The Species Crown

by Curtis Smith

Aaron Burch, editor of Hobart says, "There are elements in these stories we recognize-- the vacation story, the murder mystery, Godzilla, geometry-- and their brilliance is how Curtis Smith takes... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0979304903
• ISBN13: 9780979304903
• Release Date: May 2007
• Publisher: Press 53
• Length: 252 Pages
• Weight: 0.71 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

I strongly recommend this collection to the more literary-leaning readers of our magazine

I strongly recommend this collection to the more literary-leaning readers of our magazine, and to those genre readers we may be slowly converting to appreciating such things. All of the included short stories were previously published in magazines such as Hobart, American Literary Review, and Night Train, between 2002 and 2007. The novella itself is fresh to the collection, and would be worth it on its own. The collection is a wonderful mix, each piece flowing and rapping off each of the others; melodies and counterpoints such that I'd strongly recommend reading it straight through. Smith starts the collection with the /in media res/ opening of "Murder"^1--beautiful, scattered language that gives you just a bit of the story at a time, the story you think you must know but can't quite be sure. Meanwhile, Smith paints a masterful picture of different lives and histories, which, if there were one common element to all of his stories, would be that--he captures so many different human lives and activities with such significant detail one could almost believe he'd lived them all. The mix--the language, the tone, even the paragraph usage--shifts a bit with "My Totally Awesome Funeral"^2. It's a shorter piece, upbeat with darkness--a celebration of life and living in the mental meanderings of someone perhaps just dead, perhaps just dreaming. "Vacation in Ten Parts"^3 is given as an outline, sentences and sentence fragments bulleted I through X, some subdivided into A, B, C, etc. The presentation is, if not intrinsic, at least very meaningful to the story in the way it frames the mode of thought. It spans just one evening, towards the end of a vacation, and a cast of half a dozen ("And your wife. Don't forget her."). It's a wistful sort of midlife crisis, where hopes and dreams are reviewed, considered, and everyone else studied carefully in comparison. As ever, the language is beautiful, and distinct--and after just a few pages, you feel as if you know everyone involved better than they know themselves. "Three teeth"^4 swings back to a shorter and more natural mode of story-telling, tracing the lackluster aftermath of a cheerleading accident. The narrator is a spotter, and as such not one of the "Barbies" of the team, and the story could be seen as a portrait of the different worlds people believe they live in, questioning what's really important and what Western culture seems to assume. One of the strongest stories, I felt, was "The Real, True-Life Story of Godzilla"^5. One of the longer pieces, it tells the story of Billy Glenn--how he found himself touring Japan playing basketball, and how that fell into donning the rubber Godzilla suit and stomping miniature Tokyos. It's a love story, a story of perseverance overcoming difficulties, without having any particular dream to follow. It's sad, and sweet, and ultimately memorable and although, as far as I can tell no Billy Glenn was ever credited in a Godzilla movie, it was believable e

A great read

In June of this year, Press 53 released Curtis Smith's most recent short story collection titled The Species Crown. Smith is also the author of the novel An Unadorned Life and two previous short story collections, Placing Ourselves Among the Living and In the Jukebox Light. This was my first chance to read a book of his, but it will not be the last one I read. I so enjoyed this collection. Some of the stories in The Species Crown are lighthearted, always a nice touch in short story collections, which can tend to be a bit on the dark side. One of my favorite stories was "My Totally Awesome Funeral" which was first published in Hobart. Although written in the first person, there's a wonderful twist of an implied directive, the storyteller directing the reader to celebrate his passing--when the time comes. Here's a sample: "Drink another just because you can. After my wife and son have gone to bed, let the hardcore partiers hijack me for one last ride--shotgun!--and no matter the season, roll down the window and let the wind lash my hair." It manages to be a raucous celebration of death that makes the reader smile. How often can you say that about a short story? Another story I especially liked was "The Real, True-Life Story of Godzilla!." It's a third-person tale of Billy Glenn, a washed up semi-pro basketball player who gets conscripted to join a Team America style group that will play throughout Japan. When that ship runs aground, Billy--because of his height--finds work playing Godzilla in grade B films. He finds love, then loses it unexpectedly and ends up spending his days searching through the eyeholes of his Godzilla costume, looking for lost love. My very favorite story--I'm certain of it--was "Vacation in Ten Parts." The descriptions put me right smack in the middle of a floundering marriage desperately attempting to find its footing in the shifting sands of the Caribbean. The supporting cast of characters all ring true as fellow desperados on a flight to or from somewhere--no one is quite certain. The second-person lyricism throws it all in high relief: "Study your wife through the fine scrim of mosquito netting. Peaceful, her slumber, her legs tangled in crisp, white sheets, the cotton ripe with the ocean's briny scent." This collection is so rich and varied, so skilled in the many different voices, locales, and points-of-view, that I was sad when I reached the end--always the sign of a great read.

Great Read by Smith

This was my first encounter with Curtis Smith, but it will not be my last. A must read for those of us with a macabre sense of humor. Bob Eck

The Species Crown

The writer shows a very personal view of life -- rather dark, but with hints of hope in several of his stories. His use of words is specific, visual, and almost poetic at times. His characters have life. He packs either a lot of meaning or a great character study into each of his stories.