Misfits

by Mark Jonathan Harris

Overview

"Misfits is a startling collection of short stories -- heartfelt, compassionate, full. of sentiment yet unsentimental."

--Paul Wolansky, Film Professor, Co-writer of The Guide and Dovbush: Lord of Black Mountain

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How do you connect with others when you always feel out of place?

Following a kaleidoscopic array of characters adrift in a precarious world, Misfits grapples with the challenges of contemporary life, including climate change, inequality, uncertainty, and pain.

A depressed accountant stumbles on a teenage eco-terrorist in a parking garage; a middle-aged psychiatrist buys a drink for a seductive young artist during a flight delay; an out-of-work journalist recruits Chicano gangbangers to help a desperate tennis partner; a troubled biologist runs into J. Robert Oppenheimer in a Santa Fe hotel.

These fraught encounters all have unexpected and startling consequences. Despite their differences in age, background, and circumstance, the characters in Misfits share a common sense of dislocation and alienation. They struggle to find a sense of belonging and connection, but ultimately discover unexpected sources of resilience and hope.

With its evocative portrayal of Los Angeles as a microcosm of contemporary society, Misfits offers a compelling exploration of the human condition in an unpredictable and rapidly changing world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781639889891
Publisher:	Atmosphere Press
Publication date:	10/10/2023
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	858,807
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.55(d)

Editorial Reviews

01/08/2024

This bracing, incisive collection of 12 short stories immerses readers in the lives of characters who, as the title suggests, find themselves disconnected from the world and people around them while facing personal struggles and disappointments—plus social workers, security guards, awkward tennis partners, and more. Each entry delves into the sharply delineated life of a character trying to navigate an existence that’s not working out how they expected, like the former stunt performer who now sells insurance, or the street-reporting journalist facing the death of great weekly papers, as Harris, a documentary filmmaker (Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport) and author, finds fresh, pained perspectives on feelings of being alienated or left behind.

The opener, “Land Mines,” quickly seizes attention as protagonist Dana is caught shoplifting a scarf at Bloomingdales and forced to visit a psychiatrist to deal with her problem. The crisp, potent prose that showcases her background—she was abandoned by her mother as a child, and a boyfriend in later years, and finds shoplifting a surprise source of instant gratification—exemplifies Harris’s concision and humanity. Those qualities likewise power “The Mink Coat,” in which a woman moves back to Chicago after separating from her husband and finds surprising freedom through a coat gifted to her by her mother. “Tikkun Olam” and “Chicken Soup” plumb different spectrums of loneliness, the first centered on a troubled teenager craving family, and the second a woman abandoned by her children. Not that family life is easier: the standout “Mute” finds a couple at odds over how to parent a boy diagnosed with autism.

The cast is diverse, but alienation unites them. Pained and resonant, Misfits lays bare people who are so convincingly drawn that they seem to be reported on rather than imagined. Harris breathes life into his characters by employing evocative imagery and succinct storytelling. He lets his characters express themselves not only through dialogues, but also through actions.

Takeaway: Urgent, incisive short fictions of people facing lives that aren’t quite working out.

Comparable Titles: Patrick Dacey’s We’ve Already Gone This Far, Adam Haslett’s You Are Not a Stranger Here.

Production grades Cover: A_ Design and typography: A Illustrations: N/A Editing: A Marketing copy: A

BookLife Reviews

2023-12-18
Harris’ story collection focuses on Los Angeles characters from all walks of life, shaken from their routines by startling chance encounters and unexpected relationships.

The author presents a collection of Los Angeles–centered short stories, typically involving a clash of personalities when characters come together (sometimes in a meaningful fashion, other times, well…). The title tale introduces Morris, a restless, middle-aged tax accountant who encounters Sofia, a rebellious teen from a privileged girls’ school, vandalizing luxury cars in retribution for climate change. Even though she considers him a class enemy, they somehow form a fragile bond (“Watching him leave, Sofia felt a hollow opening up inside her that she couldn’t explain. No other adults would let her speak to them the way she did to Morris”). Cary, the hard-luck protagonist of “The Cactus,” a washed-up athlete turned washed-up movie stuntman turned insurance man, finally meets his life mate in the person of an accident-case client, Sheila, who is particularly enchanted by an exotic flowering cactus he keeps. In “Doubles,” a divorced freelance writer and minor true-crime author is asked by a tennis partner for referrals on hoodlum types who can intervene in a sexual blackmail plot. Harris is not one for tidy endings in neat packages, leaving the reader hanging with tantalizing suggestions of what might happen next, as in “Mute,” in which a film director’s marriage disintegrates under the stress of raising an autistic child, or in “Chicken Soup,” with its battle of wills between an obstinate dowager and the undocumented Latinx woman hired as her caregiver. While the settings occasionally depict a Hollywood milieu of screenwriters, wannabe stars, and other creatives (the author is an established filmmaker), the material is not as arch as work by other chroniclers of Tinseltown, such as Bruce Wagner, Steve Martin, and Peter Lefcourt. Harris’ stories skew more broadly, recalling Raymond Carver’s and John Cheever’s vignettes of relatable people yearning for connection.

A bittersweet selection of well-told L.A. stories, spanning gang lockups to movie-director mansions.

Kirkus Reviews