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Little Boy Needs Ride: and Other Stories
Chicago playwright Chris Bower's debut collection of gloriously nasty, bleakly unhinged, and oddly compelling short stories marks the arrival of a truly original voice. Each page is lovingly illustrated by Chicago artist Susie Kirkwood and bursting with gorgeously unsettling tales of parents abandoning children out of spite, men sabotaging women out of love, and other oddments and ear worms.
150 pages, Paperback
First published March 17, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 24, 2020
Wonderful, dark, haunting and very funny.
July 30, 2015
“Okay, so this is not a nice book” the foreword to Little Boy Needs Ride reads. Even before you get to the first word written by author Chris Bower himself, you get a warning that this thin, seemingly innocuous book is filled with creations of the “disturbing” variety.
And, while this warning might be true and there are not-so-nice things abound in this book, perhaps that isn’t the right thing to focus on. Perhaps it is the stuff in between all of this unpleasantness that should be the focus.
But let’s start at the beginning; what is this book all about? In its most basic sense, Little Boy Needs Ride is a collection of short stories dealing with the common themes of people who want to belong, who want to be loved, but who the world seems to have other plans for. But Little Boy Needs Ride is more than that.
Thanks in large part to the illustrations by Susie Kirkwood, the book has a very unique look and feel to it. The black and white silhouettes play nicely off the stories themselves, stories that don’t have the same luxury as these illustrations and often need to exist in a grey area. A grey area many authors would rather not explore.
Not only does Bower explore these grey areas, but he relishes that exploration. None of these stories are what I would consider happy, but they all have something to say about the world in which their characters exist, a world not so unlike our own. And that is one of the best aspects of this book; it manages to feel dreamlike and exotic while still feeling grounded in a world where their is a Starbucks on every corner and children who need rides to soccer practice in every neighborhood.
Like any short story collection, Little Boy Needs Ride has its ups and downs.
Undoubtedly, the high point of the book comes in the shape of the story titled “How I Became a Writer”. The story is the most subtle and nuanced in the entire collection with an emotional impact that sneaks up on you because of this. It was also the only story in which I felt any empathy at all for the main character. Whether that says more about me or the characters is a thought Bower was most likely trying to plant in his readers minds throughout the book, it’s just most successful in this story.
“When You’re Dead” and the title story “Little Boy Needs Ride” are also high points of the collection. These stories share the subtle and nuanced nature of “How I Became a Writer”. “When You’re Dead” probably had the greatest emotional impact on me personally and I think that had a lot to do with the fact that the characters were better developed here than in any other story.
Something Bower appears to be particularly adept at is adapting his writing style to reflect the nature of his subject matter. For example, “The Last of the Centaurs” deals a lot with oral storytelling and the oral tradition. So Bower wrote the story so that it reads like a story being told orally.
The same goes for “Maria Loves Albert” (what I would rank as a mid-tier story in this collection), a story in which the main character refers to James Joyce and epiphanies on multiple occasions. Continuing his little meta game, Bower ends that story with his main character having an epiphany of his own. It is in the little details like this where Bower’s talent really shines through.
However, not all the stories in this collection work. In some of the stories, such as “Peanuts & the Amazing Gro Beast” Bower seems to get a little too wrapped up in the Kafkaesque mentality used to write these stories. On more than one occasion, aspects seem to have been added in merely for shock value or to create something that could be labeled as “weird” or “different”. This happens in a few different stories.
This is particularly frustrating as a reader because Bower is at his best when he is not so concerned with being shocking or weird.
Ironically enough, Bower seems to write about the main issue this book suffered from. In “The Last Centaurs” Bower writes, “He would beg me to ask questions so that he could make his stories better, clog up the obvious holes with unarguable nonsense or find an image of distraction, something to take my eyes off the hole and move the ground beneath me, ahead.”
In some of the stories, it feels like Bower is doing exactly this. It is these instances that prevent this debut collection of short stories from being something truly special.
However, it is obvious Bower is a talented writer with something to say (there is nothing worse than an author with nothing to say). Little Boy Needs Ride is indeed a dark and gritty book. But don’t let that scare you away. If it is dark and gritty it is only because it is reflecting images of ourselves; it is a creation born from reality and then sensationalized by author Chris Bower so as not to scare us by hitting too close to home.
Little Boy Needs Ride is a slight, yet loquacious, book.
Check out more of our book reviews, author interviews, and more at chicagonewstoday.com
Or follow me on Twitter at @DAM_malone
And, while this warning might be true and there are not-so-nice things abound in this book, perhaps that isn’t the right thing to focus on. Perhaps it is the stuff in between all of this unpleasantness that should be the focus.
But let’s start at the beginning; what is this book all about? In its most basic sense, Little Boy Needs Ride is a collection of short stories dealing with the common themes of people who want to belong, who want to be loved, but who the world seems to have other plans for. But Little Boy Needs Ride is more than that.
Thanks in large part to the illustrations by Susie Kirkwood, the book has a very unique look and feel to it. The black and white silhouettes play nicely off the stories themselves, stories that don’t have the same luxury as these illustrations and often need to exist in a grey area. A grey area many authors would rather not explore.
Not only does Bower explore these grey areas, but he relishes that exploration. None of these stories are what I would consider happy, but they all have something to say about the world in which their characters exist, a world not so unlike our own. And that is one of the best aspects of this book; it manages to feel dreamlike and exotic while still feeling grounded in a world where their is a Starbucks on every corner and children who need rides to soccer practice in every neighborhood.
Like any short story collection, Little Boy Needs Ride has its ups and downs.
Undoubtedly, the high point of the book comes in the shape of the story titled “How I Became a Writer”. The story is the most subtle and nuanced in the entire collection with an emotional impact that sneaks up on you because of this. It was also the only story in which I felt any empathy at all for the main character. Whether that says more about me or the characters is a thought Bower was most likely trying to plant in his readers minds throughout the book, it’s just most successful in this story.
“When You’re Dead” and the title story “Little Boy Needs Ride” are also high points of the collection. These stories share the subtle and nuanced nature of “How I Became a Writer”. “When You’re Dead” probably had the greatest emotional impact on me personally and I think that had a lot to do with the fact that the characters were better developed here than in any other story.
Something Bower appears to be particularly adept at is adapting his writing style to reflect the nature of his subject matter. For example, “The Last of the Centaurs” deals a lot with oral storytelling and the oral tradition. So Bower wrote the story so that it reads like a story being told orally.
The same goes for “Maria Loves Albert” (what I would rank as a mid-tier story in this collection), a story in which the main character refers to James Joyce and epiphanies on multiple occasions. Continuing his little meta game, Bower ends that story with his main character having an epiphany of his own. It is in the little details like this where Bower’s talent really shines through.
However, not all the stories in this collection work. In some of the stories, such as “Peanuts & the Amazing Gro Beast” Bower seems to get a little too wrapped up in the Kafkaesque mentality used to write these stories. On more than one occasion, aspects seem to have been added in merely for shock value or to create something that could be labeled as “weird” or “different”. This happens in a few different stories.
This is particularly frustrating as a reader because Bower is at his best when he is not so concerned with being shocking or weird.
Ironically enough, Bower seems to write about the main issue this book suffered from. In “The Last Centaurs” Bower writes, “He would beg me to ask questions so that he could make his stories better, clog up the obvious holes with unarguable nonsense or find an image of distraction, something to take my eyes off the hole and move the ground beneath me, ahead.”
In some of the stories, it feels like Bower is doing exactly this. It is these instances that prevent this debut collection of short stories from being something truly special.
However, it is obvious Bower is a talented writer with something to say (there is nothing worse than an author with nothing to say). Little Boy Needs Ride is indeed a dark and gritty book. But don’t let that scare you away. If it is dark and gritty it is only because it is reflecting images of ourselves; it is a creation born from reality and then sensationalized by author Chris Bower so as not to scare us by hitting too close to home.
Little Boy Needs Ride is a slight, yet loquacious, book.
Check out more of our book reviews, author interviews, and more at chicagonewstoday.com
Or follow me on Twitter at @DAM_malone
August 3, 2015
Best and most attractive short story collection I've read probably ever. Yes, the more I think about it, ever.
February 19, 2023
Another wonderful and well-written series from Chris Bower about the lives of children at risk, abused and abandoned children who through no fault of their own have been thrown away.
His heartfelt stories, including 'My Carl', 'My Flock' and others on select websites, informs us of the cruelties many of his boy and young teens have been subjected to before being rescued.
While written as 'fiction', these stories mirror the fact that at least 2.5 Million children (1 in 30) are 'on the streets' in America each year. And at least 30% are 'reported' as sexually, physically and mentally abused and untold numbers die.
Something to think about the next time you walk by or ignores a child begging on the street.
Not quite the "Shining City on the Hill" Ronald Reagan called America in the 1970s
His heartfelt stories, including 'My Carl', 'My Flock' and others on select websites, informs us of the cruelties many of his boy and young teens have been subjected to before being rescued.
While written as 'fiction', these stories mirror the fact that at least 2.5 Million children (1 in 30) are 'on the streets' in America each year. And at least 30% are 'reported' as sexually, physically and mentally abused and untold numbers die.
Something to think about the next time you walk by or ignores a child begging on the street.
Not quite the "Shining City on the Hill" Ronald Reagan called America in the 1970s
December 2, 2018
I absolutely loved this short story collection. This was the first short story collection I'd ever read, and I connected so personally with all of the stories. I loved the absurdity in it, and Chris Bower's ability to write such compelling stories with a mixture of beauty and darkness had me reading the entire collection in a day, both times I'd read it.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews