Calloustown

by George Singleton

Calloustown , the seventh collection from master raconteur George Singleton, who’s been praised by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution as the “unchallenged king of the comic Southern short story,” finds the author at the absolute top of his game as he traces the unlikely inhabitants of the titular Calloustown in all their humanity. Whether exploring family, religion, politics or the true meaning of home, these stories range from deeply affecting to wildly absurd and back again, all in the blink of an eye.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Humor

288 pages, Paperback

First published November 10, 2015

Reviews

[David Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aside from possibly the story "Fossils" in Half-Mammals of Dixie, I think this latest collection might hold my favorite story George has ever written. What do I think of this collection and his work as a whole: if when we come to die we are measured by how often we made others smile and laugh, George Singleton will have a seat at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seldom can I say I liked just about every short story in a collection, that the tales, each one, made me laugh, often several times. I chuckled throughout this book, and now I think I have found another writer whose work I will have to read all of. Maybe part of it is he makes fun of my South Carolina neighbors, and I loved it. How he escaped my attention for so long, I don't know. He is kind of like a South Carolina version of George Saunders, and that is high praise. If you don't find things in this book that tickle your funny bone, you are likely already embalmed in Glymph Funeral Home. There are some who might take offense to some of the material, but they should lighten up because this is a great collection.

[Runed Platypus · Rating 2 out of 5]

Рассказы ни о чём.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't even try to be objective with George anymore: everything he writes is of the highest order--no one is even near him as a comic story writer. And he's up there with the greats--Nordan, O'Connor, Hannah. What's special about this collection is how it seems both vintage Singleton and fresh. The landscape he's made so much his own is changing and he's adapted--these stories feel vita and original, lively, uncommonly funny and true.

[Karen Ashmore · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started reading this book because I read that the author is from SC. It is a collection of stories about an unemotional man and his slightly kooky wife who recently moved to a small SC community - you know the kind with a gas station, bar, WalMart and six churches. After awhile all the stories started to blend together and none of them really caught my interest.

[Marjorie · Rating 5 out of 5]

"A minute earlier we had been getting along fine, talking about how it would never be socially acceptable for women to chew Red Man or Beechnut tobacco in public until they learned how to spit cleanly." -- "Pitching Pennies"

When I was little and gullible, my mom pulled a prank of adding two little goldfish to the bowl where our great big one -Fred- lived when I wasn't looking, and then made great sport of me when I noticed and shrieked "Fred had babies!" This was followed by a very emotional mix of laughter and tears, a volcanic eruption of wonder and sadness and joy. I have spent my days ever since trying to replicate that feeling. Other than giving birth (which is time consuming, terribly messy, and leaves you with a dependent human at the end), these moments are tough to find.

Unless you read George Singleton. He serves those moments up effortlessly, like he's got twelve gross more stored in the deep freeze.

His Calloustown portraits are wry and hilarious and astonishing and will cause you to both snort and sob. I can't think of a higher recommendation than that.

[Joanie Coleman · Rating 5 out of 5]

You want a core workout without going to the gym? Just read Calloustown. I promise you'll have sore abs afterwards. George Singleton's humor and writing style is irreverent, infectious and SO relatable, especially if you grew up in a small town. Story after story had me laughin' so hard, I'm sure the neighbors must've thought I was stoned on my back porch!

Calloustown is somewhere between Savannah and Columbia, SC, and seven generations of its inter-related residents, mostly Munsons and Harrells, are eternally pissed off because Sherman didn't think it important enough to burn down. "What Does Sherman Know?" is an annual festival. The Munsons and Harrells are disgusted by William Tecumseh Sherman's notions of aesthetics: "What's so good about Atlanta, Savannah, or Columbia? Sherman was stupid! He said he wanted to march to the sea, and Calloustown starts with a C."

Singleton is a master storyteller; he'll make you feel like you've gone home to your own Calloustown, and you might need to bathe afterwards! Enjoy this genius of southern humor!

[Deirdre · Rating 4 out of 5]

George Singleton will be at Catawba College's Brady Author's Symposium March 1, and this 2015 collection of short stories is his most recent book. And it's funny, wry, sarcastic. It's a collection of short stories all set in Calloustown, S.C., a place so average, Sherman couldn't be bothered to burn it on his march south. The town has never forgotten this. And it's full of sad sacks, ne'er-do-wells, crooks, broken hearts and unfulfilled dreams. Singleton, a Southerner, pokes fun at some Southern ways, tongue firmly in cheek. There's divorce, drinking, weird festivals, a bar called Worm's, a boy named Pine who speaks only in Morse code; a man who is trying to avoid thinking of ways to kill himself because a suicide gene runs in his family. Singleton manages to make all of that funny. Singleton's short stories have always been singular and it's a shame more people haven't discovered him

[Dan Wilbur · Rating 5 out of 5]

My only issue with this book is that a lot of them are from the same POV, a man who is struggling or struggled with a marriage. But the stories, all placed in the same sad fictional town, are funny, weird, simple (most are about real and metaphorical holes). I was hooked on Singleton since I read one of his stories in One Story recently. This book did not disappoint. They're like long jokes with sad endings. Some of the sentences set my brain on fire because they could be joke premises, but they're thoughts about the human condition. I mean, shit. Read this book already.

[David Ward · Rating 2 out of 5]

Calloustown by George Singleton (Dzanc Books 2015) (813.54) (3887).

I love short stories.

And I love Southern “grit lit.”

But I simply don’t get George Singleton’s writing.

The author he most reminds me of is Bill Bryson. I understand full well that, to some of my fellow readers, this might be the highest praise or commendation I could bestow upon Singleton. However, I cannot stand Bill Bryson’s style or his sense of humor. Reading Bryson to me is like fingernails on a chalkboard, and that’s exactly how George Singleton’s work affects me as well.

Mine is apparently a minority view, but so be it.

I read every short story in this collection. Some of Singletons’ ideas and setups were original and clever, but the prose in Calloustown left me flat.

I recommend a “hard pass” on this one.

My rating: 6/10, finished 11/2/23 (3887)

[Michel Sabbagh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Characterization: 4/5.
Writing Style: 5/5.
Thematic Potency: 4/5.
Pacing: 3/5.

Verdict: 4/5. Diverse in its bundle of laughs and uniform in its through line of riding out small-town ennui, Calloustown oozes scrappy charm.

[Craig Amason · Rating 3 out of 5]

Singleton is credited as one of the best humorists in the South today, and he is indeed funny. There were a few spots in some of these stories that made me laugh out loud. I'm not sure that I find so much substance in his stories, nothing that I would consider profound. He's entertaining, clever, definitely observant, and a bit raw without being disgusting.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

What’s so great about George Singleton is how consistent he is. These linked stories were hugely clever and funny, as expected.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A return to form for one of my favorite contemporary writers.