Roy Kesey has been hailed as one of our best young writers. All Over, his debut collection, presents nineteen of his most original stories. They first appeared in magazines such as McSweeney's, Ninth Letter and The Kenyon Review, and have been chosen for anthologies including Best American Short Stories, The Robert Olen Butler Prize Anthology and New Sudden Fiction.
All Over
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Roy Kesey writes with the soul of a ventriloquist."
--David Ulin, The Los Angeles Times
"(A)mong the best post-postmodern fiction that I've read in years."
--Justin Taylor, The Believer
"Kesey is on to something great here--the kind of fiction that bends our minds like paper clips."
--David Abrams, January Magazine
"A near-direct descendant of Samuel Beckett."
--Jonathan Messinger, Time Out Chicago
"Kesey is a shapeshifter, a voice-imitator, a puppet master... He is Barthelmean in his ability to make something dense or highbrow come off as funny or gamesmanlike, which is high praise."
--Blake Butler, Rain Taxi
A restlessly inventive collection, as the best story collections so often are - comic and tender, ironic and earnest, deadpan and passionate. A distinctive new voice, from a distinctive new press. --Peter Ho Davies, author of The Welsh Girl
For those keen to know the next generation of the American short story, consider All Over, which features the loopy paranoia of Don DeLillo, the po-mo-mo whimsy of Donald Barthelme, the spooky learnedness of Thomas Pynchon, the high-minded literary sleight-of-hand of Robert Coover and John Barth, and the secret geek speak of George Saunders. Add a touch of the Brothers Grimm, Jules Verne, and the Looney Tunes, and you've got a book of a million moving parts, all of which work in breath-taking harmony to keep illusion aloft. --Lee K. Abbott, author of All Things, All at Once
--David Ulin, The Los Angeles Times
"(A)mong the best post-postmodern fiction that I've read in years."
--Justin Taylor, The Believer
"Kesey is on to something great here--the kind of fiction that bends our minds like paper clips."
--David Abrams, January Magazine
"A near-direct descendant of Samuel Beckett."
--Jonathan Messinger, Time Out Chicago
"Kesey is a shapeshifter, a voice-imitator, a puppet master... He is Barthelmean in his ability to make something dense or highbrow come off as funny or gamesmanlike, which is high praise."
--Blake Butler, Rain Taxi
A restlessly inventive collection, as the best story collections so often are - comic and tender, ironic and earnest, deadpan and passionate. A distinctive new voice, from a distinctive new press. --Peter Ho Davies, author of The Welsh Girl
For those keen to know the next generation of the American short story, consider All Over, which features the loopy paranoia of Don DeLillo, the po-mo-mo whimsy of Donald Barthelme, the spooky learnedness of Thomas Pynchon, the high-minded literary sleight-of-hand of Robert Coover and John Barth, and the secret geek speak of George Saunders. Add a touch of the Brothers Grimm, Jules Verne, and the Looney Tunes, and you've got a book of a million moving parts, all of which work in breath-taking harmony to keep illusion aloft. --Lee K. Abbott, author of All Things, All at Once
About the Author
Roy Kesey's other books include his debut novel Pacazo, the award-winning novella Nothing in the World, two historical guidebooks, and an upcoming story collection called Any Deadly Thing. All Over made The L Magazine's recent "Best Books of the Decade" list. His short stories, essays, translations and poems have appeared in more than one hundred magazines, including McSweeney's, Subtropics, Ninth Letter and The Kenyon Review. Among other awards, his work has won two Pushcart Prize special mentions and the 2008 Missouri Review Editors' Prize in Fiction, and has appeared in several anthologies including Best American Short Stories, The Robert Olen Butler Prize Anthology and New Sudden Fiction. He is the recipient of a 2010 prose fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. He currently lives in Maryland with his wife and children.
