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Scattered Lights
This collection of stories brings together a wide cast of characters, all connected to the Ozarks - natives and transplants, young and old, wicked and innocent, troubled and happy, God-haunted and just plain haunted. These stories range over human experience from madness to reconciliation and everything in between, told in precise, poetic language that leaves a permanent impression.
- GenresShort Stories
176 pages, Paperback
Published October 15, 2020
1 person is currently reading
130 people want to read
About the author
Steve Wiegenstein
10 books26 followersSteve Wiegenstein is the author of Land of Joys (2023), Scattered Lights (2020), The Language of Trees (2017), This Old World (2014), and Slant of Light (2012). Scattered Lights was a shortlisted finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award in Fiction for 2021. Slant of Light was the runner-up for the Langum Prize in American Historical Fiction, and This Old World was a shortlisted finalist for the M.M. Bennetts Award in Historical Fiction. The Language of Trees received the Walter Williams Major Work Award from the Missouri Writers Guild in 2018. The fifth and final book in his historical novel series, Bring Daybreak, will be published in November 2026.
Steve grew up in the Ozarks, the setting for his books, and worked there as a newspaper reporter before entering the field of higher education. He is an avid hiker and canoeist who hits the trails and float streams of the Ozarks every chance he gets.
Steve lives in Columbia, Missouri. He loves to speak at libraries, civic organizations, and other groups.
Steve grew up in the Ozarks, the setting for his books, and worked there as a newspaper reporter before entering the field of higher education. He is an avid hiker and canoeist who hits the trails and float streams of the Ozarks every chance he gets.
Steve lives in Columbia, Missouri. He loves to speak at libraries, civic organizations, and other groups.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 9, 2022
Just downloaded the audiobook from Hoopla, the narrator is also the author, Steve Wiegenstein. I am excited to listen to stories set in the Ozarks with my partner!
I love the dedication which runs the gamut of all types of characters: “To the friends, neighbors, family members, loved ones, mentors, tormentors, classmates, weirdos, roughnecks, role models, nitwits, objects of admiration, church members, co-workers, troublemakers, peacemakers, ancestors, companions, irritants and fellow sojourners who have helped make me the person and writer I am this book is lovingly dedicated.”
These short stories are set in the Eastern Missouri Ozarks and are narrated by the author. His voice and pace of reading caused me to stop and listen intently, as if the world had stopped. My husband’s attention was caught also, and he requested that we listen to one more story each time we settled in to listen!
1. The End of the World – This story is set in the Dixie Food Mart where Larry manages the produce department, which he tends so lovingly it’s likened to a “rain forest” of “shining food” and he gets into trouble for proselytizing at work.
2. Weeds and Wilderness – A coming of age story. Grandpa is of the generation that believed in working until the job got done or they keeled over, which ever came first.
I chuckled when I heard that “Grandpa didn’t approve of disheveled young people.”
3. Why Miss Elizabeth Never Joined the Shakespeare Club – my favorite of all the stories. It starts with this fabulous opening sentence, “They found Miss Elizabeth dead this morning upright in her velvet Queen Anne chair, hands folded.”
Miss Elizabeth has been shut out of the Shakespeare Society. On the one hand it represents “the pinnacle of acceptance” and on the other it was a “fertile home for hatreds.” Miss Elizabeth was a piano teacher and known for her sharp retorts. Mrs. Harvel Dodson was a farm girl and became the president of the society, as “already she had the invulnerable pharisaical piety that most members failed to attain until their 70s.” Mrs. Harvel Dodson and Miss Elizabeth were rivals and there was no love lost between them.
Through happenstance, Miss Elizabeth becomes privy to Mrs. Harvel Dodson’s secret, “this was a genuine secret not one of those idle fine-spun fictions that Piedmont relishes so greatly.” Indeed, it had the potential to destroy lives if became known.
“The release could have set off an unravelling of the social fabric far beyond its immediate target the way the loose thread you pluck at the hem of your dress suddenly ladders up under your tug and pulls the whole garment apart.”
Will Miss Elizabeth tell on this juicy secret or keep mum? You will have to read it to find out!
4. Trio Sonata in C – Living with relatives who have dementia and maintaining perspective.
5. From Thee to My Sole Self – An elderly woman looks back over her life and dreams of a better future for her granddaughter. To thrive; she believes her granddaughter needs to move to a larger town with more opportunities.
About their hometown of Piedmont, she thinks, “This town is for old people like me who don’t mind doing nothing who chart their courses through their own living rooms like sailing ships navigating reefs waiting to fall and break a bone.”
Her daughter worries about her safety living alone and views her garden as unsafe place. However, she has a fatalistic attitude and thinks to herself that “Keeling over in the garden is as good a way to die as any. Come to think of it, I’d like to die in the garden with a hoe in my hand. I’d just as soon be buried out there too.”
6. The Fair – this story is told from the point of view of several different characters and themes include managing livestock, prejudice against carnival workers, as “A carny never gets the benefit of the doubt,” and a first sexual encounter. My favorite line is “it’s time for mom’s quiz bowl, lightning round.”
A fascinating fact I learned is that while it is a shame that their small town can’t afford to host big acts such as Chase Adkins, “a lame show meant more business on the Midway.” So, either way, the town was set to gain.
7. The Trouble with Women – this one is about a sexual encounter that leaves both parties unsatisfied.
8. Bill Burkens and Peter Krull – Dog ownership can be complicated!
9. Magic Kids – a sad story about loving sacrifice and loss, which I loved.
10. Late and Soon - about fathers and sons and expectations.
Favorite quotes:
“Chester was sensitive enough to the rules of gruff mutterings to pick up the overtones.”
“She always answered in time, sympathetic but cutting no corners on the truth. No excuses. She played fair. That was what had drawn him to her in the first place, what had led him to invite her to the cabin he had built in the scruffiest corner of his father’s double lot.”
Some interesting advice: “Whoever fills out the guest book had the idea to come here in the first place.” Also, “No bumper sticker, bad sign, means they don’t tell people what they’re thinking.”
11. Unexplained Aerial Phenomena – “Woodrow thinks he saw something only it’s not up in the sky.”
Final sentence, “Although she knew it was time to go, she lingered fitting in for just a while sitting in William Shatner’s chair, while deer rustled in the obscurity outside.”
12. Signs and Wonders – The rapture is 2-days late….
Quote: “In transport she became beautiful, and he told himself that it was the spirit in her that he loved, though he knew there was a tangled thread of lust running through it all.”
Tongue-in-cheek quote: “Of course they were low on potatoes, why lug out more potatoes when the end of the world was upon them.”
I love the dedication which runs the gamut of all types of characters: “To the friends, neighbors, family members, loved ones, mentors, tormentors, classmates, weirdos, roughnecks, role models, nitwits, objects of admiration, church members, co-workers, troublemakers, peacemakers, ancestors, companions, irritants and fellow sojourners who have helped make me the person and writer I am this book is lovingly dedicated.”
These short stories are set in the Eastern Missouri Ozarks and are narrated by the author. His voice and pace of reading caused me to stop and listen intently, as if the world had stopped. My husband’s attention was caught also, and he requested that we listen to one more story each time we settled in to listen!
1. The End of the World – This story is set in the Dixie Food Mart where Larry manages the produce department, which he tends so lovingly it’s likened to a “rain forest” of “shining food” and he gets into trouble for proselytizing at work.
2. Weeds and Wilderness – A coming of age story. Grandpa is of the generation that believed in working until the job got done or they keeled over, which ever came first.
I chuckled when I heard that “Grandpa didn’t approve of disheveled young people.”
3. Why Miss Elizabeth Never Joined the Shakespeare Club – my favorite of all the stories. It starts with this fabulous opening sentence, “They found Miss Elizabeth dead this morning upright in her velvet Queen Anne chair, hands folded.”
Miss Elizabeth has been shut out of the Shakespeare Society. On the one hand it represents “the pinnacle of acceptance” and on the other it was a “fertile home for hatreds.” Miss Elizabeth was a piano teacher and known for her sharp retorts. Mrs. Harvel Dodson was a farm girl and became the president of the society, as “already she had the invulnerable pharisaical piety that most members failed to attain until their 70s.” Mrs. Harvel Dodson and Miss Elizabeth were rivals and there was no love lost between them.
Through happenstance, Miss Elizabeth becomes privy to Mrs. Harvel Dodson’s secret, “this was a genuine secret not one of those idle fine-spun fictions that Piedmont relishes so greatly.” Indeed, it had the potential to destroy lives if became known.
“The release could have set off an unravelling of the social fabric far beyond its immediate target the way the loose thread you pluck at the hem of your dress suddenly ladders up under your tug and pulls the whole garment apart.”
Will Miss Elizabeth tell on this juicy secret or keep mum? You will have to read it to find out!
4. Trio Sonata in C – Living with relatives who have dementia and maintaining perspective.
5. From Thee to My Sole Self – An elderly woman looks back over her life and dreams of a better future for her granddaughter. To thrive; she believes her granddaughter needs to move to a larger town with more opportunities.
About their hometown of Piedmont, she thinks, “This town is for old people like me who don’t mind doing nothing who chart their courses through their own living rooms like sailing ships navigating reefs waiting to fall and break a bone.”
Her daughter worries about her safety living alone and views her garden as unsafe place. However, she has a fatalistic attitude and thinks to herself that “Keeling over in the garden is as good a way to die as any. Come to think of it, I’d like to die in the garden with a hoe in my hand. I’d just as soon be buried out there too.”
6. The Fair – this story is told from the point of view of several different characters and themes include managing livestock, prejudice against carnival workers, as “A carny never gets the benefit of the doubt,” and a first sexual encounter. My favorite line is “it’s time for mom’s quiz bowl, lightning round.”
A fascinating fact I learned is that while it is a shame that their small town can’t afford to host big acts such as Chase Adkins, “a lame show meant more business on the Midway.” So, either way, the town was set to gain.
7. The Trouble with Women – this one is about a sexual encounter that leaves both parties unsatisfied.
8. Bill Burkens and Peter Krull – Dog ownership can be complicated!
9. Magic Kids – a sad story about loving sacrifice and loss, which I loved.
10. Late and Soon - about fathers and sons and expectations.
Favorite quotes:
“Chester was sensitive enough to the rules of gruff mutterings to pick up the overtones.”
“She always answered in time, sympathetic but cutting no corners on the truth. No excuses. She played fair. That was what had drawn him to her in the first place, what had led him to invite her to the cabin he had built in the scruffiest corner of his father’s double lot.”
Some interesting advice: “Whoever fills out the guest book had the idea to come here in the first place.” Also, “No bumper sticker, bad sign, means they don’t tell people what they’re thinking.”
11. Unexplained Aerial Phenomena – “Woodrow thinks he saw something only it’s not up in the sky.”
Final sentence, “Although she knew it was time to go, she lingered fitting in for just a while sitting in William Shatner’s chair, while deer rustled in the obscurity outside.”
12. Signs and Wonders – The rapture is 2-days late….
Quote: “In transport she became beautiful, and he told himself that it was the spirit in her that he loved, though he knew there was a tangled thread of lust running through it all.”
Tongue-in-cheek quote: “Of course they were low on potatoes, why lug out more potatoes when the end of the world was upon them.”
July 9, 2021
These were some beautifully written short stories about the Ozarks, an area of the US that remains a complete mystery to me (mostly parts of Arkansas and Missouri if I correctly understood). The story moods are contemplative, but with nice prose and interesting characters. Probably a better short story collection than this year's Pulitzer runner up, A Registry of My Passage upon the Earth: Stories, but not as good as my preferred ones from 2020, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies and The Office of Historical Corrections.
November 4, 2020
This is more like 4 1/2 stars. A near-perfect collection which exchanges stereotypes for imaginative renderings of life's last-place finishers. Wiegenstein knows the rural American experience like the back of his hand, showing the requisite amount of affection and critique—but surprising you with how and where he applies both.
October 16, 2023
Wiegenstein lives in the Ozarks, and his fiction is largely set in the region, which was my main motivation for reading this collection of stories. Many of these have been previously published in literary reviews and journals, mostly in the Midwest. Wiegenstein's characters often seem to be searching for something, as if there is a void that needs filling in their lives. The quest may involve sexual interaction, religious conviction, family connection, or vocation. Frustration is a common emotion. His fiction is not so heavy that it requires serious concentration, and there doesn't seem to be deep truths hidden in the narrative or dialogue. He's just telling stories.
May 19, 2021
I've recently come to enjoy and appreciate the short story format which only deepened with this collection. I do live in Missouri, although not in the Ozarks, so a disclaimer and bit of fondness for the settings and people in the book. Simple people are rarely one-dimensional and neither is life regardless of where a person lives. Any of the plot lines could apply to a more dynamic location but that is the beauty and the universality of a story well told. Well done Steve Wiegenstein! I recommend this book.
March 11, 2021
Often, the rural Midwest and the Ozarks are misaligned and misunderstood. Scattered Lights is a wonderful collection of short stories that features everyday folks amid everyday life. Steve casts a compassionate eye on these individuals, and I often thought to myself, "I know that person." I had several favorites including "The End of the World," "Why Miss Elizabeth Never Joined the Shakespeare Club," and "Magic Kids." Compelling read. Highly recommend.
December 17, 2024
Wiegenstein is a master of the short story. There's always a keen sense of place and well-developed characters, but mostly I appreciate the circumstances the characters find themselves in--situations that might happen to anyone (running out of gas on the freeway) but that are richly textured for emotional impact. In language well-wrought at the sentence-level, these stories make use of every moment.
July 28, 2021
This is a collection of short stories. They took place in Missouri or Ozark region. Very enjoyable and diverse. The author has a good grasp of the written word, dialogue, and creating characters. I would recommend as a fun read.
December 15, 2024
I am normally not a big fan of short stories. I prefer big epic tales. However this book reminds me that many of the stories we tell and retell are short stories. Thia MO author does a nice job with these stories.
October 26, 2021
Solid work; echoes of O'Connor and others. Some stories miss, but most are so well done that it doesn't phase me. This is one of the best short story collections I have read in a LOOOOOOOOONG time.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews