What do you think?
Rate this book
Pictures of the Shark: Stories
"Must Read" Finalist in Fiction, Massachusetts Book Awards, 2023.
Finalist in Literary Fiction, Foreword Reviews INDIES Awards, 2023.
Notable Book of 2022, Houston Chronicle .
“An emotionally taut and often haunting collection.”
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“[An] always compelling novel in short stories.”
— Foreword Reviews
“[A] powerful family portrait … heartbreaking authenticity.”
— Booklist Online Exclusive
“A tightly written and often emotionally gripping collection.”
— Lone Star Literary Life
A sudden snowfall in Houston reveals family secrets. A trip to Universal Studios to snap a picture of the shark from Jaws becomes a battle of wills between father and son. A midnight séance and the ghost of Janis Joplin conjure the mysteries of sex. A young boy’s pilgrimage to see Elvis Presley becomes a moment of transformation. A young woman discovers the responsibilities of talent and freedom.
Pictures of the Shark , by award-winning Houston writer Thomas H. McNeely, moves from its protagonist Buddy Turner’s surreal world of childhood into the wider arenas of sex, addiction, art, and ambition. Appearing in the country’s finest literary journals, including Ploughshares , The Virginia Quarterly Review , Epoch , and Crazyhorse , shortlisted for the O. Henry Award, Best American Short Stories, and Pushcart Prize collections, the stories in Pictures of the Shark are gems that refract their characters’ complex relationships.
...
from Pictures of the Shark
If he said yes, Buddy knew, he would have to keep his father’s secret. “Yes, sir,” he said. “I’d like that.” When they walked up the broken cement path to their house, his mother watched them, her face blurred and ghostly behind a porch screen. As always when his father appeared, she stood very still, as if afraid to startle him. His father stopped, one foot on the bottom step. His mother asked if he could come in. Just for a minute.
Finalist in Literary Fiction, Foreword Reviews INDIES Awards, 2023.
Notable Book of 2022, Houston Chronicle .
“An emotionally taut and often haunting collection.”
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“[An] always compelling novel in short stories.”
— Foreword Reviews
“[A] powerful family portrait … heartbreaking authenticity.”
— Booklist Online Exclusive
“A tightly written and often emotionally gripping collection.”
— Lone Star Literary Life
A sudden snowfall in Houston reveals family secrets. A trip to Universal Studios to snap a picture of the shark from Jaws becomes a battle of wills between father and son. A midnight séance and the ghost of Janis Joplin conjure the mysteries of sex. A young boy’s pilgrimage to see Elvis Presley becomes a moment of transformation. A young woman discovers the responsibilities of talent and freedom.
Pictures of the Shark , by award-winning Houston writer Thomas H. McNeely, moves from its protagonist Buddy Turner’s surreal world of childhood into the wider arenas of sex, addiction, art, and ambition. Appearing in the country’s finest literary journals, including Ploughshares , The Virginia Quarterly Review , Epoch , and Crazyhorse , shortlisted for the O. Henry Award, Best American Short Stories, and Pushcart Prize collections, the stories in Pictures of the Shark are gems that refract their characters’ complex relationships.
...
from Pictures of the Shark
If he said yes, Buddy knew, he would have to keep his father’s secret. “Yes, sir,” he said. “I’d like that.” When they walked up the broken cement path to their house, his mother watched them, her face blurred and ghostly behind a porch screen. As always when his father appeared, she stood very still, as if afraid to startle him. His father stopped, one foot on the bottom step. His mother asked if he could come in. Just for a minute.
164 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 29, 2022
2 people are currently reading
1714 people want to read
About the author
Thomas H. McNeely
3 books45 followersA former Stegner Fellow and Jones Lecturer in fiction at Stanford University, Thomas H. McNeely's work has appeared in The Atlantic, Ploughshares, The Virginia Quarterly Review, and Epoch, and has been anthologized in The Best American Mystery Stories; What If?: Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers; and Algonquin Books’ Best of the South:From the Second Decade of New Stories from the South. He has also received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Dobie Paisano Program at the University of Texas at Austin, and the MacDowell Colony. He currently teaches in the Stanford Online Writers’ Studio and the Emerson College Honors Program. Ghost Horse, his first novel, winner of the Gival Press Novel Award, was published in October 2014.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
July 8, 2022
I love short stories. I mean, I love novels and biographies, but it takes a special kind of talent to tell a complete story in a relatively few words. In his eight-story collection, Pictures of the Shark, Thomas H. McNeely shows that he has a great amount of talent, and is using it wisely.
To be honest, he had me at the word “scraggly,” used to describe someone’s beard. I use that word, but most people I know (and most people I read) do not, so when I saw that word in the opening story, “Snow, Houston, 1974,” I knew that I would love the language this author uses, and I was not wrong. His stories are somber, even dark, but his prose rises from the page, and grabs you by the wrists demanding that you pay attention.
I found myself shivering when six year old Buddy Turner experiences his first snow in 1974. Having lived through two extreme winter storms in Texas (Dallas county, in my case, but still rare) I was hit in the gut with the description of the aftermath:
“Now, the weatherman reported gas fires and burst water mains and houses whose roofs had caved in. Some neighborhoods, he said, were without electricity or telephones. Buddy began to worry about Grandma Liddy. Grandma Liddy and he made plans to buy a cassette recorder with cigarette coupons, to write President Nixon and ask him why he lied, to build a miniature city out of matchboxes and toilet paper rolls. They had already started the city, chalking streets on the threadbare carpet in his mother’s old room.”
It’s simple language, matter of fact, and almost Hemingway-esque at times, but it’s effective.
In addition to McNeely’s use of language, I also appreciated his ability to find and convey the emotional tone of every piece. The early stories in Buddy’s life (though not necessarily in the book, as it jumps around in time a little) have threads of hope running through them. The stories where Buddy is older and disillusioned feel darker and have a bitter quality. The pieces where we see Buddy as a young man are laden with sadness and wasted possibilities. And yet, not a single story was dull or made me want to skim it. Rather, I was riveted. “Hester,” especially, had me fascinated because it’s really the only story where we have another perspective, and see Buddy through another person’s eyes.
Speaking of people, Buddy, his mother (Margot) and his father (Jimmy) are the central characters, and each one is interesting on their own. Buddy, of course, is the boy whose family is unhappy, and who seems to know too much and not enough, afraid of becoming his father, but also so close to doing so. Everything I learned about Margot made we wish for a collection from her perspective – her youth and young womanhood. Jimmy is a perfect tragic figure, and some of the scenes, where he seems about to resort to violence, but doesn’t, had me flashing back to my own memories of an abusive partner my mother once had.
In fact, the only reason I didn’t read all eight of these stories in one sitting was that the emotions were so vivid and plausible that I had to step away.
In the beginning of his book, Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy wrote, “All happy families resemble one another, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” In Pictures of the Shark, Thomas H. McNeely has given us a visceral look at an extremely unhappy family, and shown us how that unhappiness echoes through all their lives. This is made most evident in the final entry in this collection, “Little Deaths:”
“I’d come to the University as a National Merit Scholar, but now lived off my mother’s credit card. I never visited my mother, because she reminded me both of my rotten childhood and my receding promise: my AP classes, my high school English honors, the expectation even by my family that I would become a writer.”
Buddy Turner may never have become a successful author (or maybe he did, that’s for another collection) but his creator, Thomas H. McNeely has given us a masterpiece in gray tones and grim feelings.
Goes well with: black coffee and anisette toast.
To be honest, he had me at the word “scraggly,” used to describe someone’s beard. I use that word, but most people I know (and most people I read) do not, so when I saw that word in the opening story, “Snow, Houston, 1974,” I knew that I would love the language this author uses, and I was not wrong. His stories are somber, even dark, but his prose rises from the page, and grabs you by the wrists demanding that you pay attention.
I found myself shivering when six year old Buddy Turner experiences his first snow in 1974. Having lived through two extreme winter storms in Texas (Dallas county, in my case, but still rare) I was hit in the gut with the description of the aftermath:
“Now, the weatherman reported gas fires and burst water mains and houses whose roofs had caved in. Some neighborhoods, he said, were without electricity or telephones. Buddy began to worry about Grandma Liddy. Grandma Liddy and he made plans to buy a cassette recorder with cigarette coupons, to write President Nixon and ask him why he lied, to build a miniature city out of matchboxes and toilet paper rolls. They had already started the city, chalking streets on the threadbare carpet in his mother’s old room.”
It’s simple language, matter of fact, and almost Hemingway-esque at times, but it’s effective.
In addition to McNeely’s use of language, I also appreciated his ability to find and convey the emotional tone of every piece. The early stories in Buddy’s life (though not necessarily in the book, as it jumps around in time a little) have threads of hope running through them. The stories where Buddy is older and disillusioned feel darker and have a bitter quality. The pieces where we see Buddy as a young man are laden with sadness and wasted possibilities. And yet, not a single story was dull or made me want to skim it. Rather, I was riveted. “Hester,” especially, had me fascinated because it’s really the only story where we have another perspective, and see Buddy through another person’s eyes.
Speaking of people, Buddy, his mother (Margot) and his father (Jimmy) are the central characters, and each one is interesting on their own. Buddy, of course, is the boy whose family is unhappy, and who seems to know too much and not enough, afraid of becoming his father, but also so close to doing so. Everything I learned about Margot made we wish for a collection from her perspective – her youth and young womanhood. Jimmy is a perfect tragic figure, and some of the scenes, where he seems about to resort to violence, but doesn’t, had me flashing back to my own memories of an abusive partner my mother once had.
In fact, the only reason I didn’t read all eight of these stories in one sitting was that the emotions were so vivid and plausible that I had to step away.
In the beginning of his book, Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy wrote, “All happy families resemble one another, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” In Pictures of the Shark, Thomas H. McNeely has given us a visceral look at an extremely unhappy family, and shown us how that unhappiness echoes through all their lives. This is made most evident in the final entry in this collection, “Little Deaths:”
“I’d come to the University as a National Merit Scholar, but now lived off my mother’s credit card. I never visited my mother, because she reminded me both of my rotten childhood and my receding promise: my AP classes, my high school English honors, the expectation even by my family that I would become a writer.”
Buddy Turner may never have become a successful author (or maybe he did, that’s for another collection) but his creator, Thomas H. McNeely has given us a masterpiece in gray tones and grim feelings.
Goes well with: black coffee and anisette toast.
July 6, 2022
While only eight stories, this collection was huge in content. At first it may appear that each short is separate and then you start to see the thin thread joining them together. That was half the fun of reading this, figuring out the when and where and how they all fit together.
There were a couple of stories that I read and, at first glance, considered light – until I stopped and started thinking about all the minute details that the author provided and the insight into the minds of the characters. And then I had that ‘wow’ moment, when you realize there is much more here than the first glance shows.
The author drops you into the world of Buddy with Snow, Houston, 1974 – told from a 6 year old boy. As I read the observations of the boy and then translated them through my adult experience, a whole other level appeared.
My favorite story was No One’s Trash. This is another one told by Buddy, now older with divorced parents. What presents as a Saturday with a storm, is instead layers and characters that materialized so that I felt like I was sitting in their living room watching this all play out.
When this reader was released into Hester, the world spun on its head. The idea that a tiny, no thought incident can lead to something intense was a perfect example of the butterfly effect.
The set ends with Little Deaths. And that story ends with a line that will stay with me - “knowing I had solved nothing, I had redeemed nothing; I knew it had nothing to do with me.”
These stories have nothing to do with me and yet, here I was, figuratively sitting in their living rooms and partaking in their lives.
There were a couple of stories that I read and, at first glance, considered light – until I stopped and started thinking about all the minute details that the author provided and the insight into the minds of the characters. And then I had that ‘wow’ moment, when you realize there is much more here than the first glance shows.
The author drops you into the world of Buddy with Snow, Houston, 1974 – told from a 6 year old boy. As I read the observations of the boy and then translated them through my adult experience, a whole other level appeared.
My favorite story was No One’s Trash. This is another one told by Buddy, now older with divorced parents. What presents as a Saturday with a storm, is instead layers and characters that materialized so that I felt like I was sitting in their living room watching this all play out.
When this reader was released into Hester, the world spun on its head. The idea that a tiny, no thought incident can lead to something intense was a perfect example of the butterfly effect.
The set ends with Little Deaths. And that story ends with a line that will stay with me - “knowing I had solved nothing, I had redeemed nothing; I knew it had nothing to do with me.”
These stories have nothing to do with me and yet, here I was, figuratively sitting in their living rooms and partaking in their lives.
July 4, 2022
Stories that will stay with you long after you turn the final page.
With so many great books yet to read, I’m not usually one to re-read many. But Pictures of the Shark: Stories may prove to be an exception. Frankly, I sat down and read this book in one sitting, and I was captivated from the start. But as I raced through, page after page, I am certain I missed things. I really feel the need to go back and do it again, slowly.
Buddy Turner’s life is presented to the reader in a unique fashion in this collection of stories. We see him first as a young boy, but then he appears as a teen, only to reappear later on as a child again. Each story is self-contained, so I didn’t feel confused by the back and forth even as I watched the breakdown of a marriage and the impact this wreaked on the young Buddy and its manifestation in his older self as he displayed more and more of his father’s characteristics. The non-linear storytelling may not be to everyone's taste.The stories reveal personal dramas of the kinds happening around (or to) each of us. I’m reminded that you never know what’s going on at the house next door and don’t have any idea what other people may have endured to get to the moment you encounter them. I was emotional reading about Buddy’s life; those feelings continue to surface. These stories hit me surprisingly hard, and their memory seems to want to linger. As a mother of sons, I hope my impact on them was positive, strengthening, and affirming, but I can’t help but wonder if I couldn’t have done better myself.
I highly recommend PICTURES OF THE SHARK: STORIES to readers of literary fiction.I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advanced Review Copy from the author through Lone Star Book Blog Tours.
July 13, 2022
“You got to be where you are to get anyplace else.”
Pictures of the Shark by Thomas H. McNeely is a complex glimpse into events and relationships that shape a person's rocky transition into adulthood. A damaged household and broken promises can fracture a child into pieces that either remain disparate or are patched together, ultimately forming a profoundly changed life that might not always be for the better.
Pictures of the Shark is a unique novel split into eight short stories that subtly connect and melt into each other, mimicking the stitched together pieces of a cracked life. In Houston, Texas, during a time when a rare snowfall blanketed the city in the mid-1970s and when an aging Elvis was still the King, Buddy was growing up in an imperfect household that is first tense with animosity and then empty of a distant father yet always heavy with sadness, oppression, and antipathy. The ‘70s were a tumultuous time for almost everyone, and for Buddy, life was a minefield of hormones, ambiguity, and mangled dreams.
This set of short stories is melancholy yet mesmerizing in its portrait of harsh betrayals, poor choices, and the inability to feel secure in skin that is destined never to truly fit. While the overall plot settles on Buddy and his parents, other connected characters orbit this collection, rounding out the microcosms of lives that are relatable yet foreign, or perhaps we want them to feel foreign because these lives are honestly flawed, flayed, and often grotesque in the wake of their hard-earned wreckage.
Grab a copy of Pictures of the Shark and hitch a ride to Houston and other Texas locales and all the way to Universal Studios in Hollywood to take pictures of that infamous shark, but this will not be a carefree vacation or romantic getaway for anyone. This book is raw and heartbreaking, but it is engaging as well because a messy life is still worth living, even if it is only viewed through rosy gossamer or a drunken haze. in Pictures of the Shark, McNeely captures the authentic essence of these cohesive lives with panache, sincerity, and extraordinary talent.
I received a free copy of this book from Lone Star Book Blog Tours in exchange for my honest review.
Pictures of the Shark by Thomas H. McNeely is a complex glimpse into events and relationships that shape a person's rocky transition into adulthood. A damaged household and broken promises can fracture a child into pieces that either remain disparate or are patched together, ultimately forming a profoundly changed life that might not always be for the better.
Pictures of the Shark is a unique novel split into eight short stories that subtly connect and melt into each other, mimicking the stitched together pieces of a cracked life. In Houston, Texas, during a time when a rare snowfall blanketed the city in the mid-1970s and when an aging Elvis was still the King, Buddy was growing up in an imperfect household that is first tense with animosity and then empty of a distant father yet always heavy with sadness, oppression, and antipathy. The ‘70s were a tumultuous time for almost everyone, and for Buddy, life was a minefield of hormones, ambiguity, and mangled dreams.
This set of short stories is melancholy yet mesmerizing in its portrait of harsh betrayals, poor choices, and the inability to feel secure in skin that is destined never to truly fit. While the overall plot settles on Buddy and his parents, other connected characters orbit this collection, rounding out the microcosms of lives that are relatable yet foreign, or perhaps we want them to feel foreign because these lives are honestly flawed, flayed, and often grotesque in the wake of their hard-earned wreckage.
Grab a copy of Pictures of the Shark and hitch a ride to Houston and other Texas locales and all the way to Universal Studios in Hollywood to take pictures of that infamous shark, but this will not be a carefree vacation or romantic getaway for anyone. This book is raw and heartbreaking, but it is engaging as well because a messy life is still worth living, even if it is only viewed through rosy gossamer or a drunken haze. in Pictures of the Shark, McNeely captures the authentic essence of these cohesive lives with panache, sincerity, and extraordinary talent.
I received a free copy of this book from Lone Star Book Blog Tours in exchange for my honest review.
July 5, 2022
Pictures of the Shark by Thomas H. McNeely is a book of literary short stories about familial strife in the life of young protagonist Buddy Turner. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “A sudden snowfall in Houston reveals family secrets. A trip to Universal Studios to snap a picture of the shark from Jaws becomes a battle of wills between father and son. A midnight séance and the ghost of Janis Joplin conjure the mysteries of sex. A young boy’s pilgrimage to see Elvis Presley becomes a moment of transformation. A young woman discovers the responsibilities of talent and freedom. Pictures of the Shark, by award-winning Houston writer Thomas H. McNeely, moves from its protagonist Buddy Turner’s surreal world of childhood into the wider arenas of sex, addiction, art, and ambition. Appearing in the country’s finest literary journals, including Ploughshares, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Epoch, and Crazyhorse, shortlisted for the O. Henry Award, Best American Short Stories, and Pushcart Prize collections, the stories in Pictures of the Shark are gems that refract their characters’ complex relationships.”
In Pictures of the Shark, readers experience vignettes from Buddy Turner’s childhood in Texas, several from when he was a young boy spending time with his parents in Houston, and a few during his time in college in Austin. As a boy, you get the sense that Buddy is caught in the middle of his parents’ dysfunctional relationship. His parents need and desire for each other ebbs and flows erratically, and sometimes it feels as if he is set adrift. It’s hard not to feel Buddy’s heartbrokenness, but he is also an astute observer and often says or does things with both parents that are solely for his advantage. As a college student, we see how that familial dysfunction manifests into Buddy’s—now called Turner—alcoholism and abusive relationships. It’s a very sad turn of events for our protagonist whose attempts to self-medicate has disastrous effects for his girlfriends.
The stories “Pictures of the Shark” and “King Elvis” are standouts in this already excellent collection. There is a common refrain when someone reviews a relatively unknown author that states “this author should be read more widely.” But in McNeely’s case, this refrain is astute. McNeely is an astonishingly gifted writer.
I really enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it. I would give this book 6 stars if I could, but 5 stars will have to do in a five-star rating system.
In Pictures of the Shark, readers experience vignettes from Buddy Turner’s childhood in Texas, several from when he was a young boy spending time with his parents in Houston, and a few during his time in college in Austin. As a boy, you get the sense that Buddy is caught in the middle of his parents’ dysfunctional relationship. His parents need and desire for each other ebbs and flows erratically, and sometimes it feels as if he is set adrift. It’s hard not to feel Buddy’s heartbrokenness, but he is also an astute observer and often says or does things with both parents that are solely for his advantage. As a college student, we see how that familial dysfunction manifests into Buddy’s—now called Turner—alcoholism and abusive relationships. It’s a very sad turn of events for our protagonist whose attempts to self-medicate has disastrous effects for his girlfriends.
The stories “Pictures of the Shark” and “King Elvis” are standouts in this already excellent collection. There is a common refrain when someone reviews a relatively unknown author that states “this author should be read more widely.” But in McNeely’s case, this refrain is astute. McNeely is an astonishingly gifted writer.
I really enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it. I would give this book 6 stars if I could, but 5 stars will have to do in a five-star rating system.
July 30, 2022
Reviewed by Si Dunn for Lone Star Literary Life.
Featured on Lone Star Book Blog Tours. Lone Star Blogger Team average rating: 4.8.
Featured on Lone Star Book Blog Tours. Lone Star Blogger Team average rating: 4.8.
July 28, 2022
Stories that might remind you of somebody you know or even yourself. This is not just divorce, it's many feelings and many lives behind it. Decisions we make, decisions made for you by others, stage when you can't make any decisions at all. Lives in pieces, dreams and shattered dreams.
August 6, 2022
A spare and graceful collection of linked short stories about a boy, then adolescent and young man, growing up in Texas. McNeely is unsentimental about the many ways small hurts accumulate in a life and how unfairness, perpetuated in the name of love and need, seeps in over the years to define it. The portrait is sad but not sorrowful; there's hope in Buddy's story somewhere, and the fact that it's hard to pin down speaks to the strong strand of compassion running through the book and the fact that McNeely never loses hold of his love for his characters.
October 28, 2022
A great compilation of loosely interconnected stories. Very moving. Loved the familiar setting in central and southern Texas.
September 20, 2022
Such a beautifully haunting collection. These stories are ones I will most definitely go back to, as there is so much more than meets the eye. The complexity of human emotions played out here is so deeply raw and insightful. Expertly crafted tales that will simultaneously wow you and break your heart.
September 14, 2022
Wow! I wanted to jump into this book and rescue Buddy, the only child of a narcissistic father and weak mother. These stories are packed with gorgeous writing, human frailty, compassion, hope and hopelessness. As readers, we’re immersed into the worlds of Buddy Turner …. at home with a mother in denial that there is no happily ever after, with his selfish father and mistress, in the child Buddy’s imaginative world of Elvis Presley and the wonderment of the Jaw’s shark…. to sex addiction and alcoholism and more. McNeeley never looks away but honestly records the effects of long ago actions, decisions and compromises in these compelling linked short stories.
September 1, 2022
You will feel ALL the things!!! AND, the best part is that the author trusts the reader to “handle it”. The emotional depth, the vulnerability, and the descriptions of the seedy spaces that humans inhabit are exposed with compassion and nuance. The result is both brutal and tender. It’s wild, actually. I could read an entire spin-off of several of the side characters, especially Hester. I am a full-on Hester fan and want more of her!!!!
July 14, 2022
Pictures of the Shark by Thomas H. McNeely
Pictures of the Shark is a series of short stories whose central characters are Buddy and his embattled parents. Each story is a snapshot of their lives. Lives filled with pain and angst as they needle each other, testing, probing. Love is a weapon to withhold or to smother. Unable or unwilling to communicate their feelings, they lob verbal bombs at each other or try to convince themselves that ‘tickle torture’ is a sign of affection. Alcohol becomes a balm to hide from the pain until it becomes its own weapon of destruction.
