My Life in Heavy Metal: Stories

by Steve Almond

Steve Almond’s collection My Life in Heavy Metal presents twelve passion-fueled stories (including his Pushcart Prize-winning story “The Pass”) that take a clear-eyed view of relationships between young men and women who have come of age in an era without innocence. These are powerful and resonant stories of love and lust, that bring to life a generation desperately searching for connection in a fragmented world. In the title story, an El Paso newspaper clerk assigned to review the heavy metal bands playing local arenas is drawn in by the primal music, fueling a torrid affair with a Mexican-American woman that will change him forever. In “Geek Player, Love Slayer,” a thirty-three-year-old woman harbors a secret crush on the young computer repairman in her office–until her ardor is unleashed at an after-work party, with unexpected consequences. In “Valentino,” two teenagers spending their last summer together before heading off to college experience a sexual awakening inspired by the romantic legend of a movie star from long ago. By turn tender and raw, visceral and other-worldly, the stories of My Life in Heavy Meta l capture the moments when the fires of passion burn over and subside into embers of pain and longing. It is a dazzling debut by a vibrant new writer.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Music, Literature, American, Contemporary, Literary Fiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Steve Almond is the author of two story collections, My Life in Heavy Metal and The Evil B.B. Chow, the non-fiction book Candyfreak, and the novel Which Brings Me to You, co-written with Julianna Baggott. He lives outside Boston with his wife and baby daughter Josephine.

Reviews

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

While reading these 12 very well written stories, songs would spontaniously pop into my head, and in no particular order, below is my playlist. Enjoy:

1. Cherry Pie ~ Warrant
2. Lovesong ~ The Cure
3. Push It ~ Salt N Pepa
4. Make Me Sweat ~ Basement Jaxx
5. Wild Thing~ Tone Loc
6. One Thing Leads To Another ~ The Fixx
7. I Want Your Sex ~ George Michael
8. Rasberry Beret ~ Prince
9. Pour Some Sugar On Me ~ Def Leappard
10. You Shook Me All Night Long ~ AC/DC
11. Metal on Metal ~ Anvil
12. Love Comes In Spurts ~ Osaka Popstar

[Malbadeen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book despite the atrocious cover and I am so, so glad i did. I love it! I started it last night and was loving it so much i couldn't control the underline impulse - i made myself get out of bed and go to the kitchen just so I could circle and underline things (for what? who the hell knows? but it felt imperative at that moment).
The first story reminded me of a time I was waiting outside a bathroom at a MEGAdeath concert for my boyfriend to return. I was the ONLY person not in black. I was, in fact, in a pink t-shirt with a bow, light blue jeans, and white keds. I thought for sure I was going to be mauled by the lovers of death (A LOT of death none the less) for disrespecting the spirit of the evening and i don't remember much else except thinking wow, this guy - this Dave Mustang (?) is really, seriously very, very stupid.

And then the story "Run Away my Pale love"!.... maybe I'm going to eat that story. I love it that much. I love how Almond is so irreverent and totally in awe of sex at the same time.

Even the story I thought was stupid, "Geek Player, Love Slayer" which he wrote from a female perspective had enough enjoyable moments to keep me reading to the end. But really - it was so clearly written by a guy. a nice guy, but still a guy.

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was just alright. I think that Almond is a better non-fiction writer than fiction. His observations about things that happen are really funny and interesting. And he seems like a real person. In stories, his characters feel more like sketches.

[Solistas · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,5*/5

Δεν μπορώ πω ακριβώς πως απογοητεύτηκα με τη συγκεκριμένη συλλογή αφού πέρα απο κάποια κείμενα του Almond περί μουσικής (στη βιβλιοθήκη μου υπάρχει ήδη ένα βιβλίο του για το ροκ εν ρολ) δεν είχα ιδέα για ποια πράγματα γράφει κ πως. Τελικά δεν κατάφερα να αντισταθώ στον ιντριγκαδόρικο τίτλο κ αντί να πιάσω το non fiction βιβλίο του ξεκίνησα με αυτό το ebook.

