Phone Calls from the Dead

by Wendy Brenner

A bodybuilder is charged with superhuman energy and an ability to make lightbulbs explode. A grieving father tries to communicate with his dead son via a tape recorder. A high school girl claims to have her uncle's nipple in an envelope. A thirtysomething woman is fired from her dead-end job at Manpower and comes to understand her life through the experience of a German shepherd. Four ornery squirrels, tied together by their tails, struggle to maintain their sanity. Ten stories in all, the highly original PHONE CALLS FROM THE DEAD pulses with meaning. Alive and odd and needy, the characters in Wendy Brenner's stories grapple with the extraordinary and the ordinary, searching for answers from unlikely sources, striving to connect with each other and with something greater than themselves. Amidst a world of technological, natural, and possibly supernatural phenomena, they struggle with the most human of losses and longings. Named one of twenty-five fiction writers to watch by Writer's Digest (along with Allegra Goodman, Jhumpa Lahiri, and William Gay), Brenner has been paving a new path through American fiction ever since her first collection, Large Animals in Everyday Life. Publishers Weekly, in a starred review, described that collection as "chock-full of pitch-perfect dialogue and dead-on descriptions . . . intoxicatingly original." In PHONE CALLS FROM THE DEAD, the stories do just that, and then go a step farther. Whether it moves you to uncontrollable laughter or to tears, you won't soon forget Wendy Brenner's work.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

226 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Stacy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I ordered this book by mistake. I was researching parapsychology for a book I was writing about the former Duke Parapsychology Laboratory and there's another book with the same title about purported phone calls from the dead.

I didn't return Brenner's book though, after reading the story "The Human Side of Instrumental Transcommunication." The title of that story alone was so painfully, poignantly evocative of certain group. Every sentence was spare and dead on in such an accurate and heartbreaking way.

Anyway, I stumbled on great writing entirely by accident and I'm so glad.

[Cary Boswell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really well-crafted stories.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

"On the sidewalk, the woman leaned around Gary and called in through the window, 'You take care of yourself, baby doll.' She didn't meet my eyes but there was something unexpectedly tender and personal in her voice, and I felt tears start. I had noticed this phenomenon other times since I'd moved to the South, during other breakups and also right after my grandfather, who I loved, had died: black people, homeless people, and dogs would stop and stare at me on the street, give me special, significant looks, or speak to me with sudden kindness and intimacy, as if I were giving off a magical distress charge only they could see. Cats and white people were oblivious. And all Northerners." - The Cantankerous Judge

"I remembered the childhood rhyme: Yesterday upon the stair, I met a man who wasn't there, he wasn't there again today, I wish that man would go away. But there was nothing I could say to help the dog, no way for me to explain, o even let him know I understood, and I wondered if this was how God felt, knowing all our stories as He supposedly did, yet unwilling or unable, for reasons He refused to reveal, to make them make sense." - Remnants of Earl

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book several years ago and just now got around to reading it.
Despite the title and to my slight surprise , the book really has nothing to do with the phenomena of phone calls from the dead.
Only one story is about after death communication.Leaving that aside though, the book is an overall enjoyable read.
Mrs. Brenner is indeed a talented writer as several times throughout the book I marveled at her ability to spin a story out of a bare or unlikely scenario.However, the book does have its flaws. One of the stories entitled" Are we there yet?" made little sense and the narrator of each story sounded almost exactly the same and had spoke with the same sorts of philosophical musings .That got a little tiresome by the middle of the book.
I don't fault the writer for that because as a very amateur writer myself, I know how difficult it is to make your characters sound distinctly different without resorting to stereotypes and overblown characters.
In summation this is a book that I did genuinely enjoy reading but doubt that I will read again.

[Nic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall this book is not brilliant or awesome, but it has some really nice stories in it. One of the better finds in the free pile at work. Of course the title is what struck me (plus the "free" part) because it sounds like a Carver title and it has the word "dead" in it, but by the first story, I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. I might re-read it and then I think I'll give it away (any takers?) - it's worth recommending and I really think I like this author.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 Stars - average beginning and end, but two excellent and one very good story in the middle. "Are we Almost There" nails the inner monologue of an American tween on vacation with her parents in Mexico and "The Cantankerous Judge" fires on all cylinders with a portrayal of grad students, service jobs, casual insanity, and the bad television show that pulls the disparate forces together. Read these two and "Mr. Puniverse" if you have the chance.

[Penny · Rating 5 out of 5]

brenner was one of my university professors and she had a great way of looking at life...it comes out beautifully in her writing!

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Again, read Wendy Brenner- great short stories.

[Katherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh.

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, off-beat stories. For a short story collection, not bad.

[Danette Bouzanquet · Rating 3 out of 5]

The buffalo story. The buffalo story.

[Sarah Brehm · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been a while since I've read this, but I have so many fond memories of Wendy's classes at UNCW.

[Jason neese · Rating 3 out of 5]

my instructor wrote this.
pretty good read

[Michele Croot croot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really liked it.