Margot hadn’t planned on getting pregnant. Arlene suggested giving Buddy up for adoption. No one, not even Margot’s own mother, thought it was a good idea for Margot, a single woman nearing forty, to have a child. Jimmy had insisted on marriage. But Jimmy, it turned out, had no real interest in being married. He had hated it…
Pictures of the Shark is a painful look at a dysfunctional family. There are no happy endings here. I felt uncomfortable reading these passages, angry at Buddy’s mother for putting up with her mentally abusive husband, outrage at him for his treatment of her and Buddy, anguish for a child whose life is destroyed by those who should be protecting him. Maybe he should have been given up for adoption, at least he would has stood a chance.
Pictures of the Shark is a series of short stories whose central characters are Buddy and his embattled parents. Each story is a snapshot of their lives. Lives filled with pain and angst as they needle each other, testing, probing. Love is a weapon to withhold or to smother. Unable or unwilling to communicate their feelings, they lob verbal bombs at each other or try to convince themselves that ‘tickle torture’ is a sign of affection. Alcohol becomes a balm to hide from the pain until it becomes its own weapon of destruction.
Margot hadn’t planned on getting pregnant. Arlene suggested giving Buddy up for adoption. No one, not even Margot’s own mother, thought it was a good idea for Margot, a single woman nearing forty, to have a child. Jimmy had insisted on marriage. But Jimmy, it turned out, had no real interest in being married. He had hated it…
Pictures of the Shark is a painful look at a dysfunctional family. There are no happy endings here. I felt uncomfortable reading these passages, angry at Buddy’s mother for putting up with her mentally abusive husband, outrage at him for his treatment of her and Buddy, anguish for a child whose life is destroyed by those who should be protecting him. Maybe he should have been given up for adoption, at least he would has stood a chance.
November 5, 2023
In "Pictures of the Shark," we meet Buddy Turner as he becomes himself. The stories cover a lot of ground in 164 pages, taking us from Buddy’s childhood, through his turbulent adolescence, to his young adulthood – all resting on the shaky scaffolding of his parents’ deeply troubled relationship and the role Buddy plays in their toxic back and forth. The stories are sad, poignant, highly original, infuriating – and so very, very real. I wanted to give little Buddy a hug, knee his father, shake his mother, and give the sometimes-obnoxious Turner - the young man that Buddy became - an occasional slap up the side of the head. (Metaphorically, of course.)
The stories are beautifully written and brilliantly evocative of the time and the place (Texas in the 70’s and 80’s). The characters are skillfully drawn, and that skill goes beyond the depiction of the main players (Buddy Turner and his parents), extending to the secondary cast – Ariel the first girlfriend, Hester the waitress, the girls next door, the cousins in Corpus, the father’s girlfriend (the wonderfully named Mary Winifreed), et al.
Tom McNeely is a masterful writer. More, please.
The stories are beautifully written and brilliantly evocative of the time and the place (Texas in the 70’s and 80’s). The characters are skillfully drawn, and that skill goes beyond the depiction of the main players (Buddy Turner and his parents), extending to the secondary cast – Ariel the first girlfriend, Hester the waitress, the girls next door, the cousins in Corpus, the father’s girlfriend (the wonderfully named Mary Winifreed), et al.
Tom McNeely is a masterful writer. More, please.
October 28, 2022
It took me at least three stories to realize that they were all connected and featuring the same central character, Buddy Turner, at various stages in his life. Once I realized that, the stories made more sense together. Still, the structure of the collection could use more cohesion. Though I understand the impulse to move back and forth in time, a more chronological structure might help the reader be able to understand Buddy's trajectory better. Additionally, though he is the protagonist, the stories that are outside of Buddy's perspective (his mom, Sarah) are more compelling.
Also, I completely hate this cover design. It's not very compelling or eye-catching. There's too much going on. The cover doesn't make sense until you've basically almost finished the collection,m and the pay-off is not worth the bad cover design. And the clip-art shark on the back with the bad author photo polaroid is even worse.
Also, I completely hate this cover design. It's not very compelling or eye-catching. There's too much going on. The cover doesn't make sense until you've basically almost finished the collection,m and the pay-off is not worth the bad cover design. And the clip-art shark on the back with the bad author photo polaroid is even worse.
September 18, 2023
I am a fan of short stories, their allure and brevity, succinctness and suspense.
This collection of intertwined stories, where Buddy, the protagonist, presents as a little boy and as a grown man struggling with the failures of his parents and the failure of society around him. Bukowski and Freud come to mind in these wonderfully miserable pages. The beauty of this book lies in McNeely’s abject and stark look at the foibles of a sensitive soul in a confused and stumbling world. In the same way poetry can pack a punch in one word, McNeely does this in his carefully crafted sentences.
I’m also a fan of the cover, which is a mesmerizing maze of water-park fun tunnels that drop you mid air, in mid winter. What I got with this book was a cold bite in the ass by a mechanical shark that I want to take a closer look at even though Jaws scared me witless the first time I saw it.
This collection of intertwined stories, where Buddy, the protagonist, presents as a little boy and as a grown man struggling with the failures of his parents and the failure of society around him. Bukowski and Freud come to mind in these wonderfully miserable pages. The beauty of this book lies in McNeely’s abject and stark look at the foibles of a sensitive soul in a confused and stumbling world. In the same way poetry can pack a punch in one word, McNeely does this in his carefully crafted sentences.
I’m also a fan of the cover, which is a mesmerizing maze of water-park fun tunnels that drop you mid air, in mid winter. What I got with this book was a cold bite in the ass by a mechanical shark that I want to take a closer look at even though Jaws scared me witless the first time I saw it.
December 8, 2024
Stories told (mostly) from the viewpoint of Buddy. When the story starts, Buddy sees snow for he first time. He tells his parents. This is how we are introduced to his dad and get a glimpse of their early relationship. As the story continues, we learn that his dad is unfaithful to his mother to the detriment of their marriage. His dad wants a close relationship with him while keeping distance between the two. This wears on Buddy as well as the fact that his dad asks him to keep secrets from his mother. Throughout the book it seems like there is something "off" about Buddy but it is never really explained. For me, it seemed to jump around and didn't flow very well.
#GoodreadsGiveaway
#GoodreadsGiveaway
September 23, 2023
As I read McNeely's stories, it brought me back to the beginning of my counselor days when I was working with a broad scope of people who were homicidal, suicidal, or in for drug abuse. Why do the stories continue, and only the names seem to change? We keep doing the same things that bring sadness and hurt to others or ourselves.
The story about Buddy and the shark was poignant and exceptionally well-told.
Keep writing Thomas!
The story about Buddy and the shark was poignant and exceptionally well-told.
Keep writing Thomas!
March 7, 2024
A heartbreaking collection of intertwined stories centering about Buddy as he grows up amid the chaos of his parents' failing relationships with each other and others. It took me a little while before realizing the link between the stories, although I immediately saw a similarity in the character's circumstances.
A nicely written collection, taken either as a whole or individually.
A nicely written collection, taken either as a whole or individually.
May 14, 2023
These stories, the characters, they'll will stick with me forever.
One essay in particular catapulted me to reliving the opportunity I once had of visiting "Bruce" at Universal Studios. Am I remembering my memory? Or has it been replaced with Buddy's?
One essay in particular catapulted me to reliving the opportunity I once had of visiting "Bruce" at Universal Studios. Am I remembering my memory? Or has it been replaced with Buddy's?
February 25, 2023
A gorgeous collection of short stories by a very talented writer.
March 7, 2023
Compelling! Read it in one sitting
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews