Shoebox Train Wreck [Paperback]

John Mantooth's Shoebox Train Wreck is a unique, startling, moving collection of genre-twisting stories that play out in those shadowed places that linger as the sun goes down. These stories happen in the marginalized, dark nooks and crannies of life that most folks only dare look at out of the corner of their eyes, if at all. Some of the best stories are:

"A Long Fall Into Nothing", in which an unhealthy, symbiotic relationship spirals down to its only, inevitable conclusion. "The Water Tower", in which two friends embark on a journey and find something more horrible and sadder than the dead "alien" they'd been looking for.

"Walk the Wheat", a touching - and eerie - story in which brotherhood bonds stretch past the grave. "This Is Where the Road Ends", a story about a man who can't let go of his guilt...and also can't bring himself to admit it to the one he loves. "Saving Doll", an especially wrenching story about a high school track star trying to free herself from her family's squalid destiny, but to do so, she must face a shocking betrayal, rather than run from it. "The Cecilia Paradox", in which the future may be televised, or apocalyptic, or staged...or all three. "Chicken", a story about a boy pretending to be fearless, and the boy he meets who really does fear nothing. Or, perhaps everything.

The three best stories are "Sucky", "James" and the collection's title story, "Shoebox Train Wreck." In "Sucky", a boy with special needs discovers that his greatest fear will deliver a kind of mournful, partial salvation. "James" is a wonderfully non-linear story about those individuals - or, maybe, that same individual - we encounter throughout life who never fits in anywhere, and eventually fades away. And "Shoebox Train Wreck", a story in which a man's grief and sadness holds back more than just his own life.

The best thing about this collection is despite it's shadowed nature...it's not needlessly grim. Often, collections like these boast stories ending in despair and pointlessness, offering no resolution of any kind. That doesn't happen here. These stories feature broken, confused, wandering souls. But many of them find a kind of resolution or peace, or, at the very least, discover the hope of such peace. And that lifts this collection above many others.

If the works of William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor were to reproduce, the result would be John Mantooth's writing. This collection of short stories is Southern (Gothic, perhaps) Literature at its best, the South at its worst--and realest.

Sometimes, perhaps too often, the South is idealized to be full of friendly small towns where everybody waves at everybody. Once you get inside these places, though, what's exposed is something much darker--and that's what we get in Shoebox Train Wreck.

In the collection, we encounter problems like alcoholism, divorce, death, and ultimately living with the consequences of mistakes we've made. Many of the characters are teenagers, kids on the brink of a future they can't even yet comprehend, kids desperately trying to find themselves and who they want to be. But what's so captivating is what the stories ultimately demonstrate: that even as adults, we're often still stuck at the same crossroads as these teens. We're constantly struggling with ourselves, with right and wrong, with past mistakes, the notion that we aren't always heroes, there aren't always happy endings, and, as "Saving Doll" teaches us, sometimes, no matter what choice you make, it's the wrong one.

It's a great collection full of real stories and real people. I have to confess, I haven't read the final story yet. Because then it will be over. And what will I have to look forward to?

It's easy to say Shoebox Train Wreck is a great collection. But what isn't easy to say is that it's one of the best I've read. Period. And I've read a lot.

It's true.

A lot of collections are made up of good to great stories. Often there are a few clunkers. That's what we expect. But not so in this case. Each story, even if it isn't your favorite, stands tall on its own. That's damn rare.

But my favorite aspect of this collection is the fact you know you're in good hands. Mantooth's talent shines through out. You're never concerned with where he's taking you or how he's going to pull it off. From the open, you trust him completely. You know he's going to give you the best, story to story. There's not many authors that affect that sort of feeling within a reader. King. Hill. Braunbeck. In recent years, writers like John Langan and Laird Barron have been added to that list. I can safely say John Mantooth belongs up there as well.