I love the dark humor in these stories. The book is a linked short story collection in which the stories that have returning characters comment on each other and further develop the characters, though the collection does not read like a novel. Each story stands on its own, yet we get a fuller view of a small New Jersey coastal town the further we read into the book. It is wickedly funny and perceptive at the same time. Like a reflection in a funhouse mirror, we see our true selves, our nightmare selves, and perhaps even our fantasy selves all at once. ( )

I first became aware of Michael Kardos because of a spectacular story he wrote that appeared in the Spring 2009 issue of Crazyhorse. In that piece, "Mediation," a woman becomes concerned that her husband, after joining Alcoholics Anonymous, has become puritanically self-righteous. In the end, she accepts that in order to keep him, she's going to have to become as rigid as he is. That piece is not in the collection ONE LAST GOOD TIME, but the collection displays all the same talent and ability to explore fascinating, complex relationships. Kardos' writing style never gets in the way of the story -- his writing is clear and confident and he quickly gets you to sympathize with the central character in each piece.

All of the pieces occur in the fictional Jersey shore town of Breakneck Beach New Jersey, examining the failures and missteps of primarily lower middle-class boys, young men, and, in one story, a college aged woman. The 10 stories in the collection are:

1. Lures of Last Resort (13 pp): Explores a 10-year-old boy's relationship with his imposing father, who comes in and out of his life. In the present moment of the story, the boy experiences how gruff and intimidating his dad can be when they're fishing off a pier and are approached by the salesmen for the fishing lure company that his dad was fired from for throwing his boss's desk out the window.

2. Mr. Barrotta's Ashes Have the Personality of a Grumpy Old Man (20pp): One of the two stories in the collection with fantastical elements. The young boy in the first story, Gunnipuddy, is now grown up and working as a bowling alley attendant. He becomes the caretaker of his dead music teacher's ashes and the guardian of an abandoned baby. The ashes and the baby, as well as a rabbit who enters his apartment, start talking to him and giving him advice on how to live. He also becomes a legend in the town because he creates folk tales for the patrons of the bowling alley and good things happen to them after he does.

3. One Last Good Time (18pp): One of my favorite stories in the collection. A bus driver hijacks his school bus when it's full of kids because he fears his sister-in-law is about to tell his wife about their affair. Powerfully told from each of their point of view's - the bus driver, the wife, and the 19-year-old sister-in-law.

4. Behind the Music (16pp): A directionless 16-year-old works in a house of horrors at an amusement park (a setting that recurs in another story); jams with his best friend, and learns his parents are about to divorce. He also begins a relationship with the older mid-twenties manager of the Castle of Horrors, who also reappears in a later story.

5. We the People (15pp): A young boy must memorize the preamble to the constitution for a mean teacher, and his father, who is separated from his mom, arrives on the scene to force him to handle the assignment. The young boy fantasizes about turning into the Incredible Hulk to solve his problems.

6. Population 204 (9pp): Lights go out in a grocery store in the middle of the night, and an older worker hears a tale from the young cashier that she grew up in a town where everyone had to train for the circus and the population had to be kept at 204 - so that someone had to die or leave town if a baby was born. He has to wonder why she would make up such a story until he sees some evidence that she might not have fabricated it.

7. Maximum Security (21pp): A fourteen-year-old boy lives with this father, a prison security guard, whose only joy in life seems to be getting a weekly concert from the boy's "piano teacher," who is as flamboyant as Liberace. When the boy starts to emulate the way the piano player talks and acts, the father gets nervous.

8. The Castle of Horrors (22pp): My favorite story in the piece. A big man - the kind who can easily get a job as a security guard - starts to work at the house of horrors in an amusement park. He accidentally scares a young mother to death, as she's going through the tour, and then he's haunted by her ghost.

9. Two Truths and a Lie (25 pp): A college senior is upset that's she had to enroll in such a small-time college because her father gambled away all of her family's money. She hatches a plan that a young janitor (Gunnippuddy from the earlier stories) at her boyfriend's frat house might be able to help her win $15,000 to pay off her father's gambling debts if he competes in the boxing tournament the fraternity holds. In the end, she has to find a way to ensure that Gunnipuddy doesn't feel he's been used by her.

10. What's Left of Musical Giants (19 pp): Mr. Barrotta - the same teacher whose ashes appeared in the second story - is working in a rundown mall, trying to help sell organs. He's been forced to leave the high school where he taught for 40 years because he protested a principal's demand that he rotate "first chair" assignments and solo performances across all the students in the orchestra and not simply grant them to the most talented ones. His form of protest - asking a student if he can "squeeze her tits" - has landed him in this unscrupulous store where his virtuoso playing is used to lure mall customers into buying expensive organs they can't afford and will probably never be able to play.
( )