Customer Reviews

We're in Trouble

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4 star:		(1)
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The prevailing theme of these short stories is of love, in the face of death, and this core idea is viewed from a fascinating variety of angles: long-married love confronting terminal illness, sudden death of friends turning a young man into a reluctant father, love entwined in jealousy, depression and violence, love born of heroism. Each scenario presents real characters, people we all know, tightly drawn, speaking words we all recognize. You read these stories with a near sense of having heard of or known these people. I read this book straight through, gripped by each unique story, and look forward eagerly to future work from this author. Don't be dissuaded by the seemingly dark content; some of these stories are actually uplifting, or at least come to a satisfactory close.

The best story in this collection is "All through the House", a cinematic ride backward through time that explores the destruction of a house, and then of a family, all under the most tragic circumstances possible. It's the kind of story, if it were written by a lesser talent, that would tilt toward nihilism, toward death as spectacle, mass murder as entertaining diversion. Coake, though, works a special kind of magic, the kind that piles on the trouble, and then, without resorting to anything treacly or sentimental, leaves the reader with the feeling that, yes, bad things will happen, terrible, terrible things, but we will survive, we will go on, we will love and continue to love, and even those who have inflicted the worst pain will have also lived beautifully in moments, that no one is beyond pain, and that, while there might be no final redemption, there will be tomorrow.

The theme is death, its stunning finality, the one truth that is inarguable. Death comes in many forms, in carelessness, by accident, by design when living is no longer an option, always immutable. Its finality cannot be questioned, leaving an empty space once taken up by affection, as those left behind struggle to make peace with the aftermath of such devastation. Coake pierces the ordinary with the incisive blade of truth, nonjudgmental, people caught in the circumstances of their lives, laid bare before fate, defined by their responses. These are simple stories of complicated people confronted by their choices and their consequences.

Set in the Midwest, snow is a common factor, the weight of it, the cold, the sharp etching of emotions, an acknowledgement of extremes. Each story posits a different situation, where death, or the possibility of it, plays a central role. In "Cross Country", a boy takes a single step into manhood, traveling with a man who may or may not be his father. The boy is tentative, wary, riding in a rattling truck from Illinois to Colorado. There are no answers in this story, only questions and the knowledge that this boy's life has altered course. In "Solos", a famous mountain climber's wife endures the familiar agony of waiting to hear whether her husband lives or dies in his quest of the mountain. She has made a terrible bargain by loving this man, the mountain a mistress she cannot fight, torn between love and rage.

In "In the Event", a single young man is faced with raising the son of his best friends, just that night killed in a car accident, his life choices truncated without warning, as he grieves for the loss of the familiar while facing the challenge of the future. There are more such tangible dilemmas, a wife whose most intimate memory of her husband is his escape from immolation while dragging a woman from a burning car; two young adults trapped in a deadly snowstorm, one of them long-resigned to death, familiar with its weight; a sheriff's baleful memories of a murdered family, years after the event, his intimate knowledge of the people involved. It is the subtleties the author examines, the shaded emotions exposed by the response to tragedy. One by one, each story isolates a moment of clarity, a peek into this universe, so enormously complicated yet shockingly simple.

It is obvious that this author is intimate with grief in all its morbidity, but as he explores its many faces, there is acceptance and a faint light of hope that finally surfaces after a black night of the soul, the brutal finality that is part of life, the alter-ego of bright days, laughter and the sweet infusion of devotion to another human being. These stories are wrenching, yet impossible to resist, Coake's talent palpable. He reaches into the human heart with both hands, sure as a surgeon, yet incredibly gentle with these fragile emotions. To read We Are in Trouble is to be changed, the world illuminated. Luan Gaines/2005.

Christopher Coake's first collection of stories reads more like the work of someone with decades of publication behind him. The writing is gripping, mature, taut, full of apprehension and revelation, and entertaining despite the difficult themes. What more do you want? Check out the long story "All Through the House" (the last piece in the collection) and tell me you haven't just read an instant classic.

