23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Raw, Microscopically Examined Los Angeles, February 22, 2008
This review is from: Dead Boys: Stories (Hardcover)
Richard Lange has a voice, at times rasty, at times corrosive, and at time tenderly longing for something better than what life has dealt him. And that 'voice' he places in the first person narrative in each of these twelve very pungent short stories that comprise his debut on the writing scene. He is impressive and he is immensely readable.
Lange has an affinity for the ordinary, his characters emerge from the woodwork of sun-baked Los Angeles and become involved in actions and situations that some may find unbelievable, but for those who have observed the peculiar disparity of characters that inhabit the city of Angels, these odd folks seem somehow familiar. In assuming the narrative role in each story Lange makes his aberrant stories more real and at times the story line drifts around like complacent weather reports while at other times little things go wrong with the intensity of the abrupt Santana winds that alter the landscape and psychological bearings of the inhabitants of the city. He has a way with phrasing that makes the reader see the stage of the story clearly: 'He swings out into traffic and we're gobbled up into the steaming maw of the city, where we disappear for good'. 'We pass an accident on the way back to her place, just a fender bender, but still my thoughts go to our parents. When they died I was almost to the point where I could see them as people. With a little more time I might even have started loving them again. What did they stand for? What secrets did they take with them? It was the first great loss of my life'. The samples are endless.
If Lange's story lines amble away from center focus at times, leaving the reader with the question of what the point of the diversion may be, he makes up for these off-road diversions with his poignant language and startling reactions to common things. It will be interesting to read a novel by Richard Lange: with all the endless interesting characters he introduces in these twelve stories he demonstrates the depth of his imagination that indicates he has miles to go on each tale. For this reader he is a welcome new voice on the literary scene, a man of the earth who doesn't mind the dust life kicks up here and there. Grady Harp, February 08
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
5-Star Short Story collection, September 10, 2007
This review is from: Dead Boys: Stories (Hardcover)
The media is saturated with sordid tales of celebrity in Los Angeles. But seldom do you hear about the ordinary human beings that celebrities walk among.
But in his debut collection of short stories, Dead Boys, Richard Lange examines the human condition of the workingman--living, breathing, struggling, and dying against the desolate landscape of the city of angels.
"The wiry grass and twisted, oily shrubs that pick up where the roads dead-end and the sprinkler systems peter out are just waiting for an excuse to burst into flame," Lange writes of the city's wildfires, in one short story.
--Lange writes of a salesman who struggles to comprehend his sister's brutal rape and the complexities of their tenuous relationship.
--Then there's a widower, living the fast life of drugs and booze, haunted by the vengefulness of his deceased wife.
--A newsstand attendant tries to get in touch with an old girlfriend and becomes paranoid that a group of Vietnamese gangsters are out to get him.
--Another man smokes too much marijuana and ends up in the middle of the desert in a singed woman's dress.
--Yet another yearns to break free of his everyday regimen.
Like those wildfires that rip haphazardly through the Los Angeles brush, Lange's cast of flawed male characters wander through an aimless existence in the fast-paced city. Each story focuses on a different man haunted by moral instability and a past from which they are unable to detach themselves.
Each of the 12 short stories is presented in first person, adding an element of stark reality and a relatable quality to each character.
Lange asserts these moving accounts with such intensity that even the grittiest, most formidable scenes of desperation are articulated with such precision and honesty in this debut tour de force. A solid, stunningly accurate short-story collection, Lange's dead-on writing is reminiscent of the greats: Capote, Bradbury, Salinger.
Armchair Interviews says: This book glows brighter than the scorching, ravaging Los Angeles fires.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding, November 18, 2007
This review is from: Dead Boys: Stories (Hardcover)
Dead Boys has the best short stories I've read in decades. The author writes better than any of the top 10 novelists. The characters are real and haunting. These kinds of people are rarely written about. The stories are tough and tragic and always authentic.
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