Enough to Lose
Stories of the small-town struggle to reconcile tradition with inevitable change.
Winner, 2024 Michigan Notable Book! In nine captivating short stories, RS Deeren presents a vivid portrait of life in rural Michigan. Small family farms are dwarfed by looming wind turbines and are transformed into corporate enterprises; polarizing local and national politics turn neighbor against neighbor and raze long-standing community allegiances; hard-working families fight for survival in a home that is increasingly unrecognizable and untenable. Exploring the limitations of rugged individualism in the face of relentless economic downturn, these stories feature recurring characters and narratives that span from the Great Flood of 1986 to the 2016 presidential election. With unflinching empathy, Deeren weaves together the colorful lives of landscapers, hunters, artists, parolees, retirees, and entrepreneurs, characters who reckon with their relationship to this unique slice of the rural Midwest. Enough to Lose reveals how a region resistant to change and outside intervention struggles to adapt and leaves locals feeling left behind. Deeren artfully illustrates the brutal realities of working-class rural life that are punctuated by moments of beauty, humor, and resilience.
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A native "Thumbody," RS Deeren is an assistant professor of creative writing at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee. His research interests include contemporary fiction, US working-class studies, and rural-urban dynamics. His fiction, nonfiction, and poetry have appeared in periodicals including The Great Lakes Review, Joyland, Midwestern Gothic, and more. He has also worked as a line cook, landscaper, lumberjack, and bank teller, just like some of the characters in these stories. He received his PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
"Enough to Lose is compulsively readable. Like Denis Johnson, Richard Russo, and Daniel Woodrell, Deeren's stories reflect the often brutal reality of working-class, rural life, punctuated by moments of beauty and brilliance. Filled with nuance, Enough to Lose prompts readers to think about the humanity of those who might have experiences vastly different than their own."--Donald Quist "author of For Other Ghosts and To Those Bounded" (5/25/2023 12:00:00 AM)
"A barn burner of love and longing, Enough to Losedelivers gut-punch stories over and over, each one studded with fierce insights about class and family and rural living and rendered in tender, electric prose."--Karen Tucker "author of Bewilderness" (5/25/2023 12:00:00 AM)
"RS Deeren's riveting first collection, written in the vein of Jim Harrison, Bonnie Jo Campbell, and Breece D'J Pancake, spotlights rural Michigan in all of its variegated beauty and pathos. Deeren's years as a substitute teacher, landscaper, and lumberjack perhaps contributed to the visceral quality of this fresh new work. The people in these stories often struggle to make it, but the struggle here feels real and true. Deeren's unflinching yet empathetic attention fosters a human connection between the reader and the characters in these stories that outpaces the heartbreak and renders this book a must-read."--Kelly Fordon "author of I Have the Answer (Wayne State University Press)" (5/25/2023 12:00:00 AM)
"Reader, be prepared, as you open Enough to Lose, RS Deeren's wonderful debut short story collection, to enter a world-in this case the thumb of Michigan-that's as vividly and evocatively detailed as any in contemporary fiction."--Larry Watson "author of Montana 1948, Let Him Go, and other novels" (5/25/2023 12:00:00 AM)