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More About the Author
Roy Kesey's latest book is a short story collection called Any Deadly Thing, published by Dzanc Books in February 2013. His previous book, the novel Pacazo, was the winner of Word Riot's 2012 Paula Anderson Book Award. His other books include the novella Nothing in the World, two historical guidebooks, and a short story collection called All Over, which made The L Magazine's "Best Books of the Decade" list. His short stories, essays, translations and poems have appeared in more than a hundred magazines and anthologies, including Best American Short Stories, The Robert Olen Butler Prize Anthology and New Sudden Fiction. He has won two Pushcart Prize Special Mentions, the Jeffrey E. Smith Editors' Prize in Fiction, and a 2010 prose fellowship from the NEA. He currently lives in Maryland with his wife and children.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Perfect Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The first thing you'll notice about the stories in All Over is that they move lightning fast, that their trajectory is fueled by funny, that their funny is not separable from the sadness from where the funny comes, that the sadness is not wry or perfunctory, but rather as true as the true things we'd rather not know our lives are limned by.
The second thing you'll notice is that you're done reading, and you're done laughing, but the stories aren't done with you. They'll be eating at you for awhile, because of that sad thing, and because of that true thing.
The third thing you'll notice is that you've picked up the book again, and you've forgotten, while those stories were eating at you, that amidst all that sad and all that true, those stories were really pretty funny, and you'll read the funny with pleasure, forgetting what's going to hit you next, which is the whiplash of the sad and the true.
You'll get knocked around this way a few times, and you'll read the book again, even after you think you're done with it.
Who else does this to you? Donald Barthelme, sure, and also Brock Clarke and George Saunders and Kurt Vonnegut. Heady company, yes, but Kesey earns it out, story by story. I'm glad I bought this book, and if you're on my Christmas list, I might buy you a copy, too, but why wait, and deprive yourself of these complicated pleasures? This is a book to buy now, and to read, and to savor.
The second thing you'll notice is that you're done reading, and you're done laughing, but the stories aren't done with you. They'll be eating at you for awhile, because of that sad thing, and because of that true thing.
The third thing you'll notice is that you've picked up the book again, and you've forgotten, while those stories were eating at you, that amidst all that sad and all that true, those stories were really pretty funny, and you'll read the funny with pleasure, forgetting what's going to hit you next, which is the whiplash of the sad and the true.
You'll get knocked around this way a few times, and you'll read the book again, even after you think you're done with it.
Who else does this to you? Donald Barthelme, sure, and also Brock Clarke and George Saunders and Kurt Vonnegut. Heady company, yes, but Kesey earns it out, story by story. I'm glad I bought this book, and if you're on my Christmas list, I might buy you a copy, too, but why wait, and deprive yourself of these complicated pleasures? This is a book to buy now, and to read, and to savor.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Jason Liles
Format:Perfect Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Loved this book. Kesey has an easy and enlightening way of telling his stories - I hope he writes another collection quickly.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Perfect Paperback
Reading Roy Kesey's collection made me happy. Re-reading it soon after made me even happier. This is not because Kesey's stories are hopeful or optimistic. It is because this is a writer so clearly in love with language and rhythm that it is a delight to experience what he does with words - both those we are familiar with and those I suspect he invented.
The 19 stories range in length from one to ten pages. Several were previously published in literary magazines such as McSweeney's and Opium, publications with a reputation for clever, sharp, irreverent writing. While Kesey's work does fit this description, this is not cleverness for the sake of it. In almost all the stories, even those that on the surface appear utterly absurd, he is unearthing the complexities of our world, the messes we make of it, and the small moments of joy.
[...]
The 19 stories range in length from one to ten pages. Several were previously published in literary magazines such as McSweeney's and Opium, publications with a reputation for clever, sharp, irreverent writing. While Kesey's work does fit this description, this is not cleverness for the sake of it. In almost all the stories, even those that on the surface appear utterly absurd, he is unearthing the complexities of our world, the messes we make of it, and the small moments of joy.
[...]
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A brilliant & deeply satisfying short-story debut
Uproarious yet unsettling, Roy Kesey's first collection of stories combines a joshing respect for the forms he appropriates -- he has fictions based on everything from the job... Read more
Published on January 17, 2009 by John Domini
5.0 out of 5 stars
Publisher comments
As the publisher of Roy Kesey's remarkable collection, I am proud to share with you some comments from other author/readers about Roy's 'All Over:'
"These stories by... Read more
"These stories by... Read more
Published on October 13, 2007 by Steven Gillis
