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American Morons
From the author of the acclaimed novel THE SNOWMAN'S CHILDREN and the award-winning collection THE TWO SAMS comes American Morons, a new collection of dazzling and haunting tales...
Two traveling college students confront their disintegrating relationship and the new American reality in a breakdown lane along the Italian Superstrade. A woman chases the ghost of her neglectful father to a vanished amusement park at the end of the Long Beach pier. Two recently retired teachers learn just how much Los Angeles has taken from them.
In these atmospheric, wide-ranging, surprisingly playful, and deeply mournful stories, grandkids and widows, ice cream-truck drivers and judges, travelers and invalids all discover -- and sometimes even survive -- the everyday losses from which the most vengeful ghosts so often spring.
Two traveling college students confront their disintegrating relationship and the new American reality in a breakdown lane along the Italian Superstrade. A woman chases the ghost of her neglectful father to a vanished amusement park at the end of the Long Beach pier. Two recently retired teachers learn just how much Los Angeles has taken from them.
In these atmospheric, wide-ranging, surprisingly playful, and deeply mournful stories, grandkids and widows, ice cream-truck drivers and judges, travelers and invalids all discover -- and sometimes even survive -- the everyday losses from which the most vengeful ghosts so often spring.
191 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2006
3 people are currently reading
185 people want to read
About the author
Glen Hirshberg
94 books151 followersThree-time International Horror Guild Award Winner Glen Hirshberg’s novels include The Snowman's Children, The Book of Bunk, the Motherless Children trilogy, and Infinity Dreams. He is also the author of four widely praised story collections: The Two Sams, American Morons, The Janus Tree, and The Ones Who Are Waving. A five-time World Fantasy Award finalist, he has won the Shirley Jackson Award for the novelette, “The Janus Tree”. He also publishes new fiction, critical writing, and creative nonfiction in his Substack newsletter, Happy in Our Own Ways (https://glenhirshberg.substack.com/), and offers classes and manuscript coaching and editing through his Drones Club West activities (dronesclubwest@outlook.com). He lives with his family and cats in the Pacific Northwest.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
February 5, 2021
The most effective moments in these horror stories are not the bursts of shocking violence or grotesque imagery, but the quietly hideous ways people betray and torment one another, and the ways in which we are powerless as time, illness, and other forces beyond our control bear the things we love best in the world away. Hirshberg's warm, moving depictions of friendship, family relationships, and romantic love make those moments all the more wrenching. He's got a real knack for slow-boil tension and dread, too (think Shirley Jackson or Robert Aickman-- though unlike those authors, Hirshberg will show you the monster, and explain more or less what's going on*).
My favorite story here is probably "Devil's Smile"; I'm a sucker for sea horror and the Gothic. Both it and "Like a Lily in a Flood" pull off the difficult task of creating a suspenseful horror narrative where most of the action takes place in a story-within-the-story that a secondary character relates to the protagonist.
*This is neither a good nor a bad thing. Sometimes you want a story that's all dread and implication, with no release or definite solution. Sometimes you want to finish on a terrible revelation. Both have their advantages!
My favorite story here is probably "Devil's Smile"; I'm a sucker for sea horror and the Gothic. Both it and "Like a Lily in a Flood" pull off the difficult task of creating a suspenseful horror narrative where most of the action takes place in a story-within-the-story that a secondary character relates to the protagonist.
*This is neither a good nor a bad thing. Sometimes you want a story that's all dread and implication, with no release or definite solution. Sometimes you want to finish on a terrible revelation. Both have their advantages!
February 9, 2011
Non scary horror - until you sit back and think about what he actually said. Subtle, odd, all around good read.
March 31, 2009
Hirshberg writes generally strong, atmospheric dread. These are pretty consistently strong stories, but none broke out to beat me down as did "The Two Sams" in his last collection. It's kind of unfair, that I now deploy one of the best horror stories I've read in some time to measure his other work as somehow smaller, or less engaging.
But for newbies, and horror fans uninterested in the splatter or punk ends of the genre--you really cannot go wrong with Hirshberg.
But for newbies, and horror fans uninterested in the splatter or punk ends of the genre--you really cannot go wrong with Hirshberg.
June 15, 2015
Not sure how any of this is "horror." If people having bad days, folks arguing about interpersonal BS, or walks in lonely places TERRIFY you, this is your book. Unbelievably plodding, boring, seemingly pointless. Paints some atmosphere, but not a scary one.
If this type of uninteresting, un-scary, non-engaging writing is "horror" then I don't know what isn't. Try reading the New Yorker - that's the same level of horror on display here.
If this type of uninteresting, un-scary, non-engaging writing is "horror" then I don't know what isn't. Try reading the New Yorker - that's the same level of horror on display here.
