Other Resort Cities

by Tod Goldberg

“Tod Goldberg's stories are not like faceted jewels. They are like glinting barbed wire, actually, roped across the field where you are reading, racing, wondering what's next, and then pierced with longing, regret, or revelation. His new collection kept me reading like that — racing to find out what would happen next to these people only Tod Goldberg could create.” —Susan Straight

“Tod Goldberg is a gifted writer, a surveyor of the soul, and Other Resort Cities is powerful fiction. He catches his characters at moments of great stress, then reveals their depths to us with compelling insight and great empathy. He sure as hell knows the details that convince. These are inventive and fresh stories that might have been merely clever in lesser hands, but Goldberg’s talent and compassion extends dignity even to the most fucked-up and misbegotten lives.” —Daniel Woodrell

“This is an excellent, compulsively readable collection. Goldberg knows and loves the cities of which he writes, and he brings their unsung citizens to life in a brilliant and affecting way.” —Mary Yukari Waters

“Darkly funny and ferociously readable, Other Resort Cities is a book you'll want to spend your entire holiday reading. Because of the subtle crime plots that give each story momentum, Goldberg's book doubles as an ideal choice for mystery-lovers.”—Tucson Weekly

In ten seductive new stories, the author of Simplify and Living Dead Girl encounters the ruthless, vulnerable people who inhabit resort cities, along with their misdemeanors and felonies. A mobster hides out in Las Vegas posing as a rabbi; a casino cocktail waitress adopts a Russian teen in an attempt to outrun her loneliness; a disturbed husband sets up a Starbucks in his living room; a retired sheriff looks for his first wife's remains in the Salton Sea. Vibrant, moving, and often profound, Other Resort Cities is Goldberg at his best.

Tod Goldberg is the author of seven books, including the novels Living Dead Girl (Soho Press), a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Fake Liar Cheat (Pocket Books/MTV) and the popular Burn Notice series (Penguin). His short story collection Simplify (OV Books) was a 2006 finalist for the SCIBA Award for Fiction and winner of the Other Voices Short Story Collection Prize. He directs the MFA Program in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts at the University of California, Riverside's Palm Desert campus.

Genres: Short Stories

200 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2009

About the author

Tod Goldberg is the New York Times bestselling author of sixteen books of fiction, notably the acclaimed Gangsterland quartet: Gangsterland, a finalist for the Hammett Prize; Gangster Nation; The Low Desert, a Southwest Book of the Year; and Gangsters Don’t Die, an Amazon Best Book of 2023 as well as a Southwest Book of the Year. Other works include The House of Secrets, which he co-authored with Brad Meltzer, and Living Dead Girl, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His short fiction and essays have been anthologized widely, including in Best American Mystery & Suspense and Best American Essays, and appear regularly in the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and Alta. Tod Goldberg is a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside, where founded and directs the Low Residency MFA program in Creative Writing & Writing for the Performing Arts. His next novel, Only Way Out, will be released this fall from Thomas & Mercer.

Reviews

[Elizabeth A · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I'm a fan and regular listener of The Literary Disco podcast, so feel like I "know" the author.

There is something utterly sublime about reading stories set in locations you are currently visiting, and I got that usual thrill with this collection of stories.

The writing is good, and each story has an unexpected and surprising edge to them. I enjoyed how some of the stories connected, and the author sheds a bright, if sympathetic light, on these characters. Darkness with a dash of humor. I enjoyed the stories while reading them, but several weeks later they have mostly faded away into the mist. The writing is good enough that I'd read more of his work,

[Patrick O'Neil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tod Goldberg is goddamn insane, he's a fucking maniac, a sick-fuck from whacko-dom. But I'm not reviewing Tod Goldberg, the man, I'm reviewing his book of short stories, Other Resort Cities.

Tod Goldberg's short stories are goddamn insane. They're fucking maniacal. The mind that thought them up is a sick-fuck whacko – but I mean that in a good way. Because sick-fuck whacko works. His stories scream, "you're a sick-fuck whacko too, that's why you're enjoying the shit outta this!" And it's true. I'm not ashamed to say it – my sick-fuck whacko mind is all up in simpatico with Goldberg's. His characters, although a bit too closely resembling members of my non-immediate family, are way out there weird. They either do nasty stuff, or have nasty stuff done to them, and the result is we have to witness their down fall, when in reality they should be put on the short bus to long term therapy sessions. To say Goldberg mines the depravity of real life for his surreal and often times uncomfortable subject matter is only too obvious. But is his Rabi really a mobbed up hit man on the lam?

Mondo Nior never tasted this good before – thank you Mr. Goldberg.

[Stephanie Austin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Tod Goldberg for a lot of reasons. This book is one of them. It's been out for awhile now, I'd been meaning to order it, but things kept getting in the way. Namely, my thesis and finishing school. I've been reading for the sheer enjoyment of reading again. While I waited for the book to arrive, I revisited a few stories from Simplify. So you could say I've been on a Tod Goldberg binge. Tod's writing is so awesome that it makes me want to speed on the highway just so I can get pulled over and talk my way out of a ticket. ORC makes me feel like I could do it. I'm naturally drawn to the dysfunctional family stories like "The Last Time We Never Met" and "Disappear Me" (from Simplify) and "Walls" and "The Models" (from ORC). But crime stories (I don't know if I should call it a crime story, but it's a story and it involves crimes) like "Mitzvah" hit me in unexpected places.

"She smiled sweetly at him, and David wondered how much kids today knew about the fucking world, about how things really were, how it wasn't all iPods and Myspace and throwing gang signs on the Internet, that there was something permanent about the decisions being made around them."

--"Mitzvah" from Other Resort Cities

"In the days before I kill myself, I get my life in order. I pay my bills, I call my ex-girlfriends, I take my dog for long walks on the beach and then feed him nothing but steak. And when I wake up, or when the neighbor cuts me down, or when my wrists have healed and my court-imposed therapy has concluded, my world is completely reorganized. It's like filing Chapter 11."

--"The Last Time We Never Met" from Simplify



He knows these people, and that makes me want to know them. This is my favorite kind of writing. It is smart and it is intense and it is pure.

[Suzanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won this odd collection of short stories & then I read it to fulfill A 2020 PopSugar Reading Challenge. Have met Tod & heard him speak numerous times—so witty & funny!! Delightful experiences all!!
Therefore, after high hopes, SO disappointed in this book!!
I’m not a big fan of short stories. Either just as I get invested in the characters & want to see what happens—story ends; or I don’t care for characters & can’t wait for story to end!!

[David C Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. A bit like Raymond Carver, although not as spare. Fewer mobsters in this collection (although Sal Cupertine/Rabbi Cohen makes his first appearance) and more people in bad straits, including poor Tania taking on her adopted Russian daughter.
Also, I’m happy when authors get paid twice, but note that several of these stories also are published in Goldberg’s subsequent collection, The Low Desert.

[Ken · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another riveting book from Tod Goldberg. The short stories focus on sad, broken souls, with a couple of exceptions, including my favorite: Chicago mobster Sal Cupertine hiding out as Rabbi David Cohen in Las Vegas. In many of the stories, Goldberg leaves the reader wanting more. One story is semiautobiographical as Goldberg, too, is a college professor in a desert town. No spoilers, here, so potential readers should go ahead and tackle the book.

[Deborah Muller · Rating 3 out of 5]

like a series of film noire-esque tales, all mired in the darker side of humanity. Grew up going to Palm Springs often, so the desert vibe was comfortingly familiar. Some stories were much more interesting than others IMO -- really enjoyed Mitzvah, Walls, Granite City and Will.

[Jayne Subwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as good as some of his others. Two stories in this book are repeats.

[Jay]

I can read Tod Goldberg on and on and on because I trust where he 19s taking his stories. His writing brings out the most unique and (saddest!) nuggets of insight on the part of his characters, but the most intense experience he reserves for specific moments . As a reader you come to expect it, that you can be turning on page after another and then arrive at a short, tight paragraph that pulls the story together and shakes you apart.
I like 1CPalm Springs 1D where Goldberg puts his main character on a bus to get to work. She hates the bus, that much is clear. I mean who doesn 19t? But for the next twenty pages we find that her despair transcends the noise, the smell and the humiliation of public transportation. We find out that she is 47 years old and has probably commuted on a lot of buses in her life.
I 19ve read a lot about frustrated cocktail waitresses and broken dreams. This one, Tania, has used a Las Vegas jackpot to finance her adoption of a Russian daughter. Once in a lifetime: 50,000 dollars. It came fast and sudden from a lucky poker hand. And she knew just what she needed to do with it. Creating a new family would be the perfect way to change her story.
Here, if you let your imagination run with the story, you might think that she is a fighter, someone who has been overcoming obstacles all her life. But it 19s the bus ride that Goldberg sets up for us that tells us all we need to know. If you are 47 years old and still riding the bus, look around you. Your luck is never going to change. Goldberg knows this. I know this. And Tanya sadly realizes it in the final paragraph of the story. Life is hard. Pain is real. And what a relief it is to know that.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tod’s stories take place in the southwest and concern themselves with forgotten, damaged characters. Tod mixes more humor with the pathos, but never at the expense of his characters, who are complex and real and treated with dignity. Empathy is the lofty goal in these stories, and he succeeds. (Other Resort Cities has a blurb from Daniel Woodrell that’s well-earned and apt.) Favorite stories include “Mitzvah” (a former wiseguy from Chicago is getting sick of hiding out near Vegas, while pretending to be a rabbi. Funny, disturbing, and touching) and “Granite City” (the old sheriff finds a family buried in the snow and hacked to pieces, and instead of the who-dunnit-thriller approach, Tod builds a creeping, quiet story about grief. The two heartbreaking stars of the collection–”Palm Springs” and “Other Resort Cities”–concern the same charcters: Tania (a forty-year-old cocktail waitress with enough regret and recrimination to fill a lake basin) and her spontaneous decision to adopt a 12 year old girl from Russian, Natalya.

[Lynne Spreen · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's as if Tod Goldberg, author of "Other Resort Cities" (I think he must have gotten the name from an offramp sign on Interstate 10 near Palm Springs) needed to get out for a run and flex his writing muscles - and flex he does: this collection of short stories exposes a 9-octave range. At one extreme, we hear from two little girls (written in second person!) who were abandoned as kids by a good father who is run off by a narcissistic mother. At the other extreme, we find ourselves inside the head of a mentally ill man who has turned his home (in a pricey gated community) into a Starbucks just for himself! Goldberg can write about the colors and moods of the desert like few others, from the existentialist desolation of the Salton Sea to the hubristic excesses of the country club set. If you liked Wells Tower in Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned, you'll definitely enjoy Other Resort Cities.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a surprisingly quick read for me. The collection feels more relevant for me than ever, having made the rounds between living in the Palm Springs area, Orange County, and now Las Vegas, all of which are featured in Tod's stories, and utilized well. The stories themselves often revolve around somewhat typical if heartbreaking scenarios (other times somewhat more odd ones), but it's the setting that makes them unique and very readable, often factoring into the regret and sorrow each character harbors. Other times it's the characters themselves and how they view the world that help define the story, and Living Room in particular is one in which the character's failure to grasp reality makes for a more amusing yet haunting look at his life.

[Jeannette · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have loved my every exposure to Goldberg at the LA Times festival of books, where he has been unfailingly hilariously entertaining. But in this, my first encounter with him in print, I was less riveted. The main problem may be my impatience with most short stories. I could see and appreciate Goldberg's skewed humor and his ability to bring this very imperfect characters to life. Problem was that I just didn't care that much about them. That said, I loved Mitzvah, the story about the mobster hiding out as a rabbi.

[Robert Duffer · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Readers familiar with his first collection, Simplify, which won Chicago-based Other Voices Books’ inaugural Short Story Collection Prize, will recognize the theme of desperation. The difference is that the stories in ORC are more realistic in tone and the characters are shackled by the product of their bad decisions." Read the article at TimeOut Chicago via the Examiner.http://www.examiner.com/x-416-Chicago...

[Bill Peschel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Evocative, sometimes strange short stories, reflecting on crossed-out lives, aging, the difficulty of connecting. A mother fails with her adopted Russian daughter, a dying man in a dying resort town haunted by memories of murder, a creepy guy converts his home into a Starbucks (complete with barista) and a rabbi who isn't performs a switcheroo in dealing with disposing of bodies. Literary fiction from a twisted perspective.

[CBSD Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Tod Goldberg's stories are not like faceted jewels. They are like glinting barbed wire, actually, roped across the field where you are reading, racing, wondering what's next, and then pierced with longing, regret, or revelation. His new collection kept me reading like that — racing to find out what would happen next to these people only Tod Goldberg could create.” —Susan Straight

[Jana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kats' Postal Book. I lost my notes, but I remember thinking that now I understand Tod much better. I'm sure he had a very dark childhood and these stories are the fruits of his "issues". Violence! Dark, dysfunctional families! Guns! Las Vegas! My favorite story involves a mom who brings different men to Thanksgiving dinner each year. All of the stories are good, a few are fantastic.

[Bree · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tod Goldberg is a master of the mixing the hilarious with the heartbreaking. This collection contains some of my favorite short stories of all time. He's a keen observer of the human condition who creates characters that are an authentic reflection of the settings they inhabit. I love this book.

[Kristine · Rating 4 out of 5]

At this point I've read enough that almost everything I read reminds me of something I've read before -- but not these short stories. Set amidst a number of western locales, ranging from Palm Springs to Las Vegas to Fullerton, they manage to convey both bleakness and humor.

[Bryce Emley · Rating 3 out of 5]

pretty entertaining, but every main character kind of sounds the same in every story. they all like Bruce Springsteen and resent those darn gangster-rapping kids.

[Burl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book!

[Chris Morrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a twisty journey along a disjoint timeline. A great story though, I thought.

[Amy Kitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorites:

Walls
Palm Springs
The Models
Other Resort Cities
Mitzvah

[Peter Atkinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short stories - interesting, dry. I wouldn't recommend to my friends.

[Lisa Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

love his stories and sentence structure best short story book i've read want more of tod. surprised i liked it so much. every story was intriguing and interesting and captivating

[Chantal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loving these short stories! More soon....