Kevin Wilson's characters inhabit a world that moves seamlessly between the real and the imagined, the mundane and the fantastic. "Grand Stand-... read full description
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Feb 28, 2010
Jennifer
rated it: 
An excellent story collection that brings to mind the strange & compelling work of Elizabeth McCracken. These stories run the gamut of peculiar professions and misplaced oddballs: a professional "grandma" who makes memories on demand, a Scrabble factory worker who fears spontaneous combustion, a freak show regular who takes a bullet to the head every night, a cheerless cheerleader, a curator of banal objects and a balding worst-case scenario expert, among others. Simple prose and strai
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Jan 09, 2012
John
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I am not normally a fan of offbeat, fantastical stories, preferring fiction with realistic situations that shed insight on circumstances I might share in my own life. But Kevin Wilson, who goes back and forth between the real and surreal throughout this collection, won me over big-time. Even his often odd premises - like parents who hire professionals to pretend to be grandparents to their children - bear too close a resemblance to reality, given how many parents won't take their children to nur
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Nov 21, 2011
BookBrowse Editor Davina
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The stories in Tunneling to the Center of the Earth grab you from the first line (It took me damn near a week to convince Sue-Bee to come watch this guy shoot himself in the face) and surprise you with shocks of tenderness mingled with absurdity. Many of these stories involve some little tweak of reality that makes them loveable, funny, and engaging, illuminating their often sad underpinnings. The opening story, "Grand Stand-In," is narrated by an older woman with no family of her own
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Feb 19, 2011
trishtrash
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An utterly inspired collection of short stories, the whole package bubbling with affection, yearning, irony, sadness, character, humour; I honestly enjoyed every single one, which came as a surprise, as I usually find short story collections – especially if I’m not already familiar with the author – a bit hit and miss, or at least find some ‘filler’ material in the mix… not so with Kevin Wilson’s Tunneling to the Center of the Earth. After a while, I felt as though I were reading a complete wo
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Jul 09, 2010
Harkinna
rated it: 
Both Tunneling to the Center of the Earth and Like you Would Understand, Anyway, read quickly. When books are that good it kind of makes you sad. I read Wilson’s book on the plane to Idaho and savored Shepard’s book for months, having a short story here and there as I felt the need.
One problem I have with short stories is that they are usually sad. Nothing ever really ends well in a short story, so when I find authors who are able to get past the sad short story, I rejoice. Shepard, More...
One problem I have with short stories is that they are usually sad. Nothing ever really ends well in a short story, so when I find authors who are able to get past the sad short story, I rejoice. Shepard, More...
Apr 21, 2010
Terry
rated it:
After I read the first entry in this remarkable collection-----which, incidentally, concerns the moral and emotional conflicts of a professional rent-a-grandma------I put the book down. Only one story a night, Terry. Pace yourself, man. This is too good to read all at once.
It really is. Wilson has a remarkable ability to get us into the heads of everyday people in surreal situations. A guy who works in a scrabble-piece factory, terrified that he will spontaneously combust, as hi More...
It really is. Wilson has a remarkable ability to get us into the heads of everyday people in surreal situations. A guy who works in a scrabble-piece factory, terrified that he will spontaneously combust, as hi More...
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Nov 13, 2009
Dawn
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These stories are slightly reminiscent of Kelly Link, although they're not really Magical Realism, but more Surrealistic Realism. The premises in all of these stories are all feasible, whereas in Link, they are often not. The first story was my favorite and really really good. It's about a woman in her late 50's who works for an agency that supplies families with a grandmother. Usually, it's for families where the actual grandmother has died, and the parents want the children to still have t
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Jul 08, 2009
Bobby
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The author of this book is quite young - possibly mid to late 20s. The characters in the stories here are all either on the verge of adulthood or are young and are being forced into a premature form of adulthood. Perhaps I would have enjoyed these stories more when I was 10 years younger and facing a similar time in my life. Or maybe I would enjoy them if I were 10 years older and had enough distance from that time in my life to not just feel utterly relieved that it's over.
He has be More...
He has be More...
Jul 06, 2009
Beth
rated it:
Caveat - I LOVE short stories ;) As a YA librarian, I always included a few collections in my book talks, because it's a great way to discover new writers, and they are a good fit for a teen's lifestyle, which is often lacking in time for leisure reading. A short story can be devoured in one sitting on the bus, before bed, in study hall - and you don't have to keep track of plots and characters if you don't have a chance to pick the book up again for weeks.