Η αφετηρία με το ομώνυμο διήγημα ήταν ομολογουμένως απολαυστική. Αν κ ένιωθα πως απευθυνόταν σε πιο νεανικό κοινό, η ιστορία του μουσικογραφιά που καλύπτει τις ξεχασμένες απ΄τα 80s hair metal μπάντες που επισκέπτονται το Ελ Πάσο με έκανε να χαζογελάω συνέχεια κ οι εμπειρίες του με τις ερωμένες του που δεν μπορούσαν να πιστέψουν ότι του άρεσε αυτή η μουσική μου έφεραν στο μυαλό διάφορες προσωπικές στιγμές με άλλα είδη μουσικής. Αν τυγχάνει να έχετε περάσει ένα φεγγάρι με τους δίσκους των Guns n Roses, των Skid Row, των Def Leppard κ.ο.κ. θα διασκεδάσετε πολύ.

Δυστυχώς όμως καθώς προχωρούσα την συλλογή το ενδιαφέρον μου χανόταν σταδιακά. Πράγματι το χιούμορ του λειτουργεί αλλά επειδή οι ιστορίες του είναι κατά βάση ερωτικές περιπέτειες κ σεξουαλικές σκέψεις straight αντρών μεταξύ 20 κ 30χρ. πέρα από την περιστασιακή ταύτιση που μπορούσα να νιώσω δεν πρόσφεραν κάτι αξιομνημόνευτο. Η περιγραφή της σχέσης εξ αποστάσεως του Run Away, My Pale Love ήταν απ'τις πολύ καλές στιγμές, όπως κ το στήσιμο του The Body in Extremis που περιγράφει ξεκαρδιστικά την απελπισία του ήρωα που μπερδεύεται με την friends with benefits συμφωνία που κάνει με μια νεαρή φίλη του. Αρκετό ενδιαφέρον είχε κ το How To Love A Republican όπου ο Almond προσπαθεί μέσω του ήρωα του να βρει τη συνταγή όπου η σχέση μεταξύ δύο ανθρώπων με τελείως διαφορετικές πολιτικές ιδέες κ εξαιρετική ερωτική χημεία μπορεί να λειτουργήσει σε βάθος χρόνου.

Σε γενικές γραμμές δεν υπάρχει τίποτα πραγματικά "ζουμερό" αλλά κ τίποτα πραγματικά ενοχλητικό για να ισχυριστώ ότι θα ήταν κ χάσιμο χρόνου αν κάποιος επιλέξει να ασχοληθεί με αυτή την ευκολοδιάβαστη συλλογή.

[Tracy Reilly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had no expectations of this book, a it was recommended to me with no background info, just the title that sucked me in. It's not really what it sounds like, although the first story features a hair band journalist. It's a book of short stories, by the way, and a bit unusual than most I've read. Only one hit a wrong note with me: I think the writer is too masculine to be a convincing female first-person.

The rest are largely stories about love affairs from a male perspective. The type I'd always hoped to see, and rarely did. Nice descriptions of sweet and hopeless sex.

[Lucas Miller · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't feel that I'm very accomplished at writing Goodreads reviews mostly because I tend to like everything. When I first started my profile, I was reading a lot Tao Lin (something I probably would not do now) and his goodreads profile gave every book listed five stars and no review. I liked it. It seemed pure and intentional. Opaque in a way that that was pleasing. But alas, my discipline faltered, and a few four star reviews crept in and a few timid attempts at comments on books I've read (I once compared the way Updike writes sex scenes to food writing). But I'm still disheartened and amazed when I see people who give out one and two stars reviews for half or more of the books they've read. Why? Why would you not put that book down, or better yet, throw it across the room? I will never read all the books I want to, so why spend the time to read books I don't like and then expend the time and energy to write about them for the five people who might see it on my goodreads page and not get past the weird personal rant at the beginning that has nothing to do with the book being reviewed?

I wasn't crazy about this book. I added to my wishlist after reading an interview with Almond about his new nonfiction book Against Football. He seemed to have a compelling voice in the interview, and this collection of stories was advertised on amazon as being funny and having frank depictions of sex, so I was game. I found a paperback copy while I was in Maine and read the whole book starting in Bangor International and finishing up in Laguardia. Airports and airplanes compel one to keep turning pages and force the time to pass.

There are three or four strong stories and one or two really great stories here. Most of the stories seem incredibly dated to me, somehow more dated than should be possible for a book published in 2002. The hot IT guy story made me cringe without ceasing.

The main characters in these stories tend to be average, noncommittal, slouchy guys in there late 20s or early 30s. None are very ambitious or particularly happy, but they are CONSTANTLY having sex with attractive women. I'm with it for a couple of stories, but it gets tiresome after awhile. Still when this trope is employed in just the right way it clicks and there are lots of funny and quite tender moments that result.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Steve Almond's collection of short stories, he manages to capture within a few pages each the initial joy and sense of well-being at the spark of a relationship, the continuance of that feeling into the beginning stages of love and the sexual pleasure couples take in one other, to the decay and inevitable collapse of the affair. The language rings true, and the turns of phrase are beautiful.

