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Red Stick Men: Stories
Like Mississippi River humidity, the sweat and the factory smoke of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, pervade Tim Parrish's fiction.
His characters in these nine working-class stories are by no means good-ole-boy clichés. These are blue-collar, urban southerners, trying to “do good”―or at least to find ways of doing less damage to themselves, their coworkers, and loved ones. They are always on the verge of disasters that emanate from the hard living they endure in the city they call “Red Stick.”
Five of these stories follow a family from the face-to-face racial tensions of the 1960s through the distant CNN blare of the Persian Gulf War. Plotting a family's history―the ups and downs of a Vietnam vet, a mother with lupus, and a sensitive boy striving to understand his parents and neighbors―this quintet has the satisfying arc of a novella.
Other stories light the panorama of Baton Rouge with a refinery-fire glow. In “Roustabout” a New Wave rocker joins an oil platform crew and loses his heart to a woman engineer and a male crewman. In “Smell of a Car” a pipe-supply worker tries to aid a gunshot victim and his daughter, only to find his own life is in shambles. In “After the River” wayward lovers find meaning in the midst of a catastrophic flood.
The absurd complexities of life in industrial south Louisiana propel these stories. Each is connected by Parrish's unique sense of Baton Rouge as an Old South city made exotic and forbidding by its New South problems―crack houses and handguns, layoffs and grinding wages, pollution and isolation.
War, hard times, and a landscape always on the edge of apocalypse from flood and fire haunt the children and working stiffs of his stories. Parrish captures the ironic humor of people who live on oozing ground near a horizon that burns at night. His Louisiana is bizarre and beautiful, tragic and hilarious.
His characters in these nine working-class stories are by no means good-ole-boy clichés. These are blue-collar, urban southerners, trying to “do good”―or at least to find ways of doing less damage to themselves, their coworkers, and loved ones. They are always on the verge of disasters that emanate from the hard living they endure in the city they call “Red Stick.”
Five of these stories follow a family from the face-to-face racial tensions of the 1960s through the distant CNN blare of the Persian Gulf War. Plotting a family's history―the ups and downs of a Vietnam vet, a mother with lupus, and a sensitive boy striving to understand his parents and neighbors―this quintet has the satisfying arc of a novella.
Other stories light the panorama of Baton Rouge with a refinery-fire glow. In “Roustabout” a New Wave rocker joins an oil platform crew and loses his heart to a woman engineer and a male crewman. In “Smell of a Car” a pipe-supply worker tries to aid a gunshot victim and his daughter, only to find his own life is in shambles. In “After the River” wayward lovers find meaning in the midst of a catastrophic flood.
The absurd complexities of life in industrial south Louisiana propel these stories. Each is connected by Parrish's unique sense of Baton Rouge as an Old South city made exotic and forbidding by its New South problems―crack houses and handguns, layoffs and grinding wages, pollution and isolation.
War, hard times, and a landscape always on the edge of apocalypse from flood and fire haunt the children and working stiffs of his stories. Parrish captures the ironic humor of people who live on oozing ground near a horizon that burns at night. His Louisiana is bizarre and beautiful, tragic and hilarious.
- GenresShort Stories
227 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
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October 23, 2008Tim Parrish, while obviously a good writer and I'm sure he's a good educator, could have been just a little more careful in how he played out this book. My husband grew up in the neighborhood with him and it's very apparent to anyone else from that neighborhood, that these stories are based on the people there. One appears to have been written involving my inlaws. It could not be further from the truth. We found the story to be very offensive to our family.
March 17, 2024
I bought this book in a second hand book store last December because of the cover and because of the name of the book, what exactly does it mean? Turns out the locals call Baton Rouge, "Red Stick". And also because it's short stories and I've really come to like short stories.
In this case, there are 9 and they take place in around Baton Rouge, Louisiana starting in the 70's. I soon came to realize 5 of the stories are about two brothers, Jeb, 11 and Bob, a Vietnam veteran. These stories are of their every day lives and the abuse and dysfunctional families, including their own, who live on their street. It's a time span of over 20 years, right up to the 1990's and Jeb is, unfortunately, still struggling.
Men make up the stories which I found pretty cool as how often does that happen? I finished the book earlier in the week, and I've read another book since and unfortunately, I can't quite recall the other 4 stories, but I do know I enjoyed them.
In this case, there are 9 and they take place in around Baton Rouge, Louisiana starting in the 70's. I soon came to realize 5 of the stories are about two brothers, Jeb, 11 and Bob, a Vietnam veteran. These stories are of their every day lives and the abuse and dysfunctional families, including their own, who live on their street. It's a time span of over 20 years, right up to the 1990's and Jeb is, unfortunately, still struggling.
Men make up the stories which I found pretty cool as how often does that happen? I finished the book earlier in the week, and I've read another book since and unfortunately, I can't quite recall the other 4 stories, but I do know I enjoyed them.
October 14, 2017
Short story collection of men from Baton Rouge LA. Enjoyable.
February 4, 2026
at a time when the evils of the world feel inescapable and more obvious and pervasive than ever, stories of a more familiar everyday human suffering are weirdly comforting.
July 28, 2007
This was my first (and last?) glimpse of superrealistic fiction. Bizarre, unflinching, and bold. You won't catch a weak clause from edge to quick.
July 28, 2007
This was my first (and last?) glimpse of superrealistic fiction. Bizarre, unflinching, and bold. You won't catch a weak clause from edge to quick.
November 28, 2007
Tim Parrish was actually my professor in a poetry class I took in college.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews