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Call It What You Want: Stories
Keith Lee Morris, author of The Dart League King, returns with a new story collection as acute, funny, and heartbreaking as we've come to expect from him. In this stunning story collection inhabited by dreams and disappointments, good intentions and small triumphs, Keith Lee Morris chronicles the lives of men lost in the liminal spaces between adolescence and adulthood. For all their flaws―as husbands, as fathers, as friends―Morris’s characters are portrayed with depth, tenderness, and humanity. Call It What You Want balances realism with the surreal, humor with sadness, and explores all the hidden places in between.
264 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2009
About the author
Keith Lee Morris
20 books40 followersKeith Lee Morris is an associate professor of English and Creative Writing at Clemson University. His previous book, THE DART LEAGUE KING, was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection. His writing has appeared in many publications including Tin House, the Southern Review and the New England Review..
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
April 13, 2010
A modern Grimm's Fairy Tales
I received a copy of this book as a FirstReads winner through Goodreads - what a stroke of luck!
This book of short stories belongs to a sub-genre that I have only recently identified. I'm not sure what title to give it, but it involves short stories that are intense, gritty, and character driven, tend to dip over into magical realism at some point, and are almost universally really, really dark. One might almost say depressing. Except that Keith Lee Morris, here, has managed to produce a brace of these generally gloomy stories without making them depressing, and that is quite a trick. Having just finished this book, in which the writing was so beautiful that I could not have put it down even if it had put me in a funk, I feel not bummed out but rather energetic. These stories are chock full of experiences or moods or flights of fancy that I think all of us experience or imagine in our lives, and that makes for some very compelling story-telling. Since I did not have to personally live through the various tragedies described myself, I'm left with that sort of feeling of relief and resolve to avoid trouble that I think audiences of the earliest fairy tells must have felt as they stood up from around the fire to go lie down for the night, a sort of "there but for the grace of god" giddiness. So while this collection of short stories shares some strong traits with others I've read, it does not cross the line into all-out maniacal brutality toward its central characters that others do (and yes, I'm looking at you, Alice Munro and Annie Proulx). One last note is that I was surprised, at the end, to turn to the back cover and read that this was a collection of stories about men and boys. The themes here are so universal that I don't think gender mattered much except in small turns of plot, and as a woman I felt by no means excluded or excused from things.
I received a copy of this book as a FirstReads winner through Goodreads - what a stroke of luck!
This book of short stories belongs to a sub-genre that I have only recently identified. I'm not sure what title to give it, but it involves short stories that are intense, gritty, and character driven, tend to dip over into magical realism at some point, and are almost universally really, really dark. One might almost say depressing. Except that Keith Lee Morris, here, has managed to produce a brace of these generally gloomy stories without making them depressing, and that is quite a trick. Having just finished this book, in which the writing was so beautiful that I could not have put it down even if it had put me in a funk, I feel not bummed out but rather energetic. These stories are chock full of experiences or moods or flights of fancy that I think all of us experience or imagine in our lives, and that makes for some very compelling story-telling. Since I did not have to personally live through the various tragedies described myself, I'm left with that sort of feeling of relief and resolve to avoid trouble that I think audiences of the earliest fairy tells must have felt as they stood up from around the fire to go lie down for the night, a sort of "there but for the grace of god" giddiness. So while this collection of short stories shares some strong traits with others I've read, it does not cross the line into all-out maniacal brutality toward its central characters that others do (and yes, I'm looking at you, Alice Munro and Annie Proulx). One last note is that I was surprised, at the end, to turn to the back cover and read that this was a collection of stories about men and boys. The themes here are so universal that I don't think gender mattered much except in small turns of plot, and as a woman I felt by no means excluded or excused from things.
April 29, 2010
ARC from publisher
"Call It What You Want" is another in a long line of short story collections that I have found myself reading this year. I suppose you could say this is the year of "Unintentionally Reading Short Stories".
This particular book was sent to me from Tin House Books when I requested a copy of "Hot Springs", and the description on the inside flap intrigued me.
One of things I enjoy most about short stories collections is discovering the ways in which they are linked to one another. Some feature characters that pass in and out of each story, demonstrating the thin strings that connect people subconsciously to one another. Others all take place in the same town or state, perhaps over the years, highlighting similar backgrounds, a familiar stage on which different characters perform.
In the case of "Call It What You Want", Keith Lee Morris connects his stories on a more emotional level. Each tale introduces to us to a character who is struggling with some sort of inner demon or desperation, struggling to keep themselves together, suffering from a painful wound that they are unable to allow to heal.
His stories are filled with sadness and disappointment, frustration and failure. And most of them leave a lasting impression on the reader, long after the story has been told. The characters tell their stories in such memorable, tangible ways that it makes them difficult to shake.
There are quite a few that are still rolling around inside my head, haunting me.
Camel Light shows how an accidental discovery can bring a persons world crashing down around them. A man, who has the house to himself for an hour or so, is determined to sit on the couch and relax. Before he gets too comfortable, he discovers a lone unlit cigarette lying under his dishwasher. The mystery of this lone unlit cigarette initiates thoughts of his wife or kids sneaking a smoke, to a possible broken appliance that he was unaware was repaired, to infidelity, which slowly drives him to the brink of insanity.
What I Want From You is a heatbreaking tale of a mother and wife who fights to keep her sanity after both her oldest son and husband die, leaving her to raise her youngest son on her own. In the midst of battling severe depression, she now finds herself dealing with the death of a tail-less squirrel who has become a part of their family.
In Visitation a young man returns home after attending a church service during which his mother strangely passes away to discover someone has broken into his home. This young man goes from victim to victor back to victim again in the matter of a few minutes.
A Desert Island Romance was probably one of the more humorous stories, in which two strangers find themselves washed up on an uninhabited island. It details how these two people fall in love, begin to reminisce about life off the island, and how one of them eventually begins to believe the imagined life has become reality.
Morris chose to end the collection with a story called The Culvert, which was the perfect way to end his book. In this story, we find a town facing a flash flood, and a family who realizes that their oldest son is not at home. The father searches everywhere, shouting for his son, as the water rises and invades his home, forcing him to give up and wait for the water to clear. It's a story about refusing to accept reality, and continuing to search for what you cannot live without.
Though the author uses words to tell his story, I saw the characters and situations come to life in my head. He has this uncanny way of creating visual stories.
A collection I am glad to have read. One that I may not have found on my own. So a big thank you to the people at Tin House for sending it my way!
"Call It What You Want" is another in a long line of short story collections that I have found myself reading this year. I suppose you could say this is the year of "Unintentionally Reading Short Stories".
This particular book was sent to me from Tin House Books when I requested a copy of "Hot Springs", and the description on the inside flap intrigued me.
One of things I enjoy most about short stories collections is discovering the ways in which they are linked to one another. Some feature characters that pass in and out of each story, demonstrating the thin strings that connect people subconsciously to one another. Others all take place in the same town or state, perhaps over the years, highlighting similar backgrounds, a familiar stage on which different characters perform.
In the case of "Call It What You Want", Keith Lee Morris connects his stories on a more emotional level. Each tale introduces to us to a character who is struggling with some sort of inner demon or desperation, struggling to keep themselves together, suffering from a painful wound that they are unable to allow to heal.
His stories are filled with sadness and disappointment, frustration and failure. And most of them leave a lasting impression on the reader, long after the story has been told. The characters tell their stories in such memorable, tangible ways that it makes them difficult to shake.
There are quite a few that are still rolling around inside my head, haunting me.
Camel Light shows how an accidental discovery can bring a persons world crashing down around them. A man, who has the house to himself for an hour or so, is determined to sit on the couch and relax. Before he gets too comfortable, he discovers a lone unlit cigarette lying under his dishwasher. The mystery of this lone unlit cigarette initiates thoughts of his wife or kids sneaking a smoke, to a possible broken appliance that he was unaware was repaired, to infidelity, which slowly drives him to the brink of insanity.
What I Want From You is a heatbreaking tale of a mother and wife who fights to keep her sanity after both her oldest son and husband die, leaving her to raise her youngest son on her own. In the midst of battling severe depression, she now finds herself dealing with the death of a tail-less squirrel who has become a part of their family.
In Visitation a young man returns home after attending a church service during which his mother strangely passes away to discover someone has broken into his home. This young man goes from victim to victor back to victim again in the matter of a few minutes.
A Desert Island Romance was probably one of the more humorous stories, in which two strangers find themselves washed up on an uninhabited island. It details how these two people fall in love, begin to reminisce about life off the island, and how one of them eventually begins to believe the imagined life has become reality.
Morris chose to end the collection with a story called The Culvert, which was the perfect way to end his book. In this story, we find a town facing a flash flood, and a family who realizes that their oldest son is not at home. The father searches everywhere, shouting for his son, as the water rises and invades his home, forcing him to give up and wait for the water to clear. It's a story about refusing to accept reality, and continuing to search for what you cannot live without.
Though the author uses words to tell his story, I saw the characters and situations come to life in my head. He has this uncanny way of creating visual stories.
A collection I am glad to have read. One that I may not have found on my own. So a big thank you to the people at Tin House for sending it my way!
July 24, 2013
A really enjoyable collection of solidly observed stories focused on blue-collar life and the living of it.
A favored bit:
I said, I mean I don't know what the fuck's going on. He looked around. We're playing pool, he said. I asked him, Is this today or yesterday?
- "Blackout"
A favored bit:
I said, I mean I don't know what the fuck's going on. He looked around. We're playing pool, he said. I asked him, Is this today or yesterday?
- "Blackout"
April 3, 2010
A short story needs to have something to say and Morriss has nothing to say to me.
He drew the line, not me.
He drew the line, not me.
April 1, 2011
I first became aware of Keith Lee Morris by reading his novel, The Dart League King, an impressive work that stayed with me long after I finished it. This story collection is equally impressive. Be prepared, though, for two very different experiences reading the first and second half. The first half is filled with straightforward, realistically told stories that are some of the most moving pieces I've ever read about the pain we can uncaringly inflict on others ("Testimony") or the sadness of losing someone whose friendship we may have taken for granted while pining for things we can't have ("Ayudame").
As the author himself said in an interview on the blog largeheartedboy (more on that in a second), with the story "Visitation" things start to take a "strange turn." That story is still squarely within the confines of standard storytelling, but it has a slightly twisted premise - a man returns home to find a robber trying to steal money, but after roughing him up, he keeps him as a captive listener on his couch, so he can talk to him about why he's not grieving properly for his mother who just died. With "Tired Heart" and "A Desert Island Romance," bizarre circumstances twist the protagonists' minds and it's not clear whether details of what happens subsequently are meant to be fantastical elements in an alternate reality or mere delusions in the main characters' now-twisted minds. In the "Cyclist," the protagonist's confusion about the confines of linear time, when internally he experiences his past, present, and future as one whole unit within himself, causes the linearity of his own life to break down. He then experiences all the various aspects of his life - that should have been separated by years or considerable distance - all within the confines of shared spaces in a single day. And in the final story, a father's unhappiness with the unbearableness of his "standard reality" - losing his son in a flash flood - enables him to escape into an alternative one.
It's wild stuff in the second half, as you can see, but the prose is still that clean, hard masculine style that has earned Morris so much praise. (And most definitely not the headache-inducing Pynchon, Joyce in Ulysses kind of stuff.) To borrow from the phrasing in the story, "My Roommate Kevin is Awesome," the second half of the collection plays with the "established principles" of how the world should work (like any fiction writer does, right?). Hopefully, for participating in these mind-benders with Morris, readers won't experience the same kind of Old Testament-style vengeance Kevin and his roommate are threatened with for challenging the "eternal verities."
In that largeheartedboy blog (look in the "books and notes" section) Morris offers some brief background on each of these stories and selects a companion song for each as a "soundtrack" for the collection. It's a fun exercise Morris went through & it's worth checking out. The 13 stories in the collection are:
1. Testimony - 39 pp - Told in the world of unemployed meth addicts, but a universal story about the dynamic that often develops among groups of boys or men - with an alpha dog, eager followers, and one weaker member of the group that the others pick on, getting whatever sadistic pleasure or sense of superiority we derive from having someone to ridicule and abuse. Here the alpha dog has an explosive temper that leads to disastrous circumstances. The story is told through the framework of courtroom testimony that one of the followers must give when the alpha dog is on trial for attempted murder. The follower - Robert Jerome Scott -- uses this forum to try to understand for himself why he didn't do more to stand up for or protect his friend/victim.
2. Camel Light - 19 pp - An insurance salesman with a few free hours to enjoy to himself when his wife is off at a beadmaking class and his kids are both out of the house works himself up into a lather when he discovers a cigarette under the dishwasher in his kitchen. Using his warped powers of deduction, he manages to convince himself that this is evidence that his wife, a psychologist, is having an affair with one of her patients and as his suspicions begin to escalate he imagines what his life will be like as a cuckold. A fascinating portrayal of the dangers of letting our imaginations run too far away.
3. What I Want From You - 14 pp - A letter from a widow to her dead husband who drove his car off a cliff - she thinks deliberately -- in his grief over their son who is dying of cancer. She thinks of the game her husband created with her sons in which he shared conversations he had with the tale-less squirrel who lives in their backyard. Their youngest son keeps that game up with his dying brother even after their father is gone, and the wife wants to know why her late husband had to experience his heartbreak alone, without sharing any of it with her. Powerful emotions, very movingly told.
4. Guests - 26 pp - A young guy who's working the swing shift at a New Orleans hotel with his buddy comes under the sway of a guest at the hotel - a rich jewelry designer who thinks they were lovers in a past life. She invites him to be her soulmate/male concubine in California - and since he hasn't had much direction with his life he wonders if she should accept the offer. When she's not overindulging her New Age craziness, he does feel a connection to her but wonders how she can see depths to his soul and possibilities for his future than he can't even see himself yet.
5. Ayudame - 20 pp - Another one to break out the handkerchiefs for. It's a powerful story about a man who wishes he could transport back in time and run a record store in Haight-Ashbury in the Summer of Love of 1967. Instead, he installs roofs to support his wife and daughter and his only friend is a Mexican co-worker who shares his love of 60s music - then something terrible happens. ("Ayudame" is the Spanish word for "Help me," which has particular resonance in the story.)
6. Harmonica - 13 pp - Things go bad from worse, when an itinerant Idaho worker meets a motorcyclist, who aggressively bums a cigarette from him. Thinking he's been set up for an assault, he attacks first, which leads him being chased down by the guy and his friend in a pickup, and his eventual stealing of the motorcycle for a while ride through the night that takes a very, very bad turn.
7. Visitation - 18 pp - A man coming home from church, where his mother just died, discovers a 20-year-old kid, who was at his house warming party the night before, trying to steal $50 from him. He attacks the kid, and after the fight, they end up sitting on the couch together and having a discussion, with an episode of Happy Days playing on the TV in the background, of why he's not having all the appropriate feelings of grief for having just lost his mother.
8. Tired Heart - 31 pp - A man accepts a large sum of money from a mysterious businessman, Mr. Griffin, in exchange for picking up packages, whose contents he can't examine, in various states. In his winding, cross-country drive, he starts to go crazy and gets paranoid about this secret mission he's on and wonders what the mysterious Mr. Griffin might do to him if he disobeys any of the specific instructions he's been given. It's a race to get home safely to his wife, who's waiting for him in a picturesque fishing town in Puget Sound - as long as he doesn't first go crazy or get done in by Mr. Griffin's henchmen, or put his wife at risk.
9. Blackout - 12 pp - A man who's never left his hometown and whose life has been a mix of tragedy (losing a son to cancer) and tedium (he's a car salesman) looks forward to his tenth high school reunion. But he gets extremely drunk and experiences a blackout. In the aftermath, he has only a few clues to rely on as he tries to unravel what happened on the reunion weekend after he hooked up with a former flame.
10. A Desert Island Romance - 12 pp - A man ends up deserted on an island, and then is joined by a woman who fell off a cruise ship during her honeymoon. They start a romance, relishing the chance to escape their old lives and their old mistakes, but then they begin to miss their daily rituals - and fantasize about a new life together, back in the regular world where they realize they might eventually become tired of each other too.
11. My Roommate Kevin is Awesome - 11 pp - Kevin starts to channel miracles - he can hang in mid-air, conjure Ray Charles, or create a battle of miniature real soldiers in his dorm room. The talents make Kevin and his roommate the most popular guys on campus, until an angel of God has to let them know if they make any more tears in the fabric of the universe, God will have to lay some Old Testament-style vengeance on them.
12. The Cyclist - 15 pp - A former pop music star experiences a dream-like day in which a former girlfriend, his wife, and a student he could easily start an affair with are available to him on the same day because that's what his past, present and future feel like to him -- unified parts of a whole he always is.
13. The Culvert - 16 pp - A man loses his son in a flash flood, and then slips down through a culvert and discovers an alternate universe where his son is happily recreating his past life. The father must make a choice about which life he will stay with.
As the author himself said in an interview on the blog largeheartedboy (more on that in a second), with the story "Visitation" things start to take a "strange turn." That story is still squarely within the confines of standard storytelling, but it has a slightly twisted premise - a man returns home to find a robber trying to steal money, but after roughing him up, he keeps him as a captive listener on his couch, so he can talk to him about why he's not grieving properly for his mother who just died. With "Tired Heart" and "A Desert Island Romance," bizarre circumstances twist the protagonists' minds and it's not clear whether details of what happens subsequently are meant to be fantastical elements in an alternate reality or mere delusions in the main characters' now-twisted minds. In the "Cyclist," the protagonist's confusion about the confines of linear time, when internally he experiences his past, present, and future as one whole unit within himself, causes the linearity of his own life to break down. He then experiences all the various aspects of his life - that should have been separated by years or considerable distance - all within the confines of shared spaces in a single day. And in the final story, a father's unhappiness with the unbearableness of his "standard reality" - losing his son in a flash flood - enables him to escape into an alternative one.
It's wild stuff in the second half, as you can see, but the prose is still that clean, hard masculine style that has earned Morris so much praise. (And most definitely not the headache-inducing Pynchon, Joyce in Ulysses kind of stuff.) To borrow from the phrasing in the story, "My Roommate Kevin is Awesome," the second half of the collection plays with the "established principles" of how the world should work (like any fiction writer does, right?). Hopefully, for participating in these mind-benders with Morris, readers won't experience the same kind of Old Testament-style vengeance Kevin and his roommate are threatened with for challenging the "eternal verities."
In that largeheartedboy blog (look in the "books and notes" section) Morris offers some brief background on each of these stories and selects a companion song for each as a "soundtrack" for the collection. It's a fun exercise Morris went through & it's worth checking out. The 13 stories in the collection are:
1. Testimony - 39 pp - Told in the world of unemployed meth addicts, but a universal story about the dynamic that often develops among groups of boys or men - with an alpha dog, eager followers, and one weaker member of the group that the others pick on, getting whatever sadistic pleasure or sense of superiority we derive from having someone to ridicule and abuse. Here the alpha dog has an explosive temper that leads to disastrous circumstances. The story is told through the framework of courtroom testimony that one of the followers must give when the alpha dog is on trial for attempted murder. The follower - Robert Jerome Scott -- uses this forum to try to understand for himself why he didn't do more to stand up for or protect his friend/victim.
2. Camel Light - 19 pp - An insurance salesman with a few free hours to enjoy to himself when his wife is off at a beadmaking class and his kids are both out of the house works himself up into a lather when he discovers a cigarette under the dishwasher in his kitchen. Using his warped powers of deduction, he manages to convince himself that this is evidence that his wife, a psychologist, is having an affair with one of her patients and as his suspicions begin to escalate he imagines what his life will be like as a cuckold. A fascinating portrayal of the dangers of letting our imaginations run too far away.
3. What I Want From You - 14 pp - A letter from a widow to her dead husband who drove his car off a cliff - she thinks deliberately -- in his grief over their son who is dying of cancer. She thinks of the game her husband created with her sons in which he shared conversations he had with the tale-less squirrel who lives in their backyard. Their youngest son keeps that game up with his dying brother even after their father is gone, and the wife wants to know why her late husband had to experience his heartbreak alone, without sharing any of it with her. Powerful emotions, very movingly told.
4. Guests - 26 pp - A young guy who's working the swing shift at a New Orleans hotel with his buddy comes under the sway of a guest at the hotel - a rich jewelry designer who thinks they were lovers in a past life. She invites him to be her soulmate/male concubine in California - and since he hasn't had much direction with his life he wonders if she should accept the offer. When she's not overindulging her New Age craziness, he does feel a connection to her but wonders how she can see depths to his soul and possibilities for his future than he can't even see himself yet.
5. Ayudame - 20 pp - Another one to break out the handkerchiefs for. It's a powerful story about a man who wishes he could transport back in time and run a record store in Haight-Ashbury in the Summer of Love of 1967. Instead, he installs roofs to support his wife and daughter and his only friend is a Mexican co-worker who shares his love of 60s music - then something terrible happens. ("Ayudame" is the Spanish word for "Help me," which has particular resonance in the story.)
6. Harmonica - 13 pp - Things go bad from worse, when an itinerant Idaho worker meets a motorcyclist, who aggressively bums a cigarette from him. Thinking he's been set up for an assault, he attacks first, which leads him being chased down by the guy and his friend in a pickup, and his eventual stealing of the motorcycle for a while ride through the night that takes a very, very bad turn.
7. Visitation - 18 pp - A man coming home from church, where his mother just died, discovers a 20-year-old kid, who was at his house warming party the night before, trying to steal $50 from him. He attacks the kid, and after the fight, they end up sitting on the couch together and having a discussion, with an episode of Happy Days playing on the TV in the background, of why he's not having all the appropriate feelings of grief for having just lost his mother.
8. Tired Heart - 31 pp - A man accepts a large sum of money from a mysterious businessman, Mr. Griffin, in exchange for picking up packages, whose contents he can't examine, in various states. In his winding, cross-country drive, he starts to go crazy and gets paranoid about this secret mission he's on and wonders what the mysterious Mr. Griffin might do to him if he disobeys any of the specific instructions he's been given. It's a race to get home safely to his wife, who's waiting for him in a picturesque fishing town in Puget Sound - as long as he doesn't first go crazy or get done in by Mr. Griffin's henchmen, or put his wife at risk.
9. Blackout - 12 pp - A man who's never left his hometown and whose life has been a mix of tragedy (losing a son to cancer) and tedium (he's a car salesman) looks forward to his tenth high school reunion. But he gets extremely drunk and experiences a blackout. In the aftermath, he has only a few clues to rely on as he tries to unravel what happened on the reunion weekend after he hooked up with a former flame.
10. A Desert Island Romance - 12 pp - A man ends up deserted on an island, and then is joined by a woman who fell off a cruise ship during her honeymoon. They start a romance, relishing the chance to escape their old lives and their old mistakes, but then they begin to miss their daily rituals - and fantasize about a new life together, back in the regular world where they realize they might eventually become tired of each other too.
11. My Roommate Kevin is Awesome - 11 pp - Kevin starts to channel miracles - he can hang in mid-air, conjure Ray Charles, or create a battle of miniature real soldiers in his dorm room. The talents make Kevin and his roommate the most popular guys on campus, until an angel of God has to let them know if they make any more tears in the fabric of the universe, God will have to lay some Old Testament-style vengeance on them.
12. The Cyclist - 15 pp - A former pop music star experiences a dream-like day in which a former girlfriend, his wife, and a student he could easily start an affair with are available to him on the same day because that's what his past, present and future feel like to him -- unified parts of a whole he always is.
13. The Culvert - 16 pp - A man loses his son in a flash flood, and then slips down through a culvert and discovers an alternate universe where his son is happily recreating his past life. The father must make a choice about which life he will stay with.
December 24, 2019
Impressive. I had no expectations but it might be the best fictional book I've read this year.
April 22, 2021
The Testimony was very intriguing. A short story of regrets, truths, and consequences.
October 26, 2021
I was disappointed with this collection of stories.
January 28, 2012
[ASIN:0982503083 Call it What You Want]
The first time I read Keith Lee Morris was when his short story, "Testimony," appeared in the literary journal, "Public Space." I was so moved and amazed by it that I wrote my first fiction review, and posted it on an online forum. Mostly I write fiction, not reviews. But when I do write a review it's fiction I love; if I don't love it, I don't finish reading it. Keith Lee Morris is one of my favorite writers. (See my review of "The Dart League King," his novel that came out shortly before his great new short story collection, "Call it What You Want.") These two books should secure Morris's standing among our finest fiction writers.
The thirteen stories collected here take place, as does most of Morris's work, in small towns with no obvious heroes. Men with regular jobs--not careers--and generally meager education achieve a subtle transcendence in tragic situations as well as day to day life.
To me, the great beauty Keith Lee Morris creates is a magical accomplishment. His writing is unaffected and seemingly straightforward. The prose rolls along in great swells you don't notice until it's time to stop reading--a time you'll try to refuse. His small town characters linger in your mind, forcing you to think and rethink whatever you believe.
"Testimony," the first story, the one that introduced me to him, is a tour-de-force in which a young man, under examination in court, relates the tragic chain of events that led to his friend's death. Told primarily in first person, a young man who was present and possibly involved in his friend's death, answers questions posed by lawyers for the prosecution. On the stand he begins thinking of the questions he hopes they won't ask, only to discover that he is dredging up unwanted memories and allegiances. The more he tries to search for excuses, the more the fault lines in his defense appear. By story's end, he cannot escape his own moral failing.
Throughout this collection, the characters struggle desperately to outrun or deny their fate, but heartbreak hunts them down in the end. The exception is a hilarious story called, "My Roommate Kevin Is Awesome." The stories are unique and I'm cannot give each its due here.
In "The Culvert" a child disappears from his bed during a night of flooding. Everybody in town searches for the boy but the parents continue to hope after there is no hope. Past that, the mother and a younger brother begin to adjust to the horrible truth. The father, however, finds ways to bolster an outlandish faith. He notices missing books, more in fact than the boy could have carried at once. The father's intuition, dreams, and even his pulse reassure him. Of course, his mind works overtime, all the time, to deny the worst. Long after the flood has receded in the town's memory, he thinks:
"That time when you arrived home to find that he wasn't in the car seat, and you felt sick momentarily--it turned out,
upon a second's reflection, that you hadn't taken him in the car to begin with. There he was in the window of the house,
waving at you, and you were almost overcome with tears. And so you shouldn't panic now, not now, because this is
is just another one of those occasions."
The laugh out loud story, "My Roommate Kevin is Awesome," presents a pair of college roommates enjoying a fantasy week unbound by the laws of time and space, because they later conjecture: Kevin had become "more monumentally bored than any other person in the history of the world."
Grounded in the mundane, the stories in "Call It What You Will" sometimes turn surreal. The collection is unsettling and as real as the anxiety of being alive, and by the same measure, bestows a unique pleasure.
The first time I read Keith Lee Morris was when his short story, "Testimony," appeared in the literary journal, "Public Space." I was so moved and amazed by it that I wrote my first fiction review, and posted it on an online forum. Mostly I write fiction, not reviews. But when I do write a review it's fiction I love; if I don't love it, I don't finish reading it. Keith Lee Morris is one of my favorite writers. (See my review of "The Dart League King," his novel that came out shortly before his great new short story collection, "Call it What You Want.") These two books should secure Morris's standing among our finest fiction writers.
The thirteen stories collected here take place, as does most of Morris's work, in small towns with no obvious heroes. Men with regular jobs--not careers--and generally meager education achieve a subtle transcendence in tragic situations as well as day to day life.
To me, the great beauty Keith Lee Morris creates is a magical accomplishment. His writing is unaffected and seemingly straightforward. The prose rolls along in great swells you don't notice until it's time to stop reading--a time you'll try to refuse. His small town characters linger in your mind, forcing you to think and rethink whatever you believe.
"Testimony," the first story, the one that introduced me to him, is a tour-de-force in which a young man, under examination in court, relates the tragic chain of events that led to his friend's death. Told primarily in first person, a young man who was present and possibly involved in his friend's death, answers questions posed by lawyers for the prosecution. On the stand he begins thinking of the questions he hopes they won't ask, only to discover that he is dredging up unwanted memories and allegiances. The more he tries to search for excuses, the more the fault lines in his defense appear. By story's end, he cannot escape his own moral failing.
Throughout this collection, the characters struggle desperately to outrun or deny their fate, but heartbreak hunts them down in the end. The exception is a hilarious story called, "My Roommate Kevin Is Awesome." The stories are unique and I'm cannot give each its due here.
In "The Culvert" a child disappears from his bed during a night of flooding. Everybody in town searches for the boy but the parents continue to hope after there is no hope. Past that, the mother and a younger brother begin to adjust to the horrible truth. The father, however, finds ways to bolster an outlandish faith. He notices missing books, more in fact than the boy could have carried at once. The father's intuition, dreams, and even his pulse reassure him. Of course, his mind works overtime, all the time, to deny the worst. Long after the flood has receded in the town's memory, he thinks:
"That time when you arrived home to find that he wasn't in the car seat, and you felt sick momentarily--it turned out,
upon a second's reflection, that you hadn't taken him in the car to begin with. There he was in the window of the house,
waving at you, and you were almost overcome with tears. And so you shouldn't panic now, not now, because this is
is just another one of those occasions."
The laugh out loud story, "My Roommate Kevin is Awesome," presents a pair of college roommates enjoying a fantasy week unbound by the laws of time and space, because they later conjecture: Kevin had become "more monumentally bored than any other person in the history of the world."
Grounded in the mundane, the stories in "Call It What You Will" sometimes turn surreal. The collection is unsettling and as real as the anxiety of being alive, and by the same measure, bestows a unique pleasure.
August 31, 2010
This was a gift from my father, who has never chosen a book for me, until now, that was a quite right fit.
Morris is a good writer, not a great one. But he finds some elegant solutions to problems any writer might find him or herself addressing, and that indicates, to me, that he's got a fine, clever mind for fiction.
An example: In one story the protagonist is forced, though he tries hard to avoid it, to contemplate his wife's probably infidelity. He makes the discovery by finding an object in his home, one which doesn't, per se, belong. Morris could have used any number of little things, but he uses an un-smoked cigarette, under the lip of a kitchen cabinet. The cigarette ties to remembered events that take on increased significance as the protagonist sits at his kitchen table, valuing the cigarette in his fingers, remembering.
Think about it. The other man leaves a cigarette, and this indicates a slew of other data about him. Imagine if the guy left a hanky. What would that point to? How about a fancy pen? Again, it'd point to other ideas, other aspects of character, which wouldn't work as well (the protagonist and his rival each have an economic status, a social position, proclivities, etc...without revealing too much, I'll say all this is elegantly made clear).
The cigarette, as one reads the story, is conspicuously the best choice. It's interesting that it does feel conspicuous, because a writer assumes that his hand should remain invisible to his readers. But the cigarette is--sorry to repeat, but the word fits--elegant, and correct.
Other stories in the collection are perhaps too stylish (playing with voice, ambiguity between fantasy and reality, blahblah).
Morris also sometimes suffers from an inability to differentiate between what's necessary to his stories and what he can't bring himself to cut (um...no one I know has this problem *ahem!*).
I read this collection in two days and came away thinking, "Well, obviously one must "write fashionably" to be published by Tin House, but one does also need to write beautifully, with at least a modicum of innovation, and ... more meticulous care than I'd like to admit").
Morris is a good writer, not a great one. But he finds some elegant solutions to problems any writer might find him or herself addressing, and that indicates, to me, that he's got a fine, clever mind for fiction.
An example: In one story the protagonist is forced, though he tries hard to avoid it, to contemplate his wife's probably infidelity. He makes the discovery by finding an object in his home, one which doesn't, per se, belong. Morris could have used any number of little things, but he uses an un-smoked cigarette, under the lip of a kitchen cabinet. The cigarette ties to remembered events that take on increased significance as the protagonist sits at his kitchen table, valuing the cigarette in his fingers, remembering.
Think about it. The other man leaves a cigarette, and this indicates a slew of other data about him. Imagine if the guy left a hanky. What would that point to? How about a fancy pen? Again, it'd point to other ideas, other aspects of character, which wouldn't work as well (the protagonist and his rival each have an economic status, a social position, proclivities, etc...without revealing too much, I'll say all this is elegantly made clear).
The cigarette, as one reads the story, is conspicuously the best choice. It's interesting that it does feel conspicuous, because a writer assumes that his hand should remain invisible to his readers. But the cigarette is--sorry to repeat, but the word fits--elegant, and correct.
Other stories in the collection are perhaps too stylish (playing with voice, ambiguity between fantasy and reality, blahblah).
Morris also sometimes suffers from an inability to differentiate between what's necessary to his stories and what he can't bring himself to cut (um...no one I know has this problem *ahem!*).
I read this collection in two days and came away thinking, "Well, obviously one must "write fashionably" to be published by Tin House, but one does also need to write beautifully, with at least a modicum of innovation, and ... more meticulous care than I'd like to admit").
April 24, 2010
Overall, this was an extremely provocative collection of short-stories. The underlying theme is the goals and dreams that we set for ourselves and how we can be both confined and freed by them. The way that Morris plays with dreams -- both too lofty and not lofty enough -- being captors of the dreamer was a unique take to me, and one I found very compelling.
Many of the stories share features in common aside from the theme: a male, disaffected main character with a distant relationship with his wife and/or kids, a fugue of some sort and occasionally surreal elements. In my opinion, where Morris really soars is his most mundane stories. My favorite in the collection, Camel Light, is merely about a man finding a cigarette in his kitchen. But Morris' honest take on the thought process and the minute ways we fail ourselves was so poignant and truthful. The most surreal stories are also excellent -- some, such as Tired Heart and Cyclist, which start out mundane, but slide increasingly into surrealism are captivating and the theme shines in them. Rockier are some of the stories in the middle, both physically in the middle of the book and in the middle such that they are neither truly realistic, in the most mundane sense, nor fantastical.
By far, the majority of the stories are readable, an interesting and novel take on the theme of dreams and goals and beautifully written.
Many of the stories share features in common aside from the theme: a male, disaffected main character with a distant relationship with his wife and/or kids, a fugue of some sort and occasionally surreal elements. In my opinion, where Morris really soars is his most mundane stories. My favorite in the collection, Camel Light, is merely about a man finding a cigarette in his kitchen. But Morris' honest take on the thought process and the minute ways we fail ourselves was so poignant and truthful. The most surreal stories are also excellent -- some, such as Tired Heart and Cyclist, which start out mundane, but slide increasingly into surrealism are captivating and the theme shines in them. Rockier are some of the stories in the middle, both physically in the middle of the book and in the middle such that they are neither truly realistic, in the most mundane sense, nor fantastical.
By far, the majority of the stories are readable, an interesting and novel take on the theme of dreams and goals and beautifully written.
June 27, 2012
Narrated by Kevin Orton, Jeffrey Brick, Tony Ward, Jodi Dick, Anthony Crep, Ken Marks
8 hrs and 12 mins
Publisher's Summary
Critically acclaimed author Keith Lee Morris—who has drawn favorable comparisons to Richard Russo and Richard Ford—delivers a stunning collection of stories. Through these tales of deep humanity, the flaws and strengths of young men are explored with remarkable clarity. In “The Visitation,” a man defends his home—the day after hosting a party— against a petty thief who was on the guest list. “Testimony” tracks former addict Robert Scott, the key witness in his friend’s murder trial, as Robert relives the crime and comes to terms with his own actions. And in “A Desert Island Romance,” Roger and Sharon wash up on the same beach at separate times. They strike up a relationship that eventually deteriorates when they both start pretending they are living their old lives. An unforgettable work read by a full cast of talented narrators, Call It What You Want features 13 stories that run the gamut from brutally honest to remarkably surreal.
8 hrs and 12 mins
Publisher's Summary
Critically acclaimed author Keith Lee Morris—who has drawn favorable comparisons to Richard Russo and Richard Ford—delivers a stunning collection of stories. Through these tales of deep humanity, the flaws and strengths of young men are explored with remarkable clarity. In “The Visitation,” a man defends his home—the day after hosting a party— against a petty thief who was on the guest list. “Testimony” tracks former addict Robert Scott, the key witness in his friend’s murder trial, as Robert relives the crime and comes to terms with his own actions. And in “A Desert Island Romance,” Roger and Sharon wash up on the same beach at separate times. They strike up a relationship that eventually deteriorates when they both start pretending they are living their old lives. An unforgettable work read by a full cast of talented narrators, Call It What You Want features 13 stories that run the gamut from brutally honest to remarkably surreal.
February 9, 2011
I was first introduced to Keith’s work just this year in the winter issue of Tin House Magazine. His was the last story in the issue, and I read it, and it was so good. Normally, this is the part where I’d explain why it was so good, but I’m afraid that’s another thing I just don’t know. The story worked so well that it transcends my ability to discuss the reasons that it worked so well. And it’s the same for all his writing. You get to the end, and everything has happened so perfectly that there’s no comment you can make but “Yes!” I think feeling at the end of a story that you don’t need to analyze it, that you are incapable of analyzing it, is the best feeling of all. And that’s what you experience in this collection.
March 17, 2010
I loved The Dart League King and so was interested in seeing Morris work in short stories. I was not disappointed.
Although the stories share a similar form and focus - the "dreams and disappointments, good intentions and small triumphs, chronicles the lives of men lost in the liminal spaces between adolescence and adulthood" - each one has a unique angle and feel to it.
Morris has a honesty to his writing that comes from honing his craft so that just the essentials are left (isn't that the essence of short story writing) and a sympathy and humanism to the way he presents his characters. The surreal or absurdest nature of many of the stories adds a twist as well.
Although the stories share a similar form and focus - the "dreams and disappointments, good intentions and small triumphs, chronicles the lives of men lost in the liminal spaces between adolescence and adulthood" - each one has a unique angle and feel to it.
Morris has a honesty to his writing that comes from honing his craft so that just the essentials are left (isn't that the essence of short story writing) and a sympathy and humanism to the way he presents his characters. The surreal or absurdest nature of many of the stories adds a twist as well.
January 19, 2011
"Visitation." What a weird and perfect story. I think the weakest link was the first story, "Testimony," but I read it in an airport, so I may not have given it its rightful attention. What I really found touching about these stories was the angle of regular guys, going nowhere fast, often making bad decisions. But the result isn't some huge calamity or domino effect, rather they just continue slogging on. I went to school with these guys; they are my relatives, so I feel like I already know them, but didn't realize they had stories.
April 3, 2010
This collection of short stories was sometimes heart breaking but it went to imaginative and then out-landish! Don't let 2 stories "sour" you for the rest of the book. 11 out of 13 stories makes for a good read. I am not a "short story" person but it was and entertaining read and you CAN "call it what you want"!!! first read winner #8
April 3, 2010
Won this in the first reads contest. I was not impressed with this book. Some of the stories were ok and some of them started out really good and then the ending was either bad or it didn't have an end. The more I read the more bizarre the stories got. I would have liked to see the good stories have a good ending and it would have made for a much better book.
September 24, 2010
I have a hard time reading short stories. This is my favorite collection that I can remember reading. Absolutely brilliant unpretentious writing. Most writing about 'regular' folk drives me crazy. It never seems to capture the characters accurately. I cannot praise Mr Morris highly enough for his skill as a short story writer.
July 12, 2010
This is another great book by Keith Lee Morris. It is a book of short stories that span the gamut of depressing, yet inspiring daily life of many situations. I have a hard time staying with a book but this guy grabs me and won't let go.
March 10, 2010
Literary short stories to be reviewed for Blogcritics.
April 3, 2010
Overall this was an extremely provocative collection of short stories. The underlying theme is the goals and dreams that we set for ourselves and how we can be both confined and freed by them
Want to Read
April 3, 2010I won this book! I can't wait to read it!!
Read
April 28, 2010I am reading this to review for PopMatters. So far I find it to be powerful, riveting and heartbreaking.
May 22, 2010
Frustrated short stories told through the voices of the residents of Sandpoint, Idaho.
June 16, 2010
My favorite story is Blackout.
June 18, 2010
"I was afraid of dying, even though it seemed like the least complicated way out of my difficulties"
"I had dreams in highschool..."
"I had dreams in highschool..."
July 7, 2010
Some good stories and some stinkers in this collection. "The Culvert" and "Tired Heart" are particularly devastating.
March 10, 2011
an extra star was awarded based on the last story alone...'the culvert'
June 17, 2011
Excellent scenes, sadly they don't make for good stories.
August 25, 2012
Loved this book! A first by this author, and I definitely look forward to picking up something else by him in the future
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