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One Simple Thing
When his father leaves town, twelve-year-old Rodney Culver’s mother takes up with Otis Dell, a fry cook at the local diner―and a well-known petty thief. While Rodney resists the man’s influence at first, Otis soon draws the boy into his small-time criminal world. After a simple heist goes violently wrong, Rodney becomes an unwitting fugitive, swept away from his mother to the primitive mountain sanctuary of the mysterious Lester Fanning. But with Lester’s skeptical lady friend in the way, and the town sheriff grappling with a curiously placed corpse, what once seemed like an easy plan quickly devolves into a knot of complications.
Runtime: 7. 81 hours. Unabridged, 1 MP3 CD.
Runtime: 7. 81 hours. Unabridged, 1 MP3 CD.
9 pages, MP3 CD
First published January 26, 2021
12 people are currently reading
163 people want to read
About the author
Warren Read
4 books44 followersWarren Read is the author of the 2008 memoir, The Lyncher in Me (Borealis Books), and the novels One Simple Thing (2021, Ig Publishing) and Ash Falls (2017, Ig Publishing). His short fiction has been published in Hot Metal Bridge, Mud Season Review, Sliver of Stone, Inklette, Switchback and The Drowning Gull. In addition, he has had two short plays directed and produced by Tony winner Dinah Manoff. In 2015 he received his MFA from the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University. In 2022 he retired after 31 years as an elementary teacher and high school associate principal.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
March 25, 2021
Rodney is 12 when his mother hooks up with petty criminal Otis. Otis makes Rodney a reluctant participant in his crimes. Louis is a sheriff concerned for the welfare of his brother Vinnie who has dementia. Nadine is inexplicably living in a house in the woods with Lester, who is obviously up to no good.
This could probably be described as a crime novel but, although there are a few dead bodies, I wouldn’t characterize this as grit lit. The ending is decidedly soft. It was like the author couldn’t decide whether he wanted to write tender-hearted character studies or get down and dirty in rural noir territory.
The first 75% of the book was too slow moving for me. It wasn’t until the 3 storylines merged that the book became exciting and really held my attention. I wish that I had been more engaged by the rest of the book. One of my problems was the constantly shifting focus among the 3 threads of the book. The writing wasn’t bad though and I might read something else by this author. 3.5 stars
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
This could probably be described as a crime novel but, although there are a few dead bodies, I wouldn’t characterize this as grit lit. The ending is decidedly soft. It was like the author couldn’t decide whether he wanted to write tender-hearted character studies or get down and dirty in rural noir territory.
The first 75% of the book was too slow moving for me. It wasn’t until the 3 storylines merged that the book became exciting and really held my attention. I wish that I had been more engaged by the rest of the book. One of my problems was the constantly shifting focus among the 3 threads of the book. The writing wasn’t bad though and I might read something else by this author. 3.5 stars
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
February 26, 2021
Warren has done it again!! And not just because he's a friend.
Dark, brooding, gritty and disturbing. Sucks you right in! So descriptive...I can see and smell every scene! Loved it!
Dark, brooding, gritty and disturbing. Sucks you right in! So descriptive...I can see and smell every scene! Loved it!
March 1, 2021
“Twelve-year-olds desperate for pocket money didn’t get the luxury of whining or negotiating, not in an armpit place like Hope, Wyoming. Hope: a town, Rodney decided, that was not only poorly named, but proof that even God needed a place to dump all the sh*t he didn’t get right.”
Wyoming, 1976. Rodney Culver, friendless and politely stunted, is facing a long dry summer of dusty small-town nothingness when the best and worst thing that could happen to him does: he learns that the adults in his life are unreliable. And that the best way to survive that is to find reliability within himself.
That slowly dawning epiphany unrolls like so much pavement between Hope, Wyoming and Stevens County, Washington, where Rodney ends up with Otis Dell, the small-time criminal his mother takes up with after his father deserts the family. Otis, it seems, may have graduated to murder, and having conscripted Rodney as his lookout with the lure of easy cash, has no choice to but to lam it with Rodney in reluctant tow: “In time, Rodney had grown used to Otis like he would a fresh scar, some ugly mark that might have come from a collision with a low branch while navigating his bicycle on an overgrown trail.”
In Washington state, they take uncomfortable refuge with Lester, a former prison pal of Otis’s, and his woman, Nadine, who is pretty much the adult female equivalent of Rodney: someone who can’t stomach the unreliability of others but doesn’t have the strength to go it alone: “What was it about men, she wondered. Maybe she was asking too much, or maybe she just kept catching all the wrong flies. But it seemed like they all had one side they liked to show the world, and another side hiding around the corner, just waiting to jump out. .. What she didn’t know about the shadows in Lester’s life could keep her free.”
Nadine and Rodney form a tentative bond over a clear but unspoken question: how far are they going to let the losers who they’ve let run their lives take them down?
