There’s Something Wrong With Sven

by Greg Gerke

"In this group of flash fiction and short stories Greg Gerke looks at the world with a sometimes absurd, sometimes tragic, but all the time compassionate eye. Two cars crash but the drivers turn out to be a cyclist who witnessed the accident, a son is visited by his dead father, a single Rainier cherry is used as a football in a scrimmage between potheads and in the hilarious title story a 1000-pound moth is nearing the end of his days. Full of twists and turns, Greg Gerke’s debut collection is more powerful than fun; each character has flavor, the situations stick, the work is unique. There’s Something Wrong with Sven, but this book is right on. —Kim Chinquee, Pushcart Winner and author of Oh Baby With an ever-roving eye for the peculiar episodic at home and abroad, Greg Gerke lets plenty of little thrills bound out from these stories—though don’t look past the more tender moments in his carnivalesque travels. They are just as humorous as they are oddly endearing. —Forrest Roth, author of Line and Pause In There's Something Wrong With Sven, Greg Gerke delivers dozens of short-shorts, each an absurdist world full of compassion and ambition, populated by surprisingly earnest characters who cannot help but enchant us as they pursue goals that are simultaneously fleeting and eternal. These stories contain big hearts and big laughter, as well as just enough of the sad and the weird to be both believable and memorable. —Matt Bell, author of The Collectors and How the Broken Lead the Blind "

137 pages, Paperback

First published April 2, 2009

Reviews

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

While these stories are at times surreal and at other times dark, they hang together because regardless of tone or setting the characters are always searching for answers. Well, that and sex.

[Roland · Rating 4 out of 5]

In “There’s Something Wrong with Sven,” Gerke offers readers an eclectic collection of stories. At times they’re dark and sobering, but more often they’re packed with humor and absurdity. Plus, there’s lots of sex and twisted thinking going on with Gerke’s entertaining cast of characters.

The stories are compelling and short—there’s probably fifty in the collection—so it’s a good book to turn to when you’re looking for fun, quick-hitters.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

My overall reaction to Greg Gerke's story collection, There's Something Wrong With Sven, is mixed. On the one hand, there are quite a few fictions here which are completely engaging and wittily entertaining and on the other hand there are quite of few which left me disappointed or just baffled. There is certainly an eclecticism in his writing which, in itself, is not a bad thing and I don't think the variety of modes he chooses accounts for the hit and miss quality of the pieces in the book. But the best stories here (e.g., "This is Where We Keep Vivaldi's Body" and "Laws of the American Middle West") show a terrific flair for absurdist irony and satire which reminded me at times of Barthelme at his best. Gerke's efforts are not helped by an unusually large number of printing errors such as ommitted words, etc., especially noticable in the first half of the book. So a solid 3 stars.

[Thomas Baughman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I reviewed this book for Puerto del Sol.