REVIEW

Travis Flatt’s Five Stories delivers wry, yet heartfelt storytelling that's ripe with spot-on dialogue and deliciously dysfunctional twists.

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Flatt's subject varies widely—all the way from a dad afraid of talking truth to his anger-prone teen daughter to the court politics of the emperor who has no clothes—yet his narrative lens remains laser-focused on his characters, many of whom fall just short of their goals, resigned to near-miss their way through situations and relationships. Flatt’s a master of dialogue. His keen ear shapes his characters through what they say and (more importantly) don’t say. Even the prose of “The Newly Divorced Guy’s Homestyle Fish Stew,” which has almost no formal dialogue, reads like spoken text. That story opens with a full-throated voice that instructs the reader to “Pick a goddamn fish, you’re holding up the line.” And the humor! Wonderfully dry, often intentionally adolescent. As Newly Divorced Guy tells us of buying a fish: “When [the fishmonger] asks if he should ‘bone it,’ go ahead and laugh, but say, ‘No.’”

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All five stories are stars, but it’s hard not to stan the first story, “My Dad’s Car,” extra hard. This story is quintessentially Flatt: a deadpan narrator (a teen son, in this case), adults poorly navigating their relationships, fantastic dialogue, and a proxy war through sports cars. The narrator’s dad drives a Ferrari. His stepdad, a Maserati. (His mom, interestingly, drives a Hyundai, a fact that hints at a whole other layer of story.) All the narrator, arguably, wants is a summer with his dad that is, at the very least, not lame. His dad, though, wants to hear all about the stepdad’s car and to show off his own. The dialogue is everything. The dad says: “Cool, cool. So,’ and he lowers his sunglasses, ‘you want to drive this son-bitch?” The son replies: “I don’t have a license.” For all the story’s fun—the ridiculous cars, the try-too-hard dad whose lexicon feels straight out of the 90s movie Wayne’s World—there’s a loneliness at its heart: a kid who can see that his adults, however much they want to connect with him, are lost in the fog of their own BS. And here, we can feel Flatt at our side, gently reminding us that humor doesn't come out of nowhere. Never does. So often, it's forged in hard moments—or in our young narrator's case, honed when you watch your dad and stepdad drag race away, each moment of acceleration taking them farther from you.

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BOOK DETAILS

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Five Stories can be purchased here.

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Published by Sand and Gravel. The volume is 4.75”x 5.5” and includes 33 pages of prose. The book is hand-made with an old-school double-staple binding. Sand and Gravel is a new press, and Claudine is thrilled to see this newcomer enter the field—as well as their commitment to tiny books! This volume fits easily in glove compartments, purses, and perhaps most importantly, back pockets. Take this chap on your next lunch-hour walk, sit under an old tree, and read it in a single sitting. You will be glad you did. This is on-the-go sized literature, and we are here for it.

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