ONE SIMPLE THING drifts somewhere between genre crime novel and capital-L literary fiction. Though the story itself is never adrift; it’s merely deliberate of pace, spooling out in a minor key like an independent crime movie loaded with tasteful acoustic music and silent burning stares. It is not a novel of plot yet it is not plotless; it requires patience yet never tests that of the reader too far. It is meditative, rich in observation, quiet, and yet not without incident. Its sentences reflect care and polish yet never have the fussy no-hairs-out-of-place feel of an MFA novel. It’s a slow burn that almost seems to go out. Then you poke it a little and are pleasantly surprised by an explosion of flame.
It’s not a perfect novel. I found the side story about the aging local sheriff and his addled brother to be a polite drag on the story; it feels as if it were borrowed from another, aborted novel and shoehorned into this one. But while it’s an awkward fit in the Rodney/Otis/Lester/Nadine story, it’s not uninteresting on its own.
Author Warren Read, building on his fine previous novel ASH FALLS, has established himself as a sharp-eyed observer of people bent to the and of the West, a land that breaks ambition and breaks people into taciturn silence, a land of people wondering if they burn slow, or have just burned out.
Wyoming, 1976. Rodney Culver, friendless and politely stunted, is facing a long dry summer of dusty small-town nothingness when the best and worst thing that could happen to him does: he learns that the adults in his life are unreliable. And that the best way to survive that is to find reliability within himself.
That slowly dawning epiphany unrolls like so much pavement between Hope, Wyoming and Stevens County, Washington, where Rodney ends up with Otis Dell, the small-time criminal his mother takes up with after his father deserts the family. Otis, it seems, may have graduated to murder, and having conscripted Rodney as his lookout with the lure of easy cash, has no choice to but to lam it with Rodney in reluctant tow: “In time, Rodney had grown used to Otis like he would a fresh scar, some ugly mark that might have come from a collision with a low branch while navigating his bicycle on an overgrown trail.”
In Washington state, they take uncomfortable refuge with Lester, a former prison pal of Otis’s, and his woman, Nadine, who is pretty much the adult female equivalent of Rodney: someone who can’t stomach the unreliability of others but doesn’t have the strength to go it alone: “What was it about men, she wondered. Maybe she was asking too much, or maybe she just kept catching all the wrong flies. But it seemed like they all had one side they liked to show the world, and another side hiding around the corner, just waiting to jump out. .. What she didn’t know about the shadows in Lester’s life could keep her free.”
Nadine and Rodney form a tentative bond over a clear but unspoken question: how far are they going to let the losers who they’ve let run their lives take them down?
ONE SIMPLE THING drifts somewhere between genre crime novel and capital-L literary fiction. Though the story itself is never adrift; it’s merely deliberate of pace, spooling out in a minor key like an independent crime movie loaded with tasteful acoustic music and silent burning stares. It is not a novel of plot yet it is not plotless; it requires patience yet never tests that of the reader too far. It is meditative, rich in observation, quiet, and yet not without incident. Its sentences reflect care and polish yet never have the fussy no-hairs-out-of-place feel of an MFA novel. It’s a slow burn that almost seems to go out. Then you poke it a little and are pleasantly surprised by an explosion of flame.
It’s not a perfect novel. I found the side story about the aging local sheriff and his addled brother to be a polite drag on the story; it feels as if it were borrowed from another, aborted novel and shoehorned into this one. But while it’s an awkward fit in the Rodney/Otis/Lester/Nadine story, it’s not uninteresting on its own.
Author Warren Read, building on his fine previous novel ASH FALLS, has established himself as a sharp-eyed observer of people bent to the and of the West, a land that breaks ambition and breaks people into taciturn silence, a land of people wondering if they burn slow, or have just burned out.
January 30, 2021
Yes, I blurbed this book. But also, I watched this story emerge, evolve, and become the powerful thing it is. I loved it then and now.
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In Warren Read’s stories, setting is a character, stealthy, lush, and full of hidden depths. The very air has texture, holding the characters tight as their small town worlds unfold. His new novel, One Simple Thing, presents us with such a town but also with a family falling apart and murder. Sheriff Louis Youngman is going to uncover the who and the why of the crime—while Rodney is caught up in the mystery, drawn to danger and trouble because of his parents’ fractured marriage.
A twisting, twisted tale full of well-developed characters and dense setting, One Simple Thing is a story that will hold you in its grip until the satisfying end.
---
In Warren Read’s stories, setting is a character, stealthy, lush, and full of hidden depths. The very air has texture, holding the characters tight as their small town worlds unfold. His new novel, One Simple Thing, presents us with such a town but also with a family falling apart and murder. Sheriff Louis Youngman is going to uncover the who and the why of the crime—while Rodney is caught up in the mystery, drawn to danger and trouble because of his parents’ fractured marriage.
A twisting, twisted tale full of well-developed characters and dense setting, One Simple Thing is a story that will hold you in its grip until the satisfying end.
June 3, 2021
In One Simple Thing, twelve-year-old Rodney Culver becomes an accidental accomplice to his mother's new boyfriend, Otis, after he has been able to charm himself into her world after Rodney's father calls it quits and leaves town.
Soon, things go wrong because the degenerate Otis is more doofus than a master criminal, forcing the pair to hit the road and encounter other interesting characters introduced by the author.
Different characters are featured in alternating chapters and in such a way that causes the reader to wonder exactly how the story is going to converge into one main tale.
For some reason, One Simple Thing did not resonate with this reader, which is odd because the novel is well written, with interesting characters and a good story.
Other readers may enjoy this novel more, especially as a summer read.
Soon, things go wrong because the degenerate Otis is more doofus than a master criminal, forcing the pair to hit the road and encounter other interesting characters introduced by the author.
Different characters are featured in alternating chapters and in such a way that causes the reader to wonder exactly how the story is going to converge into one main tale.
For some reason, One Simple Thing did not resonate with this reader, which is odd because the novel is well written, with interesting characters and a good story.
Other readers may enjoy this novel more, especially as a summer read.
Read
July 2, 2021Like Warren Read's first novel, "Ash Falls," this is a beautifully crafted slow burn that, reminiscent of Kent Haruf's trilogy of eastern Colorado ranchers and townsfolk, paints a stark, disturbing picture of backwoods small town living in Wyoming and Eastern Washington. The narrative is peppered with wonderful metaphor and tiny details that, in cinematic fashion, create palpable, unforgettable imagery. Like Richard Ford's "Canada," the plight of the young protagonist creates a tension that tugs at the heartstrings. Masterfully rendered. Can't wait for the film.
April 19, 2021
Loved this hard, hard story filled with mystery and longing. Warren Read introduces readers to a collection of broken but mostly sympathetic characters brought to life with gorgeous prose. In fact the writing is so lovely, the words feel as if they should have the power to paint a new and hopeful reality for the people on these pages. I enjoyed every minute of the reading journey.
March 3, 2021
I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I did the author’s first book although they had a similar theme of a young boy pulled into the evil world of the adults around him. It was okay and kept my interest.
February 26, 2021
One Simple Thing is a powerful book with a thrilling concept. The subjects are interesting and Warren’s writing style easy to follow It is the works of an author who has published other books
December 12, 2020
One Simple Thing tells the story of three lives that intersect in varying ways because of 2 criminals who ultimately belong behind bars. We watch the story unfold through Louis, Rodney, and Nadine. Three people of vastly different ages and are seemingly unconnected. You get a bit of the rough life with Nadine, the day to day of being a sheriff, and taking care of a brother with dementia in Louis, and adjusting to life with your mother’s new boyfriend, who is a petty criminal, with Rodney. Through Read’s storytelling, we watch these lives eventually intersect.
The interesting thing about reading this was that you didn’t feel that you were reading a crime thriller or detective novel, per se. It’s an easy laid back unfolding of the story that is in no rush to put these three together. Overall, it was an enjoyable read, and I look forward to reading more of the author’s work.
The interesting thing about reading this was that you didn’t feel that you were reading a crime thriller or detective novel, per se. It’s an easy laid back unfolding of the story that is in no rush to put these three together. Overall, it was an enjoyable read, and I look forward to reading more of the author’s work.
March 22, 2021
Warren Read has created a slow-to-build novel that features his skilled development of flawed characters in a northern Washington rural area. The novel held my attention from start to finish and was one of those books I would have kept reading had it been a longer book just to see what would happen to Rodney, his father and mother, Louis the sheriff, and his brother Vinnie. And where does Nadine go? If I am lucky there will be a sequel. All the characters captured my interest, and in some cases my heart, and the story was one of poignant pathos, small town lives, tension, mystery and the hope of redemption. Read is a master of metaphor and simile, making this an absolute joy to read for this poet/writer.
Read
December 17, 20233.5
February 6, 2021
Loved this book! Moody, dark, ominous, all the good things, and the shifting landscape of untrustworthy characters keeps a reader off-balance. Just enough off-balance that maybe you need to take three steps backward to get your feet back under you ;)
November 23, 2020
Part coming of age, part crime story, this novel is taut and gritty throughout. I read this as an advance copy and looked forward to it after having read his first novel, Ash Falls. This one is different. Darker. But his grasp of place and complex people are consistent, and that’s what I love about his writing. Great read.
February 26, 2021
This book grabbed me from the start. Great character development. The visual descriptions were beautiful. Seemed like three separate stories going on until they were all tied together towards the end. Loved it!
April 11, 2021
Once again in ONE SIMPLE THING, Warren Read has captured landscape, character, and suspense so vividly. A great weaving of separate threads into one story, and with powerful prose. Highly recommended. I can't wait for his next book.
May 24, 2021
An absolutely pleasure to read. Warren Read is a gifted story teller with prose that flows seamlessly, complete with unique and quirky characters and twists and turns that keep you turning the page. I look forward to his next book!
June 14, 2021
2.5. Did not feel it. Never interested in writing, characters or plot.
Read
March 10, 2022DNF p. 58. Lost interest.
July 20, 2023
I loved this story. I had the audio version and listened to it several times. It became one of my favorites. I highly recommend this book!
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews