Erratics: Short Stories
Like the Ice-age erratic discovered by this teacher, the characters in these twelve stories are in the wrong place, either physically or emotionally. Buried in the wrong grave, born at the wrong time, stuck working the wrong job, or caught on the wrong side of the state line, these northern Ohio residents communicate with animals, have sex in storerooms, believe in the magic of divining rods, see visions through prison fences, and worry that life's numbers don't add up. Their stories are the soft drip of icicles, the flap of wings, the thump, thump of hearts, the sounds we make when trying to find our way home. My Stuff Time was I could fix anything with my fist or foot. Bamm, the furnace started. Bamm, the refrigerator quit humming. Cindy didn't like it, but there wasn't much she could say when it worked. Take the time the lawnmower died in the tall, gummy grass where the neighbor's dog unloaded in our yard. A Saturday morning. Hot and humid with bugs flying in my ears and biting my back where the sweaty tee-shirt stuck, and this rank odor coming up from all that dog crap. The mower coughed, choked, then stopped. Blue smoke and steam came from underneath. I pulled the starter rope. Nothing. I yanked again and again until I thought my damn arm would fall off, then grabbed the mower by the handle and spun around like a hammer thrower in the Olympics. I grunted, let go. A flying lawnmower. It hit the trunk of the silver maple. Moldy grass, rusty lawnmower parts and maple bark littered the ground. I swore at the son of a bitch, then let it lie there, bleed lubricants, while I went in the house, had a beer, maybe two.
Cindy said, "Look what you've done to the tree, look at that tree," then said that it was too early to drink, and I said I was on day light savings time, which was pretty clever considering the heat, bug bites, and the mower not working. I waited awhile, watched cartoons with Jake, then went outside and tried again, pulled the rope. Flames six inches long shot out the exhaust. The engine roared like the Saturn V taking off for the moon. I could have mowed down the lilacs, roses and rhododendrons if I'd wanted.
Cindy didn't like my swearing either, but I said, "Hey, a man's got to talk."
Cindy said, "Look what you've done to the tree, look at that tree," then said that it was too early to drink, and I said I was on day light savings time, which was pretty clever considering the heat, bug bites, and the mower not working. I waited awhile, watched cartoons with Jake, then went outside and tried again, pulled the rope. Flames six inches long shot out the exhaust. The engine roared like the Saturn V taking off for the moon. I could have mowed down the lilacs, roses and rhododendrons if I'd wanted.
Cindy didn't like my swearing either, but I said, "Hey, a man's got to talk."
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:1881515370
ISBN13:9781881515371
Release Date:January 2002
Publisher:Texas Review Press
Length:144 Pages
Weight:0.53 lbs.
Dimensions:0.5" x 6.2" x 8.5"
Customer Reviews
4 ratings
Real People We Learn to Love
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 20 years ago
Roger Hart's Erratics is a book of stories about real people who we cannot help but learn to love. No artificial fictions here. Just people like us, suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune and trying to survive. Les and Walt and Highway and the other characters who people these stories are lonely and looking and sometimes find the love they need. And they are always vulnerable. There is a lot of Raymond Carver in this work. I recommend it to anybody who wants soft-edged stories with a punch.
real people you'll like
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 20 years ago
Enthusiastic Recommend: Erratics, Stories by Roger HartTwelve stories and 130 pages - a nice book to carry and read in short stretches. All these stories have a haunting dark side, but are not really dark. They are a little like a painting that you see as yellow at first glance, but a longer look reveals a midnight blue under-painting. The first couple of stories in this book don't require you to look too closely to see the blue. It's there. In the later stories, you can choose not to see the blue at all if you don't want to. I liked the later stories better - the ones where the yellow paint was thicker. But every one of Hart's people is believable and worth remembering. Their dialogue, sprinkled with humor, rings true. I liked these people, rooted for them, even those whose disturbing dark side is not covered up very well.
Terrific Collection
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 22 years ago
Roger Hart's voice draws real emotions from characters who in their sincerity speak deeply to an attentive reader. The collection reads like a novel and the characters linger through the pages.
Wonderful collection of short stories
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 22 years ago
I found this book to be a wonderful surprise. If you enjoy the fiction of Raymond Carver, Chekhov, or Tim O'Brien, I would recommend you pick it up. I realize these are big name authors but "Erratics" has the same kind of style and content that I personally can't get enough of. He is able to mix charming characters, witty dialogue, and often dismal circumstances to form a collection of short stories that will leave you smiling.
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