Rumble, Young Man, Rumble: Stories

by Benjamin Cavell

“I never killed anybody,” he whispers. “But I could. I’m sure I could.”

Rumble, Young Man, Rumble opens in a sporting goods store, owned and operated by the members of an amateur paintball team. Logan Bryant, its self-professed star--as politically incorrect as he is knowledgeable about athletic equipment and barbecue grills--guides us through this world of barbells, guns and protein supplements. And by the end of “Balls, Balls, Balls,” we see that it is his insecurity and doubt, not his brawn and confidence, that have shaped him into the sort of man he is.

“Real emotion makes people nervous. . . . Passion is too Mussolini.”

"The Art of the Possible” puts us into the mind of an up-and-coming congressman making a bid for a second term. As we follow him from one photo op to another, we see firsthand what he must sacrifice of himself to please the many--from sleep to kindness to integrity. And in a final, heart-wrenching scene, the snapshots line up to reveal a particular truth--that these sacrifices are not borne by him alone.

“All you need to learn is that you can hit him and he can hit you and that it might hurt but you’re not going to kill each other.” “Except sometimes,” she said. I nodded again. “Except sometimes.”

In “The Ropes,” Alexander Folsom spends a summer with his father on Martha’s Vineyard, getting his strength back after his last boxing match, in which he fared the worse. Trying to work, trying to play, trying to flirt with the soon-to-be-married daughter of a well-to-do family on the Vineyard, Alex finds himself floundering in most every way as he attempts to reconcile the ends of both his athletic and his college careers—and to find a new, more personal form of discipline.

Throughout his debut collection of nine powerful stories, Benjamin Cavell shows us the darker side of being a “real” man. Along with the machismo, the self-assuredness and power comes a heightened sense of fear and mortality, and ultimately a deeper search for comfort, for someone or something to rely upon. Funny and smart, urgent, fearless and emotionally rich, these are stories without an ounce of fat on them. Though his literary forebears may be Ernest Hemingway and Norman Mailer, Benjamin Cavell speaks in a voice entirely his own.

Genres: Fiction

208 pages, Hardcover

First published May 20, 2003

About the author

Dante Zúñiga-West is a storyteller who escaped from Los Angeles. He is a graduate of the Evergreen State College and the Cal Arts MFA Writing Program. His fiction has been published in numerous literary journals, both online and in print; his journalism, in alternative newspapers and adventure magazines. He has worked as a high school English teacher, a librarian, a kitchen cook, a graduate teaching assistant, a childcare specialist, a counselor for the developmentally disabled, a bouncer, a Muay Thai kickboxing instructor, a bartender, a cab driver, a writing instructor to homeless youth, a landscaper, a videogame salesman, a copy-shop attendant, an SAT tutor, a freelance journalist, a newspaper editor, a private security guard, an at-risk-youth counselor and a touring musician. He lives off the grid in the coastal mountain range of Oregon.

Reviews

[Greg · Rating 1 out of 5]

Full of easy, shock-jock masculinity, which Cavell doesn't examine in any real depth. Occasionally he suggests that these macho alpha-males are secretly sensitive, or secretly insecure, or have secret father-issues, but none of this is new or particularly interesting. Sometimes the stories even seem to be using their content in a calculated, cold-blooded manner, a "shock and it will sell" mentality common also to talk radio and cookie-cutter Hollywood torture flicks. Occasionally fun, but never enlightening and too often oppressive.

[Samantha Eldredge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brutal and clean prose. Exploring masculinity through Cavell's storytelling is a journey,

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book pretty interesting. I don't usually dig short stories, but I thought I'd give it a try. This guy seems to have a style that mixes Chuck Palahniuk with Brett Easton Ellis at times, which is kind of cool, but since I'd seen both styles before, not all that impressive. Still, worth the read, even if it was generally directed to the male reader. One thing I'd just like to add, this guy's picture in the jacket of the book looks oddly familiar to me. I don't think I recognize the name at all, but the last story does talk about Martha's Vineyard like he's familiar with it, and he did go to Harvard. So I'm wondering if he was ever on cape for school or if he has family that I would have known or something. The hair's different from what looks familiar so it's throwing me off.

[Rodney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad for a debut collection of short stories. I will say that the first story, "Balls, Balls, Balls", about discouraged me enough to take the book straight back to the library I found it at. It reads like a mediocre and obvious Palahniuk imitation. For me, things didn't start clicking until "The Art of The Possible" and "The Death of Cool", both of which are much better written than any of the stories before them in the collection. "Highway" is another standout.
Cavell shows a big upside in the handful of worthy stories here. I don't know anything about him but would like to know why he doesn't seem to have published anything since Rumble in 2003.
I will say that if Palahniuk and Bret Easton Ellis are your thing, or if you enjoyed books like Joyce Carol Oates's Zombie or Brian DeLeeuw's In This Way I Was Saved, you will probably like much of Cavell's writing.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fiction A-Z Book 'C': Rumble, Young Man, Rumble by Benjamin Cavell

This book of short stories was just a little bit maddening. The jacket description of the book paints it as a look at modern masculinity, and a lot of that is present. He's a very good writer, and I think he has a great book in him, but the stories here with a more rugged "machismo" element are not particularly good ("Balls, Balls, Balls", for example). It feels like he's trying to be Bret Easton Ellis, and he's just not Ellis. Cavell really shines in the stories with a softer, more humanistic edge, and this is what he should play to in the future.

Standout stories: "All the Nights of the World", "The Ropes"

[Shivesh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ultra macho stories about men being boys. A fast read but really entertaining. Maybe this book isn't meant for women - the stories are each filled with such intense, self-conscious masculinity that its hard to see how a female would or could relate. From a guy's perspective though, a good collection of tales from a young kid of a writer. Shows a lot of promise, who knows what he can produce in his future years?

[Paulg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes you need that masculine punch to the wind pipe, for someone to kiss your bloodied knuckles and massage a chipped eye socket. I've known some guys who injected the B12 and parachuted various other experimental "supplements." This is a celebration of the thug aspiration.

[Shozo Hirono · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reminded me a lot of Brett Easton Ellis, but more hetero and macho. Despite that, this was pretty decent considering it's a first book by a young guy. But in his next book, I'd like to see him broadening his narrow range a little bit.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

way too much testosterone for me.

[G · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm giving up. Pseudo-Palahniuk (that's not a compliment).

[Flatpickluvr · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't care as much for it as I thought I would. I guess I thought it was a comic novel, and in a way it is, but I just didn't like it much.