[Marc · Rating 4 out of 5]

First off, thank you to my GR friend Tracy for recommending this one! It's a relatively slim collection of stories, but Almond packs a punch in each one. Dealing predominantly with romantic and/or sexual relationships, the stories present different dynamics and explore the search for love, desire, and connection. The voice always feels authentic with a wonderful kind of balance and pace, plus a good bit of humor. I'm already hoping to read more of his work.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is in these moments of tender and ridiculous nostalgia that I know something inside me is still broken.

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

«The heart is not only a lonely hunter, though it is certainly that. It is a drowning salesman, a bloodied clown, an incurable disease. We pay dearly for its every decision. There are a lucky few, dead in certain vital places, who learn to tame their passions.
But I am certain that you, too, have some episode in your life that lines up against this one, some mad period of transgression in which your body, your foolish foolish body, led you toward tender ruin. And sometimes, at night, you must lie awake and ask yourself: How could I have done this? How ever, in the world, might I have become such a fool?»

Captivating collection of stories that delve into the intricacies of modern relationships and desires. The narrative offer a refreshing and honest portrayal of life's challenges, often tinged with moments of vulnerability and longing. Each story served as a poignant reflection on the human condition and left a lasting impact on me.

[Sara Browne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took a bit, funny and weird

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

As strange as it feels to say, this book reminds me a little bit of Milan Kundera's _Laughable Loves_. It's strange to say because Almond is a young guy who lives in Boston and doesn't share much of the formal writing style or the philosophizing that is characteristic of Kundera, and he lacks Kundera's level of cruelty in his sense of humor. Perhaps the resemblance is because this book is also about love, sex, and the risible failures that accompany preoccupation with them. As Almond's narrator (ahem, cough, a first person narrator named "David" appears in almost all the stories) says in the story "Run Away, My Pale Love: "What we want is the glib aria of disastrous love, which is, finally, the purest expression of self-contempt."

I had a hard time deciding between 3 and 4 stars. When he's at his best, Almond gives riveting descriptions and makes me feel like I almost understand what it feels like to be a young liberal guy working on the Hill and dating a GOP staffer named Darcy ("How to Love a Republican"). The story "Among the Ik," about a man trying to fortify relationships with his adult children after his wife's death, made me cry. (If you've been reading my reviews, you can see crying scores big points here. Beware sentimentality.) At his worst, Steve Almond is posing questions about male romantic and sexual confusion that seem overplayed, and, as a woman, slightly irritating. "Geek player, Love slayer," the only first person story told from a woman's point of view, made brave attempts at flipping the perspective, resulting in a mixed bag of success and failure. I would like to see him branch out more and my understanding is that he has been. These stories are all pre-9/11 and maybe that has something to do with the (I-hate-to-call-it-this-but) triteness of the overarching theme. (Originally published in 2002.) However, I would completely agree with the Seattle Times blurb on the front cover: "The coolest and freshest collection of short stories I've read since the 1980s." Um, except that I read those '80s collections in the '90s or '00s. But, point being, he's an exciting voice. One to watch, for sure.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

My girlfriend Carol is very good at knowing what short stories I will like, and so it came as no surprise to me that I liked this book pretty much the moment I picked it up. Maybe that's over-stating it a bit, but actually, the cover is bizarre and awesome, as are the stories. While maybe young Mr. Almond is a little obsessed with pale, Eastern European girls and "stiffening against himself," these are the kind of stories that make me want to be a writer. Or maybe even make me realize my own limitations in that department - the stories are simple in scope, yet the man's got a way with words, and a knack for identifying the extraordinary in the everyday that I can't help but be a little jealous of him when I read this. And anybody that knows me knows that I have a tough time with short stories - this collection I couldn't put down.
And I have to add this: the copy I read had been abused in the worst kind of way - it had been underlined (always paragraphs at a time), had a few (blank) pages ripped out of the back, and the previous owner had made a note that Time Warner Cable was coming between 4 and 8:30. Not that I have to tell any of you this, but:
This is no way to treat a book.
And it's worth noting that underlining passages in a book is not only horribly distracting for future readers (it heavily impedes our ability to draw our own conclusions on what is and what is not significant), but this horrible book-rapist is also a world-class idiot. I seriously hope she (sorry... the handwriting spilled the sex beans) wrote some sort of heavily-weighted paper for her short fiction class on this book, because she underlined the most mundane and extraneous passages in each and every story. Maybe that was her thesis: "In conclusion, the author Steve Almond includes a minimum of one paragraph in each of his short stories describing some thought or action of the narrator or protagonist. The End...?" GOOOOoooodnight, everybody!

[Christina M Rau · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read Candy Freak and loved it from the first letter to the last. I closed up that book wanting more. I found My Life In Heavy Metal by Steve Almond. I was excited. Then I found out it was fiction--short stories--and not another memoir. Hmm, did I want to read it? Could I read it knowing the freakness about this guy? Could I forget about the author's real life and focus on the characters? After reading a blurb from the first short story that shares the collection's title, I said, yes. He mentions Skid Row. He mentions GNR. Yes, yes, yes.

At first, I thought that maybe I should get this book for my brother. He could read it first and then I'd read it and then we'd have something to talk about. I'm happy I got it from the library instead (transfer hold, of course, because why would my library have anything contemporary--then again, my library did have those Curtis Sittenfeld books so I can't fault it completely). My Life In Heavy Metal is about a music reviewer who cheats on a girlfriend with a woman who ejaculates a gallon of liquid onto the bedsheets. That's not really my brother's type of read. The rest of the stories are not about female ejaculation--if you read one, you've read them all--but they are about everything magnificent and wonderful. They are magnificent and wonderful because Steve Almond uses his brillian wit and sarcasm to describe situations to the core.

He also shows that deeper side he portrays in Candy Freak when he talks about death and the fragility of life itself. His metaphors and images are poetic. Mark Doty take note. Here is writing that can be sad without sappy, touching without clinical.

A hint of Candy Freak is in one story. A short clip of a guy going through the Hershey factory and watching the machine make kisses. I know that he knows that firsthand. But that was it. The rest was fictional characters living fictional lives that are way too close to reality. That's good stuff.

[The Awdude · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some really great stories in here. "Among the Ik," for instance, a story that will move you unless you're just plain immovable. Also, "The Body in Extremis." A fantastic story about love and desire and the normativities to which we help society chain them. Most of the stories are about different kinds of relationships and how we assign value to their particularities. The theme of the collection, I think, is summed up nicely for the reader at the end of the last story: "The heart is not only a lonely hunter, though it is certainly that. It is a drowning salesman, a bloodied clown, an incurable disease. We pay dearly for its every decision. There are a lucky few, dead in certain vital places, who learn to tame their passions." Most of Almond's characters struggle to find a way to kill themselves "in certain vital places" in order to qualify for contemporary notions of happiness. Some succeed, some don't. Watching them try is quite entertaining, and Almond's wit throughout the book makes for a few good belly laughs. But he ultimately leaves his material unexplored. He's a good writer, one whom I admire for many reasons, but he's not necessarily a thinker. Some of the stories, such as "Geek Player, Love Slayer," are surprisingly stale and frustratingly shallow. Overall, Almond has the power to move you and the charm to make you laugh, but don't expect him to make you think. Same thing with the B.B. Chow collection. I haven't yet decided which I like better...they're both solid collections with plenty of universal humanity and contemporary lyricism.

[Geoffrey Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nobody writes funnier about sex than Steve Almond. In some of his stories -- the earlier ones, I suspect -- that's the whole point, frequently featuring a feckless male unable to rein in his phallus and thus following it into ridiculously bad relationships. But that's not always all: Almond has become such a master of the comedy of sexual desperation that he can use it as a device to tell other, less predictable stories. You'll want to read this collection, not so much for the title story or even the one after that (about another kind of feckless male, a widower who depended on his wife just to function) -- they're OK, and funny in a kind of sick way, but don't get put off by them from reading the others. Especially good: "How to Love a Republican" is full of wet, sloppy sex, but it is really about the utterly shameless lust for power and perversion of the political process in our 2000 presidential election (the narrator is a guy working for Bradley, the girl is an ambitious operative for McCain, scornful of Bush, but easily seduced into the Bush camp once it's clear that that's where the opportunities will be). And be sure to read "The Pass," a semiotic essay worthy of Roland Barthes (who was also a good story-teller). All but one of the stories are told from a guy's point-of-view, usually in first person. The exception is, I think, a successful representation of the same lustful desperation in a woman (maybe some woman who reads it can tell me if it sounds true; it did to me): "Geek Player, Love Slayer." Almond is really good.

[Lizzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Steve Almond writes about ****ing lots of ladies, many of whom seem to be from Eastern Europe (suggesting that Almond had a thing for one or several Eastern European-type ladies.) I am a great admirer of this man! Quite simply one of my favorite writers. I am only slightly ashamed to admit that I read Steve Almond the way other women must read Cosmo's Bedside Astrologer for Your Man* (i.e., to gain insight into the psyche of the opposite sex by relatively oblique means). In my inner world, Almond and his protagonists play the role of the archetypal Man, thinking, doing, and relating in deeply Male ways, all of which are all endlessly instructive in my quest for understanding the Other. And with such beautiful language. And he teaches at BC, so I am rarely more than a few miles from his actual physical self while I read his work. Alright; that actually sounded a little creepy. I don't dwell too much on the fact that I live in the same metro area as Almond. It's just a fact. ANYWAY. Other fact: Almond ****ed so many ladies, he eventually became a dad, and now he is a contributor to a Dad Anthology book that's coming out soon. Archetype Man becomes Archetype Father. How perf.

*I am _way_ more ashamed, in fact, of knowing about Bedside Astrologer at all. What can I say? I <3 Cosmo Confessions!

[Jennifer Spiegel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is all about sex. In one of my creative writing classes, a prof said something that has stayed with me. He said that when someone is writing about sex, he or she is also writing about something else. Something else. What? Sex as a metaphor, as a literary conceit? I may write a blog on this at some point, but I'm reminded of other books about sex. Remember Milan Kundera's THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING? Consider the title and what Kundera did with sex to get at that title. Am I really comparing Almond with Kundera?

I am not.

I thought of other books about sex. LADY CHATTERLEY'S LOVER. THE LOVER. About the former: I didn't really like it, okay? I admit it. About the latter: I read it twice. The first time--in my own adolescence--I thought it brilliant, intoxicating. The second time wasn't so earth-shattering. It was pretty good.

Of course, then, there's LOLITA, which is nearly perfect.

Onto Almond. Not quite Nabokov or Kundera, but Almond is not just writing about sex. Nothing gratuitous, nothing lurid--but, yes, sex. Transformative, metaphoric sex. And characters. And plots. And arcs. These stories, these sentences, this language: it's sex, but it's more. And, really, I found this book virile (!) and dynamic. Here is prose with verve. Would you believe I really couldn't stop reading?

[Michael Gause · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is easily Steve Almond's best book and one of the best collections of short stories I've read in years. It's honest (which is about as high a compliment as I could possibly give to a book) raw..and really strikes me in its confessionalist tone, especially with regard to sex. It's very difficult to write a sex scene and not only make it sound fresh but not make it sound like this: "he touched her sex, glistening.." you know, a lot of people write about sex like they're reading a Fabio novel. Not Almond. There's an urgency to it, and he's killer with last lines in a story. The title story is fucking brilliant and worth buying the book for. It's told from the point of view of a newspaper reporter in New Mexico who starts an affair with a lifeguard, and the narrator takes equal relish in talking about the joys of chlorinated sex AND the feeling of metal concerts circa 1989ish.
Great book.

[Mark T. · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fun, but simple series of short stories.

A friend enticed me into reading the book by saying that when he read it, it made him feel as though anyone can write, and that it inspired him to have increased confidence when writing.

I feel like this is both a good and bad thing. The stories to have simple short paths, with simple writing style and technique, which makes it both accessible in it's best instances, and a bit drab in others.

It did have a strong theme of sex; unclean, honest, and brutal sex. Which I did enjoy.

"Sexual ideation dominated my thoughts. I masturbated up to four times a day, and did so mainly to eliminate the distraction, so I could get my work done"

This is a perfect example of the author's honesty. It is also an example of it's good humor. It is also an example of how, though I did enjoy the read, at no point did I expect to learn anything, or undergo some sort of cathartic realization.

[rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm sorry that I said Steve Almond wasn't cool once, to Amanda. SA IS cool. He has a cool website, he likes music. I found about him from his interview of Smoosh in the June/July 2003 Believer. When I approached the less-approachable girl in Smoosh about this interview, she couldn't recall it, which is weird because it was an 826 benefit...the probably don't know the ins and outs of such things because they are children. Or because they don't care which is smart. There is a bull mastiff who lives at Southpaw.
I borrowed this book "My Life in Heavy Metal" from a library on Cortland Street in Frisco. It was really very good. I read it in my windy, sunny backyard. The Hispanic lifeguard character reminded me of Chelsea.

[Jodi · Rating 3 out of 5]

First of all, I have to say, I got spanked today for spending most of my free time reading books when I should be looking for a job. And I’m more than a little pissed that the book I’ve spent all my time reading lately turned out to be completely underwhelming.

Before October, I’d never read anything by Steve Almond, but then Dale assigned us one of his stories in the kick-ass, everyone should read it Best of Tin House. I loved the story. It was funny and dirty and sorta sad — most everything I love in a short story.

Read more

[Jennifer Monroe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although I mostly read this book by the blinding backlight of my phone while nestled in bed in an Ambien™ fog of memory-eliminating hypnosis, I can safely say it is a fantastic exploration of love, sex, and loneliness. Almond writes well from first person as either male or female, and has nailed the voices of self-indulgent young men as well as aging, female office drones.

Some moments made me laugh, others left me aching and wondering about lost loves. Excellent read, and one which I will revisit, since I don't clearly remember all the details anyway so it will be like reading it for the first time. Sort of.

[Natalie E. Ramm · Rating 3 out of 5]

My Life in Heavy Metal is a series of short stories, mostly from first person POV, and mostly about men in their twenties (there is one story about a lady). They range from cheating on girlfriends to hookup culture to relationships gone badly. Though they were written over 10 years ago (can you believe it!), they still feel modern and relevant. Steve Almond is a fantastic writer. Really, he’s brilliant. But some of these stories I found the subject matter generally uninteresting or that it fell flat toward the end. Anyway, read this book for the first story, which the book was named after. It was so good!

[Davy · Rating 4 out of 5]

By the time of his first story collection, Almond's trademark wit was already fully formed. The writing here is polished and clever, the stories often both hilarious and moving -- and the thing reads like lightning. It's fun! But the relentless horny machismo grates after a hundred pages and starts, embarrassingly, to feel like wish fulfillment. I love Steve Almond's writing practically without exception -- I always read what he has to say. But the all-consuming lust, the emotional brashness, and the casual misogyny of youth is on full display here, and ultimately -- for me -- it comes close to sinking the book.

[Renée · Rating 5 out of 5]

Almond has a strange compassion for loveable losers in this collection that makes it a standout for me. He doesn’t fall into the trap that I find in young-ish male authors of trying to be “that important writer” by writing that brooding kind of romanticized male tripe. His stories stand because he presents vulnerable characters who, despite their foibles, force us to look at their underlying humanity. He does this with the grace of language, with sharp, unforgiving humor and sex. My favorites in this collection include “Geek Player, Lover Slayer” and “How to Love a Reupublican.”

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Almond does something few writers seem able to pull off: Writes about the sexual side of relationships with great sex scenes that seem real and full of joy and fun. (Though not always.) The stories are often funny, but just as often shot through with sudden sad little epiphanies that struck me, at least, as nearly painful, such as this one post-breakup: "There is a point you reach, I mean, when you are just something bad that happened to someone else." Ouch. Am looking forward to his second collection, The Evil B.B. Chow.

[Trin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really like Almond’s nonfiction, but these short stories, in their monotonous account of bad decision after bad decision, lost love after lost love, really did not do it for me. Maybe the fact that I’m in my twenties and suffering from a poor love life makes me ill-equipped to appreciate stories about people in their twenties suffering from poor love lives—though everyone in Almond’s fiction, I should note, is also having way, way more sex than I am; maybe you do need distance. I need to read something that doesn’t sound like it could be a diary entry.

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

never before (and never since, until i read memoirs of a geisha) have i read a male author write female characters so well. at least in the one story titled "geek player love slayer." i pull this book out for travel. it's not a read-straight-through collection of short stories, as each story will leave you with characters that you have to let simmer before you can judge. which isn't to say that it's all gloomy - it's certainly not.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

nerd alert: i loved this collection so much that i wrote steve almond an email fan letter. this book will make you laugh, turn you on, and give you something to think about. if you ever get a chance to see steve read in person, do it. he's just as funny and engaging and sometimes (always?) passes out candy. more people should read this book and i hope the popularity of his non-fiction stuff leads people back to this overlooked (when it was released and by his own admission) collection.