The Blueberry Society
A Schoolyard Novella, Misguided Short Stories, and Other Ramblings
A young man’s unwise decisions all work out in the end in the good-natured short story collection The Blueberry Society.
Zeebo’s irreverent short story collection The Blueberry Society gathers earthy tales about a New York guitarist’s musing young adulthood.
Focused on facets of a Jewish raconteur and spirited Brooklynite’s life, these interconnected sketches are set in various locales in the 1970s and 1980s. Several of the early stories have loose musical themes, focused on aspects of Zeebo’s gigs. After playing in a band hired for weddings and bar mitzvahs, he works at a Florida theme park; other jobs, including running a restaurant, expand his repertoire further. He expresses skepticism about trying grits in a Southern diner, faces drunken guests while singing, and contends with a temperamental girlfriend, too; all is narrated with candid humor.
Though more is revealed about Zeebo as the collection progresses, he is not fully fleshed out in the book’s early stories. Instead, the tales wind through their memories at seeming random. This vagueness extends to the book’s secondary characterizations of Zeebo’s neighbors and bandmates, about whom too little is known, even as they enliven Zeebo’s anecdotes. Further, women are too often described in terms of their physical attributes, and crude, ribald lines undermine the book’s outward appeal.
Most successful are the stories that achieve tight focus on their subjects. Zeebo’s 2014 layover in Denver to procure marijuana includes empathetic conversations with a hotel desk clerk; a Christmas memory of an LSD trip has ludicrous consequences. Incongruous elements including curling and cooking oil are stitched together well in these tales, heightening the collection’s absurdity. Elsewhere, a deadpan comment (“I explained that I had many problems, some of which were personal”) is precisely timed and revealing.
Indeed, despite the embarrassment, breakups, and pain he experiences, Zeebo proves to be a resilient hero. “The Blueberry Society” brings this trait to the fore in its explorations of New York’s “Borscht Belt.” Here, Zeebo takes a summer job at a girls’ camp, and a lakeside misadventure leads to a friendship. Adolescent memories unfold across the multiple sections of the novella, in which Zeebo’s ability to endure disappointment is highlighted.
Other stories are too plain in stating their meanings, though. An account of an unfaithful airline stewardess, for instance, arrives at the flat realization “When trust is forsaken, suspicions awaken.” Elsewhere, a visit to Planned Parenthood leads to tangential commentary. Still, Zeebo’s enthusiasm for poking fun at his own foibles, paired with matter-of-fact statements that land at critical moments, add up to a zigzagging, hearty collection on the whole.
In the exuberant short story collection The Blueberry Society, a man’s relationships and exploits are given tall-tale treatments.
Reviewed by
Karen Rigby
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
