Sideshow: Stories [Hardcover]

Sidney Thompson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2006

Sideshow features characters born from the rich, schizophrenic melting pot of the modern South, where urban and rural, educated and uneducated, privileged and poor, and white and black mix with surprising outcomes.

A sheetrock hanger copes with the loss of his hunting dogs, as well as his recent inability to kill, by adopting a poodle with heartworms to put down himself; an airbrush artist learns to counterfeit twenty-dollar bills to prove to his estranged wife that he is a genuine artist; a teenage boy becomes a peeping tom in order to discover the true reasons for his parents' divorce; a father takes his son with him to murder their next-door neighbor as a classical lesson of logic and revenge; a manager of an apartment complex is caught in a love triangle with a beautiful new tenant and her bedridden seven hundred pound husband, whose weight is matched only by his intellect.

This collection displays a menagerie of everyday misfits who serve as a reminder of human fragility and how freakish we can all become when our lives lack love or truth, or we suddenly discover it.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A South to which we can all relate. . . seen more through the prism of R.E.M. than William Faulkner." -- Paste Magazine, April/May 2006

From the Back Cover

"Sidney Thompson’s wonderfully desperate and obsessed characters swarm from the page like locusts out of earth. Sideshow offers us both funny and frightening glimpses of the human psyche, of moral and amoral behavior. Unlike a county fair’s sideshow wherein viewers get a salacious peek for five minutes then return to the relative safety of an outside world, Thompson’s characters linger closer to the reader than a noon shadow. This collection deserves celebratory gunshots into the air, over and over." —George Singleton, author of The Half-Mammals of Dixie and Why Dogs Chase Cars

"In the defuncting and corrupt sideshow that’s become the contemporary American South, Sidney Thompson stands yawping there on the corner like a mad preacher, reminding us who the real freaks are. These ten stories—bold, bawdy, sometimes shocking and always hilarious—are so good they ought to be proclaimed though a megaphone. The question might pop into your head as you read: Can he do this? The answer, ladies and gentlemen, is Hell yeah." —Tom Franklin, author of Poachers and Hell at the Breech

"Thompson’s wonderful stories prove that often the best way through to the meaningful anarchies of this world is classical restraint. It’s beautiful to see the short story hanging tough as a bright form beneath Thompson’s hands. And we get to see the famous story bounced from the Atlantic, when it was learned the author was white, victorious now in its resurrection." —Barry Hannah, author of Airships and Yonder Stands Your Orphan

"An eye for color, an ear for language, a sense of motion and a heart for the human condition—that’s the fine writing of Sidney Thompson." —Robert McCammon, author of Boy's Life and Speaks the Nightbird

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 236 pages
• Publisher: River City Pub; 1 edition (May 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1579660681
• ISBN-13: 978-1579660680
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,211,395 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sideshow, August 13, 2006

By 

Danielle (Jackson, Mississippi) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sideshow: Stories (Hardcover)

Thompson's collection of shories had me hooked from the first page. Thes stories and characters all remind us of someone that we have encountered in our lives. They may even remind us of ourselves. Thompson is obviously a talented writer, and I feel certain that we will see great things from him in the future.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sideshow by Sidney Thompson, July 27, 2006

By 

Charles E. (South Carolina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sideshow: Stories (Hardcover)

Awesome.


The characters in these stories are not the same characters with different names. And the stories are not the same story retold. This is a bonafide contemporary classic.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars SIDESHOW lives up to the name!, July 13, 2006

By 

Tracey (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sideshow: Stories (Hardcover)

Once I started reading this book I couldn't stop. Its a mesmerizing collection that will keep you guessing and keep you thinking. In fact there's a movie in each one. I could easily see and feel the stories unfolding. All of them. And I love Thompson's style. I'm reminded of Flannery O'Connor, Raymond Carver, David Lynch, the Who, Quentin Tarantino, Scorcese, Van Gogh. It's hard to explain but you'll see, or you should see, if you love to read and have missed reading great memorable short stories with characters you've never quite seen before...but know they resemble each and every one of us.