.
But Ruffin shows you he can do it better; evoking the same ethos in even shorter length works, such as the 2-page Mercury Forges, about an escaped (not really) con who's "Got to find Humanity Street," and in doing so, embodies and defines it.
In my favorite, Token, although you can "get to the office by 6 a.m.; never leave before sunset; wear a suit and tie even on Fridays .. and wear nonprescription glasses so they believe you have a brain ... you will still listen how grateful and lucky you are so you can appear to be twice the man ... (only) make hand gestures that soothe ... so you can get up and let them pat your skull."
Ruffin knows us all too well.
A native, he also knows New Orleans; where in effect, these stories are based.
"New Orleans is like a brick. You pour water on it and there's no telling where the rivulets run."
And after reading this powerful and poignant collection, just like your tears.
... so Ruffin's next effort better match or exceed, right?
Emphatically, it does.
Where we can at times only imagine We Cast A Shadow, in this new collection of short stories, some first published elsewhere, i.e. Kenyon Review, Ruffin gets raw and real.
There are no imaginings here.
From its eponymous first story, of a child placed in a precarious position (because I don't want to give it away); yet somehow willingly, Ruffin is able to interject humor, abject horror, and uncomfortable longing in a 6-page story.
But Ruffin shows you he can do it better; evoking the same ethos in even shorter length works, such as the 2-page Mercury Forges, about an escaped (not really) con who's "Got to find Humanity Street," and in doing so, embodies and defines it.
In my favorite, Token, although you can "get to the office by 6 a.m.; never leave before sunset; wear a suit and tie even on Fridays .. and wear nonprescription glasses so they believe you have a brain ... you will still listen how grateful and lucky you are so you can appear to be twice the man ... (only) make hand gestures that soothe ... so you can get up and let them pat your skull."
Ruffin knows us all too well.
A native, he also knows New Orleans; where in effect, these stories are based.
"New Orleans is like a brick. You pour water on it and there's no telling where the rivulets run."
And after reading this powerful and poignant collection, just like your tears.
September 8, 2024
I enjoyed this unique collection of stories set in New Orleans. Shortlisted and long listed for literary prizes, this gritty collection is comprised of perspectives often overlooked. Prostitution, individuals just out of prison, young gang members, Katrina survivors, and much more. Unexpected and compelling.
September 3, 2021
3.5 stars rounded up.
January 5, 2024
read for my internship but it was really good
August 3, 2022
Picked this up during a trip and have no regrets. A really well-composed collection of short stories and flash fiction (a new term to me, but it was in the summary) based in New Orleans that reaches across humanity, survival, desire, and living in touching ways. It takes a lot of skill to craft short stories, so I have a greater respect for the flash fiction pieces and the ways they stick with you despite their brevity.
February 27, 2024
Really thoroughly enjoyed this. Some of the stories more than others- loved the final one. Loved the one about the professor who became a mugger. Sending love out to my loved ones in New Orleans 😽
May 18, 2023
As part of my goodbye tour of New Orleans, I picked up this book of short stories that was recommended by a friend. The stories center Black folks in New Orleans and cover a range of walks of life: from sex workers to homeowners to children to parents. It was so beautifully written and I loved each and every character and story. This is one of those books that I read from the library but will be buying my own copy of.
August 29, 2021
Stories of people living uncontrived lives. You should read them.
March 14, 2021
New Orleans native and author Maurice Carlos Ruffin brings to life his hometown in both beautiful and harrowing vignettes in The Ones Who Don't Say They Love You, a collection of short stories detailing the Black experience in south Louisiana. The stories in this volume cover a wide range of topics, including familial relationships, poverty, crime, racism, the LGBTQIA experience, the coronavirus pandemic, and more. Ruffin deposits readers right into the midst of his characters' lives, enveloping them in the sights and sounds of the city, and showing them what it means to be black in New Orleans.
Some of Ruffin's more memorable stories include:
The Ones Who Don't Say They Love You - A young boy sells his body to New Orleans tourists to help feed his brothers and sisters.
Beg Borrow Steal - When his father returns home from a stint in Angola, a young boy spends a day with his dad, looking for work.
Rhinoceros - Set during the time of the coronavirus and BLM protests, two LGBTQIA teenagers spend an evening out and about in the city.
Ghetto University - A university professor holds up tourists in the French Quarter to help make ends meet at home.
The Pie Man - A young boy falls into a life of crime while trying to avoid forming a relationship with his absent father.
Catch What You Can - When his mom decides to quit drinking and find a job, a young boy accompanies her around the city while she looks for work.
Before I Let Go - A woman fights against the gentrification of her New Orleans neighborhood.
In all, this collection of short stories is poignant and eye-opening, all while being honest, raw, and real.
Some of Ruffin's more memorable stories include:
The Ones Who Don't Say They Love You - A young boy sells his body to New Orleans tourists to help feed his brothers and sisters.
Beg Borrow Steal - When his father returns home from a stint in Angola, a young boy spends a day with his dad, looking for work.
Rhinoceros - Set during the time of the coronavirus and BLM protests, two LGBTQIA teenagers spend an evening out and about in the city.
Ghetto University - A university professor holds up tourists in the French Quarter to help make ends meet at home.
The Pie Man - A young boy falls into a life of crime while trying to avoid forming a relationship with his absent father.
Catch What You Can - When his mom decides to quit drinking and find a job, a young boy accompanies her around the city while she looks for work.
Before I Let Go - A woman fights against the gentrification of her New Orleans neighborhood.
In all, this collection of short stories is poignant and eye-opening, all while being honest, raw, and real.
March 24, 2023
A book full of stories, some nice , some different but surely a range of them. If you like short stories and are into it pick it up.
July 30, 2022
My Rating: 4.4
I really enjoyed this short story collection. Ruffin has a wide range of stories to tell and it is exciting to see how all the different protagonists interact with the city of NOLA. Ruffin does an incredible job at immersing you in the different worlds of the characters, making the characters seem so real and familiar. I think it is because of this ability that makes, in my opinion, Ruffin's flash fiction pieces in this book stronger than the novella's. None of the stories were repetitive or lackluster. They all either brought up or provided answers to conversations regarding race, gender, class, and sexuality.
Here are some of my favorites:
"Token"
"Cocoon"
"The Places I Couldn't Go"
"Before I Let Go"
I really enjoyed this short story collection. Ruffin has a wide range of stories to tell and it is exciting to see how all the different protagonists interact with the city of NOLA. Ruffin does an incredible job at immersing you in the different worlds of the characters, making the characters seem so real and familiar. I think it is because of this ability that makes, in my opinion, Ruffin's flash fiction pieces in this book stronger than the novella's. None of the stories were repetitive or lackluster. They all either brought up or provided answers to conversations regarding race, gender, class, and sexuality.
Here are some of my favorites:
"Token"
"Cocoon"
"The Places I Couldn't Go"
"Before I Let Go"
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