annieb123's Review of Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons

by Keith Rosson

With Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons, award-winning author Keith Rosson once again delves into notions of family, identity, indebtedness, loss, and hope, with the surefooted merging of literary fiction and magical realism he’s explored in previous novels. In “Dunsmuir,” a newly sober husband buys a hearse to help his wife spread her sister’s ashes, while “The Lesser Horsemen” illustrates what happens when God instructs the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse to go on a team-building cruise as a way of boosting their frayed morale. In “Brad Benske and the Hand of Light,” an estranged husband seeks his wife’s whereabouts through a fortuneteller after she absconds with a cult, and the returning soldier in “Homecoming” navigates the strange and ghostly confines of his hometown, as well as the boundaries of his own grief. With grace, imagination, and a brazen gallows humor, Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons merges the fantastic and the everyday, and includes new work as well as award-winning favorites.

Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons is a well curated collection of shorter fiction from Keith Rosson. Due out 23rd Feb 2021 from Meerkat Press, it's 206 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This is a mixed bag of short fiction, 15 in all (plus a short acknowledgements and author bio). One reason I prefer collections and anthologies is that short fiction is really challenging. It's spare and the author doesn't have a wealth of wordage to develop characters or plotting. Well written short fiction is a delight. I also love collections because if one story doesn't really grab me, there's another story just a few pages away. The book doesn't include author notes or previous publishing info.

These are generally high quality speculative fiction/fantasy realism. About half are distinctly dark with original takes on the world and our reality in it. Probably my favorite story (there are several standouts) was "The Lesser Horsemen". Who know the afterlife was streamlining their corporate culture?

Four and a half stars. Outstanding stories from a talented author at the top of his game. All of the stories were previously unfamiliar to me.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons

by Keith Rosson

Reviewed by annieb123 on Feb 21, 2021

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