Customer Reviews

Dead Boys: Stories

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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

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.

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.

Busted! Yes, we all suspected there was a literate mole in our midst as we slumped over our cheap tacos, as we counted out change for happy hour, as we struggled with the nightmare of modern American life. The only flaw in these magnificently controlled stories is perhaps the book's title--its connotation may dissuade some readers from otherwise discovering this uncannily observed collection of first-person messages from the Real America, the writhing male soul, the reluctant survivor of betrayed myths and egos, and most excruciating of all--a remnant of trust that love still matters. "Dead Boys" blew my mind, and it will yours. Ten stars, dude.

Rarely does contemporary fiction stun me. Winter's Tale was the last book that took my breath away. In Dead Boys, I could feel the hollow space that will never be filled inside every character. Although it's a collection of short stories, I read it as it if was a novel, within the course of two nights. This book is not precious (sorry New Yorker story writers). This book has value.

If you've ever lived in LA, or even just visited, it's worth reading this collection of short stories. It's amazing how Lange can bring characters to life in such a few pages.

If Damon Runyon's characters dropped a tab, they'd find themselves in Dead Boys. Lange's portrayal of his characters on the fringe of our reality are so unsettling I had to put the book down after reading just a couple. Then it hit me, that's the point.

The contrast of the character whose role during a bank robbery is to hold a gun on the customers while his cohorts rake the cash going home to a wife peeling potatoes for dinner illustrates the warped banality of the world Lange creates.

Great openings to the stories ("A shotgun blast at dawn separates day and night.") with bizarre turns that take the reader deeper and deeper into Lange's surreal world that seems as if it's just ahead.

I'll be short but sweet. This is probably my favorite collection of contemporary short fiction. The only stories that I like as well or maybe better are those found in the fiction sections of The New Yorker or The Atlantic Monthly magazines. Jim Hanas comes to mind as well. Tough, literate, and engrossing.

I bought this book to see what a man was written about men. To look more closely into male characters in fiction. What I found was a well-written collection of stories that, each time I finished one, I felt a need to sit back and think about where I had just been. From the wild to the not so wild, these characters all seem to strangely be seeking one united thing: grounding. A partner, a partnering. These are stories which explore contemporary landscapes which are rich with longing and desire, dust and dirt, ugliness and the beauty of connecting which makes all that somehow feel like it just might be reaching for deeper meaning, a way of being in the world of today. I enjoyed this collection, and think you will too--whoever you are!

There exist certain wildflowers that must be burned in order to bloom, and who's to say I'm not one of them? - (pg. 169, Dead Boys)

Good book of short stories!

The title of the book "Dead Boys", is the title of the last story in the book, but this book could easily be called "Tales of L.A."!

"Dead Boys" has 12 stories in all, the stories all take place primarily in or around Los Angeles!

Lange's writing is excellent and each story leaves you wanting to know more about the characters and what happens next. Lange admits at the end of the book that he purposely left each stories ending open for readers to interpret themselves.

The stories are of all of men who have tried, failed and / or are trying again, trying to get their lives on track or wondering how they got to the point their at now!

All of the stories are believable and have that authentic feel to them, which left me feeling like I know someone like that.

My favorites were:

Bank of America
Culver City
Loss Prevention
Blind Made Products
Dead Boys

Richard Lange's first novel "This Wicked World" comes out in June 2009, its a crime fiction novel, from the synopsis that I read, its sounds like it will be a great book and I'm looking forward to reading it!

I recommend "Dead Boys" to anyone who likes to read short stories, also check out Craig Davidson's "Rust & Bone: Stories"!