This was an absolute GEM o More...
This was an absolute GEM o More...
Jun 16, 2009
from NPR (Independent Booksellers Pick Summer's Best Reads)
"Like the pen-and-ink love children of Aimee Bender and Lorrie Moore, or George Saunders and Amy Hempel, the 10 stories in Kevin Wilson's Tunneling to the Center of the Earth are potent mixtures of weirdness and tenderness, deeply human tales with a delicate touch of the absurd.
The opening story, "Grand Stand-In," is narrated by an older, unmarried, childless woman who answers an ad in the paper: " More...
"Like the pen-and-ink love children of Aimee Bender and Lorrie Moore, or George Saunders and Amy Hempel, the 10 stories in Kevin Wilson's Tunneling to the Center of the Earth are potent mixtures of weirdness and tenderness, deeply human tales with a delicate touch of the absurd.
The opening story, "Grand Stand-In," is narrated by an older, unmarried, childless woman who answers an ad in the paper: " More...
Apr 25, 2009
Monte
rated it:
In Kevin Wilson's first collection of short stories-characters inhabit a world that moves seamlessly between the real and the imagined, the mundane and the fantastic. I am not sure I think of this as Southern Gothic...but then I don't think you have to fit writing into "genres"...only if your a book store
"Grand Stand-In" is narrated by an employee of a Nuclear Family Supplemental Provider—a company that supplies "stand-ins" for families with deceased, i More...
"Grand Stand-In" is narrated by an employee of a Nuclear Family Supplemental Provider—a company that supplies "stand-ins" for families with deceased, i More...
Feb 21, 2011
Torea
rated it:
Read these stories. Now! Wilson makes the surreal sublime, situating the unthinkable in the everyday. The world is slightly off-kilter, but the well-drawn characters make it all seem suddenly sensible to be the guy in the Scrabble factory who harvests only the Qs.
My favorite piece, I suppose, was "The Museum of Whatnot," about the caretaker of "the only museum in the world dedicated solely to the acquisition and preservation of the everyday made unique. Things that are More...
My favorite piece, I suppose, was "The Museum of Whatnot," about the caretaker of "the only museum in the world dedicated solely to the acquisition and preservation of the everyday made unique. Things that are More...
Jan 29, 2012
Rosa
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Checked this out because I enjoyed Wilson's Family Fang so much, although I don't normally gravitate towards short stories because much of the time, I feel a little cheated by the endings, like there wasn't much point to the author's writing the work besides messing with my head. For the most part I was so-so on this collection; it's not poorly written, but I wasn't that bowled over by the majority of the stories. And while I do appreciate whimsy and surrealism, I didn't really enjoy the way Wil
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Jul 20, 2009
RandomAnthony
rated it:
Kevin Wilson’s Tunneling to the Center of the Earth: Stories reads like the author read a whole lot of Flannery O’Connor while sitting alone at the lunch table in high school. I mean that in a good way.
The stories veer from the vaguely fantasy/sci-fi (“The Grand Stand-In”, about grandparents for hire in the near future) to the creepy (“The Shooting Man”) to the Zen-esque calm of outsiders who struggle with identity (the isolative curator of “The Museum of Whatnot”). Wilson tends to More...
The stories veer from the vaguely fantasy/sci-fi (“The Grand Stand-In”, about grandparents for hire in the near future) to the creepy (“The Shooting Man”) to the Zen-esque calm of outsiders who struggle with identity (the isolative curator of “The Museum of Whatnot”). Wilson tends to More...
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Nov 03, 2009
B
rated it:
Kevin Wilson is my new author boyfriend. These stories are so great, you guys. You should just read them. It has been a while since I read a book that I started making plans to sneak away with. OK, so at lunch I'll be able to read another story and then on the subway ride home, I'll be able to read a little bit more and if I don't return so-and-sos phone call, I can read a little bit more. This is how good they are. The hook of each of them is so clever. A grandmother stand in service? A woman h
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Aug 24, 2009
Kim
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This was another NPR selection. There was something kind of Stephen King-esque about these stories. They weren't really horror stories, but there was always soemthing kind of weird and unsettling going on -- Stephen King Lite, I guess. As a whole, the stories range from three to four and a half stars, so I went with a three star overall rating. (If only we had Ann's pie chart method!!) Here are some of my favorites:
"Grand Stand In" -- This is the story of a woman who w More...
"Grand Stand In" -- This is the story of a woman who w More...
Apr 27, 2011
Mark
rated it:
Bold, confident, matter-of-fact weirdness. These 11 stories start strange, stay strange and beg you to believe all these unusual situations are, well, perfectly plausible. Kevin Wilson takes reality and gives it an ever-so-slight Twilight Zone inversion.
Slight? Well, maybe more than slight. In most of these, he stretches the ordinary and part of the inherent tension is this: how far is he going to take this premise?
Next, Wilson adds a colorful, memorable character who acce More...
Slight? Well, maybe more than slight. In most of these, he stretches the ordinary and part of the inherent tension is this: how far is he going to take this premise?
Next, Wilson adds a colorful, memorable character who acce More...
Jun 16, 2010
Ningerbil
rated it:
This is a collection of short stories, each seemingly in a mundane setting, but with an added twist. For example, my favorite, Grand Stand-In, you have scenes of people talking, and occasionally complaining about their jobs. Sounds normal -- except their jobs are as a sort of "replacement" grandparent that families can hire. The main protagonist is quite comfortable with her job, comfortable with balancing several of her families and distancing herself emotionally. But then she is give
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Nov 22, 2011
Rebecca
rated it:
"Unsettling" is the theme that ties this group of short stories together. The author combines the mundane with the bizarre in a way that makes the bizarre seem mundane. It leaves you with the sense that something is... off. I don't know why that makes it awesome but it does. It's the same feeling I get from W.H Auden's "The Witnesses":
When the green field comes off like a lid
Revealing what was much better hid,
Unpleasant;
And look! Behind, without a More...
When the green field comes off like a lid
Revealing what was much better hid,
Unpleasant;
And look! Behind, without a More...
Aug 05, 2009
Richie
rated it:
I read part of "Grand Standin" as a free Kindle app sample and was so hooked on the story that I literally could not wait for the whole book to arrive in the mail. But after that story, I found myself setting the book aside for long stretches. There's some great writing, but I dunno, there's this weird lack of energy in the collection. Each story starts out with some kind of hyperstylized, absurdist setup, and then just kind of simmers along until it ends.
Another minor q More...
Another minor q More...
Sep 12, 2011
Katherine
rated it:
“She is prettier than her picture had prepared me for, blond curls, big blue eyes, like a fake child that someone would make in order to convince people to have children” (13).
“I walk down the stairs, into the exercise room, where the Beamers are riding machines to infinity” (16).
“To unlock the potential power of the letter Q, one must learn quickly that there are other words to spell than those that have the standard qu structure like quartet and quality and queen. Qat, qaid, qoph, More...
“I walk down the stairs, into the exercise room, where the Beamers are riding machines to infinity” (16).
“To unlock the potential power of the letter Q, one must learn quickly that there are other words to spell than those that have the standard qu structure like quartet and quality and queen. Qat, qaid, qoph, More...
Apr 21, 2010
Brett
rated it:
Superb, masterful writing...
"Tunneling To the Center of the Earth: Stories" should be in every short story fan's collection.
This collection of eleven stories is outstanding, the only other short story collections I would rank right up with this are We're in Trouble: Stories & Refresh, Refresh: Stories!
This is author Kevin Wilson's book debut and it's a grand slam!
GOOD:
"Grand Stand-In"
"Birds in the Hou More...
"Tunneling To the Center of the Earth: Stories" should be in every short story fan's collection.
This collection of eleven stories is outstanding, the only other short story collections I would rank right up with this are We're in Trouble: Stories & Refresh, Refresh: Stories!
This is author Kevin Wilson's book debut and it's a grand slam!
GOOD:
"Grand Stand-In"
"Birds in the Hou More...
Feb 18, 2010
Joanne
rated it:
This guy just jumped into my car and screaming, "GO, GO, GO!!!" And I didn't know where we were going but the way he spoke made me certain that I would love it, wherever it was.
And so it was.
We peeled around strange corners and squealed through peoples lives, odd characters I never would have met or even imagined in my own life, with my own imagination at the wheel. Smashing through their kitchen windows and listening in our their private conversations, voyeurs More...
And so it was.
We peeled around strange corners and squealed through peoples lives, odd characters I never would have met or even imagined in my own life, with my own imagination at the wheel. Smashing through their kitchen windows and listening in our their private conversations, voyeurs More...
Apr 17, 2010
Michael
rated it:
I have to admit I usually see short story collections as basically a book I’d read only while I don’t have much time on my hands, this collection was an interesting exception in that I couldn’t stop until I read each story. Each main character for each story was interesting, but what I liked the most about each story is how they each made an interesting social commentary. The best example I could give would be the “Grand Stand In” story which shows parents hiring people to play the role of grand
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May 15, 2009
Matt
rated it:
Really liked the story, "the museum of whatnot."
Many of the stories in this book seem to take George Saunders, particularly Saunders less plausible and silly stories from "In Persuasion Nation," and create a kind of genre out of them. In Saunders work I tend to get really taken in by his naturalistic stories set in plausible but bizarre real world situations, such as the title stories from Civilwarland in Bad Decline, and Pastoralia. When Saunders enters full sat More...
Many of the stories in this book seem to take George Saunders, particularly Saunders less plausible and silly stories from "In Persuasion Nation," and create a kind of genre out of them. In Saunders work I tend to get really taken in by his naturalistic stories set in plausible but bizarre real world situations, such as the title stories from Civilwarland in Bad Decline, and Pastoralia. When Saunders enters full sat More...
May 04, 2011
Kaycie
rated it:
I read an advanced copy of Wilson's novel The Family Fang a few months before getting a copy of his short stories, and quite frankly, I don't know what took me so long. I wish that one of my bookstore co-workers had forced me to buy a copy of this collection within my first week of working there.
Wilson's short stories remind me quite a bit of Aimee Bender's work, and I'm pretty upset that there's only one collection so far. I particularly loved the stories "the museum of wha More...
Wilson's short stories remind me quite a bit of Aimee Bender's work, and I'm pretty upset that there's only one collection so far. I particularly loved the stories "the museum of wha More...
May 03, 2009
Mary Lynn
rated it:
When I picked this book up in Barnes and Noble a few weeks ago I was so drawn in to the first story that I immediately found a seat in the store to read more of it instead of continuing to browse through B&N. (And browsing in B&N is just about my favorite thing in the world, so the fact that I ended up devoting my entire trip to this one book is saying something!) That first story was called "Grand Stand-In" and here's that opening graph that grabbed me and wouldn't let go:
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Jun 04, 2009
Michaelavk
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Finally, I recently finished reading Kevin Wilson’s short story collection, Tunneling to the Center of the Earth. I got a copy in my Easter basket from the in-laws. I love it! I appreciate the quirkiness that to me does not slide into ridiculousness. Many of his characters have–unique–occupations and I love how he explores them and connects them to their lives. His fantastical elements are grounded in reality and sense, a balance I work to achieve as well. I wish I’d written some of them! One of
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Oct 10, 2011
Karen
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Odd, unique, moving stories -- sometimes morbid, sometimes vaguely Twilight Zone-y, but very human (i.e. not morbid or odd for shock value -- it feels real in the Twilight Zone-y ones, and touching in the morbid ones). Oddly enough, with regard to the short story for which the book was named, our neighbors' son spent a summer digging a giant hole with his friends -- they never got into tunneling, but seemed to enjoy the exercise and satisfaction of digging a giant hole (that eventually was fill
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Oct 03, 2009
B
rated it:
4.5 - 4.75 stars
(side note: I am always picturing Ed McMahon's Star Search voice with drumroll as I rank with stars, very ceremonial)
Can't exactly clarify *why*, but I really enjoyed this book. The stories are all set in a slightly bent reality, skewed, but conceivable and relatable, and they're all a pleasure to read. The characters share a similar voice, but each with their own quirks; very easy to imagine them all sprouting from the same family tree.
enjoyed hi More...
(side note: I am always picturing Ed McMahon's Star Search voice with drumroll as I rank with stars, very ceremonial)
Can't exactly clarify *why*, but I really enjoyed this book. The stories are all set in a slightly bent reality, skewed, but conceivable and relatable, and they're all a pleasure to read. The characters share a similar voice, but each with their own quirks; very easy to imagine them all sprouting from the same family tree.
enjoyed hi More...
