These People Are Us: Stories (Paperback)

~ (Author) "MY WIFE KEPT TALKING about convection ovens..." (more)
Key Phrases: kerneled corn, dark pudding, Daney Mitchell, South Carolina, North Carolina (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A bouncer videotapes an episode of Bonanza over his wife's sonogram and scrambles to find a replacement, an ex-poet takes a job driving a van that provides mammograms, and an office-supply salesman falls for a woman from an all-girl wrestling revue in a town called Kingdom Come in George Singleton's These People Are Us. While the collection as a whole suffers from a uniformity of tone (all the baffled, overeducated narrators are basically the same guy) and theme (the scratch-yer-head differences between the sexes plus a dose of late 20th-century cultural malaise), taken individually these are fine stories odd, amusing and insightful. (River City

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"...these are fine stories -- odd, amusing and insightful." -- Publishers Weekly, February 26,2001 --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Harvest Books (September 16, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 015601274X
• ISBN-13: 978-0156012744
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #324,531 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is no lie!, July 12, 2001

By	Jack Slay (LaGrange, GA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: These People Are Us (Hardcover)

George Singleton is one of those writers who appears regularly in the best of quarterlies and reviews: Georgia Review, Shenandoah, Glimmer Train, Southern Review, even a couple stories in Playboy. This deserved collection has been a long time coming.

And this is no lie: this boy can write. His stories penetrate the South, depicting narrators in all manner of fixes (taping over a wife's sonogram, caulking a house to within an inch of its life, reporting on a fake tornado, helping blind men shoot pool) in a prose that is as elegant as the Peabody, as savory as barbecue. He nails the Southern experience (call it, perhaps, Good Ol Boy lit), creating empathetic characters and the funniest situations this side the Mississippi.

There are classics here ("Crawl Space," "Outlaw Head and Tail," and the title story jump immediately to mind), stories that deserve to be read for generations to come.

Treat yourself: try this book.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Short Stories!, July 13, 2001

By	H. Wayne Greenhaw (Montgomery, AL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: These People Are Us (Hardcover)

No one writes like George Singleton. Every short story in this grand collection -- as good as, if not better than, J.D. Salinger's NINE STORIES -- is a classic gem. Told with tongue-in-cheek, "These People Are Us" views the world in Singleton's own inimitable vision, sliding through the cracks of life with a grand sweep. In stories that have been published in Playboy, Georgia Literary Review and other literary quarterlies, this collection sings as no other song can be sung. I wouldn't be a bit suprised if Singleton doesn't win the biggest awards in the land with this, his first book.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My wife kept talking about convection ovens., March 7, 2002

By	Sean Nolan "I love a good story" (Greenville, SC United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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This review is from: These People Are Us (Hardcover)

With that we begin a trip, a trip down the backroads of the south. A trip that includes dogs benesth the porch, recycled beer cans, and midget plumbers! Everything that makes the South great!
George has replaced Raymond Carver as my favorite short story writer.