Goodnight, Nobody

Rating:
Summary: Exquisite Writing, Insight
Review: I loved Birdland in the New Yorker and the New Stories From the South, and when I saw that Knight had published a collection with Birdland included, I was thrilled. The rest of the stories were just as good. Unlike some of the up and coming male Southern writers, Knight doesn't simply resort to what reviewers call "muscular prose" with gleeful enthusiasm, an excitement I do not share. Knight's writing goes beyond whores and guns and dogs. It's insightful, aware, poetic, and the stories never fail to move me. I think this author has been overlooked, and I hope this collection gets him the recognition he deserves.

Rating:
Summary: Lovely and Amazing
Review: I truly enjoyed this book of short stories. The protagonists of all the stories are confused, disillusioned, compassionate, and searching for what is just out of their grasp. They are bleakly comic, and highly thought provoking. I can't get some of these stories out of my mind.

I especially enjoyed "Ellen's Book". It made me think about many different facets of relationships, and how you never know what will or won't hold couples together.

Rating:
Summary: Haunting and Beautiful
Review: I truly enjoyed this book of short stories. The protagonists of all the stories are confused, disillusioned, compassionate, and searching for what is just out of their grasp. They are bleakly comic, and highly thought provoking. I can't get some of these stories out of my mind.

I especially enjoyed "Ellen's Book". It made me think about many different facets of relationships, and how you never know what will or won't hold couples together.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful, inventive collection
Review: The word "ordinary" can be used quite frequently to describe certain aspects of Michael Knight's stories in GOODNIGHT, NOBODY --- ordinary people leading ordinary lives, doing ordinary things. The stories in this collection aren't wrought with thick drama that seeps through the pages and there are no wild turns of events here. These stories are quiet and unassuming yet, even so, have a richness permeating through them that makes the entire book somewhat powerful.

The collection is a tapestry, with different topics and different kinds of people. In "Birdland," a subtle romance, an ornithologist tracks the migration habits of African parrots --- and is lured to the town's resident carver. In "Blackout" there are two couples, a downed power line, a dead neighbor, some miscommunication and night vision goggles. In "Killing Stonewall Jackson," Confederate soldiers contemplate the man who sent them to the battle. From India to Alabama, Knight serves up characters who have bad luck from time to time but do their best to roll with the punches, to believe in love and family and to trust that everything will turn out okay (sometimes less than okay) in the end.

At the beginning of one of the better stories in the collection, "Feeling Lucky," Knight writes "Midnight, and Bruce Little was hunched against a pay phone under the awning of the Saint John Divine Hotel, shivering with cold and dialing collect to Mississippi." It's an ordinary scene and an ordinary sentence, but he brings that scene into immediate focus and our burgeoning thoughts of Bruce Little quickly into view. He spins stories out of such scenes and characters like Bruce Little, run-of-the-mill people who lead run-of-the-mill lives yet, nonetheless, have a story to tell.

These toned-down and mellow characters, however, may not captivate readers who want something more out of their stories --- something snappy and sizzling that a T.C. Boyle or a Thom Jones might produce. This is not what readers will find when they open Knight's book. The plots turn slowly, the words fall on the page like whispers and the tone is subdued. Instead of, say, a carnival, Knight's stories are nights by the hearth with a blanket thrown over and scratchy jazz records playing on the turntable nearby. Carnivals are fine, but so are quiet nights.

--- Reviewed by Jonathan Shipley

Rating:
Summary: Lovely and Amazing
Review: This is an unusual and deeply beautiful collection. The language is fantastic, and all the stories are rollicking and resonant. The story "Ellen's book is a lesson in how to write a perfect, poignant short story. "Goodnight, Nobody" was my book club's favorite last year--don't miss it!