The character development, the detail, the conflict, realistic dialogue, the themes-all the components of careful writing are here. But it's the pace that makes this book so much fun to read. These grim stories leap off the page when I read at night and then haunt me when I switch off my bedside lamp (especially "Cross Country"). Chris Coake is the literary Martin Scorsese-accessible plots but complex themes that require attentive reading. At his best, Coake finds the perfect balance between craft and story. He tells thrilling tales, and he tells them well.

As other reviewers have stated,these unusual stories combine the themes of love and death in some very troubling and thought provoking ways. An amazing debut collection of short stories with nary a dud in the bunch. My favorite by far was "All through the house", but all these stories are much better than the standard fare gracing the best seller list. Christopher Coake has an illustrious career ahead of him.

This amazing collection of short stories is one of the most accomplished debuts I've read in a long time. These dark, twisty tales map clean lines to the human heart and leave the reader shaken at every turn. It's hard to single out favorites from these amazing stories, but "In the Event" and "All Through the House" stand out for me. "In the Event" is a devastating and tiny exploration of what happens to one man when the very worst case scenario happens to him and his dark night working through it. And "All Through the House", which closes the collection, is a shattering look at a terrible murder, outside to in. From first to last this is top-notch serious-minded fiction, and Christopher Coake joins a short list that includes Ethan Canin and Dan Chaon as a writer who leaves you breathlessly awaiting his next work.

I picked this book up based on a friend's recommendation.

"We're In Trouble" is one of the best, and most memorable, books I have read this year. The theme: people in extremely difficult life circumstances, and their varied responses, is a difficult,painful topic to tackle, and there were moments where I almost could not take it. I hung on through the tough parts and found that the author took me places I don't usually go, and saw things I might not otherwise see, which, after all is part of why I read in the first place. I found this to be one of the most rewarding, thought-provoking short-story collections I have read in years.

Christopher Coake's debut collection is nothing less than exceptional!

"We're in Trouble" is easily one of the top three best books of short stories I have ever read. The book has seven magnificent stories, all covering different subjects and each one leaves an impression.

This book will literally grab you from the start, with the first story "We're in Trouble - A Suite", which has three parts to it, with each story being different and not related to the others.

Part I - (Back Down to Earth) is a moving, heart breaking story about a boy and his dog

Part II - (All Babies Come from Heaven) will take your breath away, a couple that wants to have a child is torn by tragedy

Part III - (We've Come to This) is a the story about an old man who is terminally ill and is ready to say goodbye

The rest of the collection -

Cross Country - a superb tale about what a little boy thinks he saw and then the telling of what actually happened

Solos - the story of a daring solo mountain climber whose family is always in peril, waiting for the next bit of information on his success / failure / death

In the Event - a gripping story about a couple who aren't quite sure about their own relationship, their lives are changed forever when their best friends are killed and leave their son in their care

A Single Awe - a woman who once wasn't sure her college boyfriend was the right man, ends up marrying him after he becomes a hero and looks back at her choices

Abandon - two young lovers want to get away and retreat to a secluded cabin right before a brutal surprise snow storm blows in and leaves them trapped

All Through the House - a story about a sheriff who tells the story of his best friend who commits a horrific murder suicide on his family and how, why & what led up to that point

This collection doesn't have alot of reviews, but it does have a perfect 5 star average rating. Reading the other reviews myself, it's very easy to see that I'm not alone in stating that this book blew me away and stayed with me several days after I finished it.

Highly, highly recommended short stories! ** (other highly recommended short story collections are - Controlled Burn: Stories of Prison, Crime, and Men, Poachers: Stories and The Hotel Eden: Stories).

Enjoy~

Best short stories I have read in a while-- I was pointed to Coake's collection after reading Nick Hornby's comment that "when you're reading these stories, you forget to breathe..." I had assumed this was merely typical reviewer hyperbole, but I found it to be literally true!