When The Nines Roll Over (And Other Stories)

Rating:
Summary: These Tales Will Roll You Over...
Review: "This is what you need to know about my father: He was a man who made a living killing animals, though he adored animals and disdained men. But I was his love's son and that gave me immunity from disdain, immunity from the cool hunter's stare he aimed at everyone else. His turn in this world was far from gentle, but he was gentle with me."

David Benioff from the short story "Zoanthropy"

I'm not a short story fan. Typically, short stories are either touchy-feely poetry fiascos that lack depth or they are compact verbiage crammed debacles that are too abrupt to allow proper character and plot development. Ironically, one of my favorite short story writers is Stephen King because he can scare the crap out of you in relatively short order. However, King doesn't count, because he considers 200 pages epigrammatic. Nevertheless, I actually stumbled upon an amazing work of short stories by the author of "The 25th Hour". The book is entitled "When the Nines Roll Over & Other Stories" by David Benioff. Each of the eight stories was a unique gem waiting to be discovered under some fertile yet shallow soil. I was able to read one complete novella during each of the study hall sessions I monitored during my 16th year of teaching at Susquehanna Township High School. Each tale left me invigorated and filled me with the gusto necessary to take on the challenges of the rest of my teaching schedule. I'm already worried about what I will do next week without the magical digressions each story provided me.

Although I enjoyed all eight of Benioff's short stories, four of them held a special place in my heart. "The Devil Comes to Orekhovo" was the most haunting tale in the lot. It began with two twenty-something veteran Russian soldiers (Nikolai and Surkhov) and an eighteen-year-old newbie named Leksi. The three men were scouting the Chechen countryside for enemy guerrillas. Since the Chechen terrorists were rumored to crucify unfortunate Russian soldiers and even place their severed heads on the doorsteps of their families' houses, the mission transformed Leksi's mental state into total disarray. Eventually the three men broke into a house to establish a headquarters of sorts only to stumble upon the residence's elderly female inhabitant. A cunning game of cat and mouse ensued, and the powerful story walloped its readers with one hell of a character piece and one amazingly assembled narrative.

My second favorite tale was entitled "The Barefoot Girl in Clover". Although fairly simple and contrite, this story involved a teenager's unplanned escape from his small New Jersey town via a stolen 1955 Eldorado. However, instead of running all the way to California as he initially envisioned, the young athlete only managed to make it to Hershey Park, Pennsylvania. While near Hershey, the car thief encountered a unique girl and fell head over heals in love. The one day romantic affair blossomed into a life altering experience with a wham-bam-smack in the face conclusion that any reader of this yarn could never forget.

I also really enjoyed "Zoanthropy" about an escaped lion roaming New York City streets, and I was fond of "Merde for Luck" about the horrors of AIDS and the ordeals regarding those pitiable people that served as Guinea Pigs during experimental drug treatments. All the short stories were written with impetus, style and compassion. As can be gleaned from the opening quote, Benioff also delivered potent expressions meant to sear the soul of his readers. Although I was unable to watch all of Spike Lee's "25th Hour" (it really bored me to tears), I know I would have enjoyed the original novel written by this truly remarkable author.

Jay's Grade: A

Rating:
Summary: Must reading for all urban males!
Review: At a time when the shelves are FILLED with wonderful and interesting books about contemporary life from a female perspective, at long last there is a book that does the same thing for guys.

I found this as I was desperately looking for something to read on a long plane ride, and it was fantastic. Funny, and insightful. Some of the same themes and sensibility as Palahniuk's FIGHT CLUB, but much more relevant to "every day" life: if you liked FIGHT CLUB, you'll love this even more! Are the characters exotic and off beat? Yes, and that makes it more fun. What makes it captivating is that what these characters go through is something any one -- and particularly, any guy -- can relate to, at least to some extent. This book will make you laugh and it will make you think: what more can you ask for! You will not regret this purchase!!!!!


Rating:
Summary: Funny, moving, unforgettable
Review: Humor, empathy and a clear-eyed detachment combine with grace in Benioff's collection of remarkable stories, which carry the impact of Joyce's Dubliners and the best Chekhov pieces. To my mind, the only comparably satisfying story collection in recent years was Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies. Benioff's range, as mentioned by other reviewers, truly distinguishes him from talented contemporaries. A must for any serious reader of fiction.


Rating:
Summary: Best Collection of Short Stories to Date!
Review: I absolutely loved "The 25th Hour" so I was thrilled when David Benioff released yet another brilliant book, "When the Nines Roll Over & Other Stories." Each of the varied short stories is filled with sensational details and original, inventive characters. Not only does each story lure you in, making the book impossible to put down until completion, but Benioff's keen sense of humor and wit is present on each page. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes to be challenged by a good book. It's honestly one of my favorite short story collections to date.

Rating:
Summary: An Outstanding Collection
Review: I first read Benioff a few years ago in "All-Story" magazine, where three of the stories in this book first appeared (they are actually available online at All Story's site for those interested in sampling his writing). I then read and loved his novel "The 25th Hour", and so am glad to get my hands on this collection of eight stories. There aren't that many young American writers whose work excites me, but Benioff is certainly one of them (Mark Jude Poirier and John McNally are two others). His prose is clear and crisp, without the affectation or self-consciousness one finds in so much coming out these days. The stories collected here show a nice range of subject matter and tone, ranging from pure realism to slight surrealism, but almost all contain threads of loss, disappointment, and forlorn hope. Perhaps the highest compliment I can pay to the stories, is that even though I didn't connect with some of them, I still loved reading them.

The opening (and title) story, is one of these, following a record label A&R man (essentially a high-end scout) who pursues a talented punk girl and spirits her away to Los Angeles and out of the life of her drummer boyfriend. It felt a little old-fashioned in a lot of ways. Do record label execs still act like that? Are they really that interested in transforming punk chicks into superstars? But it did nicely capture that moment in relationships when one person has moved on to bigger and presumably better things, and their lover just doesn't fit in the picture any more. Another story, "The Garden of No", is very similar thematically, only here it's a waitress turned television actress, and the man is a short-order cook.

Misfiring romance figures prominently in three other stories as well. "Barefoot Girl in Clover" tells of a 30ish man who tries to track down a girl he hung out with for a day as a teenager. "Neversink" is about a New York couple and the aftermath of their breakup. In "Merde For Luck", a gay man recounts his last relationship from beginning to grim end. What's interesting is that in all three of these stories, the narrator is either missing a crucial piece of information or operating under some major misconception. This allows Benioff to set each up for a major fall late in the story, when all is revealed. The lesson seems to be that if women don't betray you, life will find a way to.

The three other stories are a little harder to categorize. "The Devil Comes to Orekhovo" is a great story with a very traditional feel to it. It follows three Russian soldiers on patrol in Chechnya as they scout out a house that may or may not contain Chechen separatists. Benioff brilliantly captures the unease and awkwardness of the youngest, rawest soldier, as the older men mock him and eventually put him to a nasty test. It deserves a place with Tolstoy and Lermontov's stories of the Russian experience in the Caucuses. "Zoanthropy" is a strange story about a young man whose father is called in to shoot lions when they appear in New York. It left me kind of blah, but again, I enjoyed reading it. Finally, "De Composition", is a Twilight Zone-inspired take on a man locked into a bunker with his computer following some kind of global cataclysm. Felt a little derivative, but nicely done with a clever ending.

On the whole, this is a very strong collection of stories. Hopefully Benioff can find time away from the lucrative world of screenwriting to write another novel.

Rating:
Summary: Astonishing Range!
Review: In addition to Benioff's debut novel, THE 25TH HOUR, I'd read two of his stories in Zoetrope: One about Russian soldiers in Chechnya (it's called "The Devil Comes to Orekhovo" in this collection, but it was called something else in the magazine), and one about an A&R man and the wildcat lead singer of a punk band (the title story). From just these three pieces of work, I was already amazed at how wide Benioff's abilities reached, at how many distinct worlds he could work in with equal ease.

But I have to say, after reading this volume of stories in just under two days, I didn't know the half of it. On a literary landscape where many young writers pick one patch of ground and mine it over and over and over again until complete boredom settles in, Benioff refuses to be pinned down. From rock clubs to Chencnya to urban fantasy ("Zooanthropy"), from dead straight relationships ("Neversink") to a dying gay lover ("Merde for Luck") to science fiction ("De Composition"), Benioff nails everything he tries, and never for a second does it feel like he's trying too hard.

So if you're the kind of person who likes to get on board early, read WHEN THE NINES ROLL OVER right now. Then, when he starts to win all sorts of awards and stuff, you can be a proud early adopter, instead of a follower.

Rating:
Summary: The whole enchilada...
Review: It's been a long time since Benioff's first book (the enthralling "25th Hour"), but the wait has been worth it. Capitalizing on his newfound status as one of the most praised new writers of the decade, Benioff provides us with a broad range of stylistic achievement, from dark comedy to existential tragedy and everything in between. With a deft hand and biting wit, Benioff makes short work of delivering prose long on style and heavy with emotion. From a chillingly honest depiction of Russian soldiers embroiled in a Chechen hell to a proverbial tale of a sleazy record agent in LA, Benioff's writing aptly displays the breadth of his keystroke. If you read no other anthology of short stories this year, make this the one. The only bad taste you'll be left with is the unendurable wait for his next novel.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES!
Review: Some of the short stories in this collection made me laugh out loud -- others (particularly "The Devil Comes to Orekhovo") made me shiver. I thought this was a wonderful collection of stories and, ordinarily, I am not a huge fan of the genre -- I happened to pick this book up because I had rented "The 25th Hour" last weekend and enjoyed it. I TOTALLY disagree with others who characterized this as a "MALE" book: I am a 32 year old female and really loved it. "The Barefoot Girl in Clover" was very moving and made me remember my high school days. And "Zoanthropy" (my personal favorite) was offbeat, but really, really wonderful. This is a book that both men AND women will love. I've already lent my copy to a friend!

Rating:
Summary: GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: this is on of the best books i've read and I'm 54! buy it. you'll love it!