Read
March 26, 2011Ghosts - not the Hollywood special effects sort, but the type that humans create in their own minds - are at the core of this award winning collection of short stories. The believable characters’ lives extend beyond the pages, and they are put into situations where the familiar becomes horrific. Hirshberg creates a shadowy mood, not without a dark sense of humor, and masterfully fashions the endings of his tales.
May 31, 2014
This collection falls under the horror genre, but I think they expand beyond the borders of horror. To be honest, I've been disappointed by many short-story collections, so I kind of had low expectations for this collection and was happy to have been wrong! But they were well written, and haunting and sometimes creepy, and, most importantly, they felt new, not like there were just copies or rewrites of other stories.
May 16, 2017
Cemetary Dance book
Being from SoCal I enjoyed the locations in the stories since South Central & Long Beach aren't usually where stories take place. This is what I call understated, quiet horror.
Being from SoCal I enjoyed the locations in the stories since South Central & Long Beach aren't usually where stories take place. This is what I call understated, quiet horror.
July 29, 2011
Couple of stories in here were simply terrific - spooky but rarely gory
July 17, 2019
I gobbled this book up in three days, which says something for me. I wanted to get home from whatever I was doing so I could read more. I found the stories amazing, especially "Safety Clowns." I had to ask myself, “What would I have done?” "Like a Lily in a Flood" made me go “ah-ha!” With the author’s use of one word, the entire meaning of the story was released. The story about the amusement park made me uneasy and when the characters made a decision that surprised me (I don’t want to release a spoiler here), I was surprised, and even more uneasy. The last story, "The Muldoon", provided a twist ending which I really enjoyed. If you are looking for in-your-face horror, look elsewhere. But if you like smart writing with everyday situations that hold a surprise, then do read. My only criticism is that sometimes I didn’t understand a line, or I had to reread to make sure of the imagery I had in my head. But mostly, I found myself savoring the descriptions which always promised that something a little dangerous was around the corner.
October 25, 2018
American Morons is a very solid collection of horror short stories. Hirshberg's stories take time to draw you in, with a slowly building atmosphere of menace and chill and "wrongness", often capped with a creepy or twist. The titular piece features a bickering young American couple on vacation in Italy who find themselves in a potentially dangerous situation when their car breaks down along the highway. "Flowers on their Bridles, Hooves in the Air" has a vaguely Stephen King-like feel to it, where a married couple and their friend encounter a mysterious boardwalk carnival. "Devil's Smile" follows a lighthouse inspector to a remote outpost with a lone inhabitant with a disturbing story. "The Muldoon" is a classically styled ghost story where the two children learn some dark secrets about their family. If you prefer slow-burn, atmospheric horror over gore and action, you'll probably enjoy this collection.
November 6, 2024
Completely mischaracterised as horror, these are in fact deftly-written contemporary short stories with varying degrees of eeriness. The title story, in which a breakdown on the autostrada exposes the fragility of an American couple's relationship, is particularly unsettling. The other stand-outs for me were "Safety Clowns" and "Flowers on their Bridles, Hooves in the Air" with its King-esque journey into a haunted amusement arcade and background love triangle. The last two or three tales didn't grip me as much but Hirshberg is clearly a talent.
January 7, 2021
Bring it on. I can’t do justice to this story.
The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long to post here.
Above is one of its observations.
The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long to post here.
Above is one of its observations.
September 7, 2022
(short stories)
I hope he's as familiar to people as Barker, King, or Joe Hill, because if he isn't, he should be.
I hope he's as familiar to people as Barker, King, or Joe Hill, because if he isn't, he should be.
February 26, 2015
****1/2
Readers who love a good supernatural story can find a lot to enjoy in Glen Hirshberg's short fiction. His second volume, "American Morons," is filled with the same spooky atmosphere, powerful reveals, and engaging writing as his first, "The Two Sams," one of my favorite macabre collections.
In the titular story, two young Americans feel the tightening grip of fear in an unknown place. On vacation in Europe, their car brakes down. Large, soft-spoken men come to their aide, but it takes little time before the Americans begin to develop a mean sense of dread, wondering about the true motives of their helpers. The story takes place in one of our more recent election years, and in a bit of insanely morbid comedy, one of the Americans offers up her John Kerry pin, evidence her mother insisted she bring with her, in order to show any possible evildoer that she's, essentialy, "one of the good ones."
In "Like a Lily in a Flood" a man spends a few days at the woodsy retreat his parents stayed at just before their deaths. He's gone many times over the years, but on this particular occasion, the woman who runs the inn sits him down and goes over with him the history of the area, in particular a relation of hers involved with the Millerites of the 1840s, the time of the Great Disappointment.
"Flowers on Their Bridles, Hooves in the Air" concerns a delapidated game parlor at the end of a pier. Extreme tension between a young couple and their best friend accompanies the woman's memories of her father, who lost himself in the game room years before.
"Safety Clowns" is one of Hirshberg's wilder stories. A kid looking to make some money before heading back to school does a ride-along in an ice cream truck. The driver of the truck is a nice guy, but he carries a machine gun with him at all times. Also, he sells more coke than ice cream. Also, there's this collapsible, wooden clown attached to the side of the ice cream truck, a sinister contraption that pops out at the press of a button, to alert customers, and other cars, of the presence of the ice cream truck.
A "Devil's Smile" is what sailors call the light that breaks through a heavy fog bank. In this bit of historical ghost fiction, an employee of the lighthouse company pays a visit to a particularly delapidated lighthouse
Two teachers celebrate their mutual retirement by having a drink and then heading down to the "Transitway," a failed transportation system where people go and, quite often, disappear.
"American Morons" ends with one of the strongest stories in the collection, "The Muldoon." Two kids explore the less investigated areas of their grandfather's house in the nights following his death. Two grandmothers, each little known to the kids, died upstairs several years ago. Their adventures brought to mind my own childhood supernatural explorations, hoping to find something, scared to find out what that something might be--until the story's end, when the children find, in grim fashion, just what happened to those two dead grandmothers.
Readers who love a good supernatural story can find a lot to enjoy in Glen Hirshberg's short fiction. His second volume, "American Morons," is filled with the same spooky atmosphere, powerful reveals, and engaging writing as his first, "The Two Sams," one of my favorite macabre collections.
In the titular story, two young Americans feel the tightening grip of fear in an unknown place. On vacation in Europe, their car brakes down. Large, soft-spoken men come to their aide, but it takes little time before the Americans begin to develop a mean sense of dread, wondering about the true motives of their helpers. The story takes place in one of our more recent election years, and in a bit of insanely morbid comedy, one of the Americans offers up her John Kerry pin, evidence her mother insisted she bring with her, in order to show any possible evildoer that she's, essentialy, "one of the good ones."
In "Like a Lily in a Flood" a man spends a few days at the woodsy retreat his parents stayed at just before their deaths. He's gone many times over the years, but on this particular occasion, the woman who runs the inn sits him down and goes over with him the history of the area, in particular a relation of hers involved with the Millerites of the 1840s, the time of the Great Disappointment.
"Flowers on Their Bridles, Hooves in the Air" concerns a delapidated game parlor at the end of a pier. Extreme tension between a young couple and their best friend accompanies the woman's memories of her father, who lost himself in the game room years before.
"Safety Clowns" is one of Hirshberg's wilder stories. A kid looking to make some money before heading back to school does a ride-along in an ice cream truck. The driver of the truck is a nice guy, but he carries a machine gun with him at all times. Also, he sells more coke than ice cream. Also, there's this collapsible, wooden clown attached to the side of the ice cream truck, a sinister contraption that pops out at the press of a button, to alert customers, and other cars, of the presence of the ice cream truck.
A "Devil's Smile" is what sailors call the light that breaks through a heavy fog bank. In this bit of historical ghost fiction, an employee of the lighthouse company pays a visit to a particularly delapidated lighthouse
Two teachers celebrate their mutual retirement by having a drink and then heading down to the "Transitway," a failed transportation system where people go and, quite often, disappear.
"American Morons" ends with one of the strongest stories in the collection, "The Muldoon." Two kids explore the less investigated areas of their grandfather's house in the nights following his death. Two grandmothers, each little known to the kids, died upstairs several years ago. Their adventures brought to mind my own childhood supernatural explorations, hoping to find something, scared to find out what that something might be--until the story's end, when the children find, in grim fashion, just what happened to those two dead grandmothers.
Read
September 9, 2008Well I did not give it any stars cause I just could not read it. I tried to read the first two stories but could not get into it I am not a fan of short stories, but I thought I would give it a try because I like his first novel The Snowman's Children. If you like short stories then you might like this book.
January 3, 2011
I actually want to give this 3.5 stars. It started off strong, but none of the stories were as good as the one I heard on Pseudopod: The Nimble Men. There was some great stuff in here and at times I found his writing to be incredibly lucid. I look forward to reading more of his work.
December 15, 2010
Has its moments, but tries too hard, and after the first story I only had to read the first half of every subsequent story.
Read
July 26, 2011I've read a few of these stories in other compilations, but all in all, not bad.
August 25, 2011
Great short stories that slowly and imperceptibly build up an atmosphere of dread. “Devil’s Smile” may be the singularly most unnerving story I have ever read.
February 4, 2016
Some of these stories may seem innocuous right after you finish them, but the creepiness of them will catch up to you.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews