Choice Cuts by Joe Clifford

Choice Cuts Reviews

• 
  Anne Parrish

  Joe Clifford isn't your everyday writer. His stories aren't for quiet family times, with young cheerful faces turned innocently to the light. Nor are they for the faint-of-heart, or those who believe that all human beings basically want to do the right thing.
  
  They're for readers who don't flinch or look away. Who can take a simple tale of murder, deceit, violence, perpetrated by men and women whose moral values got dumped about a hundred miles back. Clifford's characters aren't deep thinkers, nor do they spend much time on self-analysis. For the most part they're drifters, losers, and down on their luck. While they tend not to blame others for their troubles, they don't work all that hard to improve their lots, either.
  
  The stories in Choice Cuts are short, swift, and often brutal. But they're also elegant and richly detailed, with an overlay of hard-boiled crime fiction from an earlier era. Meet Sam Spade, trying to tie up loose ends in The Maltese Falcon. Meet the hard-working, desperate cop, Sargent Mark Dixon, in Where The Sidewalk Ends. This is noir, at its best. One piece in particular, Tripping for Biscuits, is about a young man so obsessed with this genre of film that he undergoes a risky operation to remove the ability to perceive color from his eyes, which are described as being an usual and incredibly beautiful blue.
  
  One of my favorites is Nix Verrida, a painful, anguished tale of a man suffering so badly from post-traumatic stress disorder that his perception – or lack thereof – takes both him and the reader into a surrealistic sort of Twilight Zone.
  
  Another standout is Red Pistachios. This had special appeal to me as a writer. The protagonist, also a writer, is on a long, downward spiral of stalled work, failed relationships, and booze. He manages to turn things around with the unwitting help of one of his students. When the student turns up after a long absence, the author naturally assumes he's come to collect a debt. The author takes care of the problem neatly, and predictably.
  
  A lot of problems in these stories are solved the same way. But this collection is about so much more than crime. It's about truth, and pain, and simply accepting that life – and our small, insignificant place in it - are subject to spectacular failure. The characters in Clifford's stories don't want your sympathy. They want to be seen for who are, with no apologies offered.
  
• 
  Keith Nixon

  The author’s debut collection of noir and crime stories previously published in a variety of magazines, brought together for the first time.
  
  I’ve previously reviewed and thoroughly enjoyed two of Joe Clifford’s novels – Junkie Love and Wake The Undertaker so I was interested to see how he dealt with the shorter form. In summary – very well. This is an enjoyable, if at times challenging, read. There’s a real spread of subjects, from drugs and their users to combat stress to prison escapes. Some have nods to Clifford’s past experiences as a user (read Junkie Love for more information). However, all have an underlying element of empathy for the characters. This is not sensationalized story telling.
  
  Most are at the high end of the quality spectrum, one or two not so. To be fair, those that fell into the latter segment were the shortest of shorts, where there was insufficient room to develop a narrative, but that’s just down to my preferences.
  
  There are too many stories to go through in detail so I’ll pick out some of the highlights.
  
  Another Man’s Treasure is written in the first person, a perspective that Clifford seems most comfortable writing within. The main character and a friend called Geiger trawl flea markets with the aim of making a few dollars from junk. Geiger thinks he’s got the perfect scam to rip off one of the stall holders, but the tables are turned in rather gruesome fashion.
  
  Meat follows several Russian prisoners who escape the most brutal of confinements and battle their way across a frozen landscape, miles from anywhere. In order to survive they need a source of food…
  
  In Red Pistachios a once successful writer is struggling with life, literally. A student of his, one to whom the main character owes a debt in effect, returns after several years away, but to disastrous consequences.
  
  Joe Clifford has many enviable strong points as a writer, but the one that shone through yet again was his descriptive narrative. Simply read and enjoy this collection of high quality work.
  
  **Originally reviewed for Books & Pals blog. May have received free review copy.**
• 
  Heath Lowrance

  Some tight, killer stories right here. As far as I know, this is Clifford's debut, but he writes like a seasoned pro, knowing when to hang back and when to go for the throat. In a few of these tales, he has this nice trick of ending things RIGHT before the big blow, trusting the reader to know the drill by now. I really like that. After all, the anticipation of being punched in the face can be just as intense as the actual punch.
  
  This is classic noir type stuff, and a lot of the stories made me think a little of the old Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV show. But having said that, my favorite story in the bunch, "The Captain", veers quickly away from that formula and instead presents something without any clear end, or clear message. It's a melancholy little slice of things gone bad, with no twist ending or clever-clever wordplay. It's a very mature story that left me thinking about it long after it was over.
  
  Anyway, Clifford has a novel coming soon, from what I understand. You should get on this writer now, because he's gonna break big.
• 
  Dorina Insalaco

  loved this book wanted each "choice cut" to keep going. takes a look at the not so pretty side of life and humanity and is able to evoke, empathy, compassion and likability for the characters no matter how unsavory.
• 
  Dave

  This is a great collection of tales. They are written in a very easy voice. The pages go by quickly. But these tales are in their own way chilling.
  
  They all start off easy enough but by the end you are falling into a
  black hole of despair. Rags to Riches is a genteel tale about a tv show
  that pits the homeless against each other. Favors is another sweet little tale about helping out your dad's surviving widow and her messed up
  son. Nothing wrong with doing a few favors or is there? Next up is Red
  Pistachios. It's about a story about a serial killer. Nuff said.
  Copperhead Canyon is a story about camping under the stars. Well,
  maybe that's the bkrnd..... Read it all!
  
• 
  Carolyn

  I enjoyed the variety of these stories. Some reminded me of the stories of Roald Dahl in atmosphere. Nicely done.
• 
  Scott Waldyn

  'Choice Cuts' is the kind of fiction where each and every punch thrown has emotion behind it, a lacquering of tenderness, bitterness, anger, anxiety, or pain. It's a series of vignettes where human feeling is laid bare and where the journey through a world of grit bears weight on the soul. Simply put, it's a fantastic noir/pulp book by a terrific writer, one that reminds me an awful lot of one of my favorites - Raymond Chandler.
  
  Clifford knows exactly when/how to lay out relevant information, and he knows when to hold back and let the characters simmer for a while, let the reader's imagination play as these characters stew in their own juices. His writing reminds us why meaning matters when it comes to every punch thrown. His unabashed prose lays a level of depth in a way that entices the reader with its seductively brutal world, yet layers a deeper connection with characters so intensely human, that you can even sympathize, at some points, with otherwise bad personalities one wouldn't normally try to justify the actions of. And Clifford doesn't screw around or waste time, either. He jumps right in, grabs the reader by the collar, and thrusts him/her into these darkly beautiful worlds of muck, blood and passion.
  
  What I love most about this is that these stories balance guilty pleasure with catharsis. I'm left to ponder a story as well as satiate that reptilian part of the brain, the one that craves the viciousness of a world only the noir genre can provide. It's not often that I'll find a balance of these two needs, but Clifford has created that literary yin yang here.
  
  Solid work.
• 
  Pearce Hansen

  I'm glad I picked up this collection. Joe's writing is top notch, and the stories are great.
  
  What got me though, was how Clifford isn't afraid to try different things. A lot of one author collections, the voice, theme and style is identical throughout -- tolerable if it's Kafka, O'Connor or Babel -- less so if you're not. Joe tries various pacings, POVs and modes of expression (successfully, I might add).
  
  In terms of subject matter, Clifford favors the underbelly. Like Bukowski and Dostoevskii, he's a sucker for the street folk and their milieu. I can say from personal experience that he succeeds in conveying the toxic despair, the almost tangible atmosphere of menace and nihilism, that the Life inspires in those sentenced to it. If I had to pick a single favorite it would be the harrowing tale 'Favors,' which cracked me up even while creeping me out a little.
  
  This is a worthy collection, and I believe it will impress you. Give it a whirl.
• 
  Benoit Lelièvre

  CHOICE CUTS is one of these "greatest hits from the magazines era" short story collection. Not a bad thing in itself if you're looking to get acquainted with an author or if you're a completist, but the main challenge of reviewing that particular brand of collection is that not every story will hit home. It's the case in CHOICE CUTS, but those who did hit a bull's eye.
  
  TRIPPIN' FOR BISCUITS was my favorite short and a strong contender for my short story of the year. There is a beautiful, almost vulnerable imaginary shown in that one. ONE GOOD REASON, who closed the collection also wielded tremendous power. Overall, Clifford's writing is very lean and humane. It's not deliberately emotional, it's even understated in that regards, which I really liked. There are no saviors in Joe Clifford's universe. Just troubled people at the crossroads. Clifford has a great knowledge of the human soul and it transpires in his writings.
• 
  Melanie Neale

  I really loved this collection, mainly for the way the landscapes define the stories and the way the reader is shown the seedy, the dark and the less desirable (but always, oddly, understandable)side of human nature. The writing style is tight and clean, and the pace is perfect. I read the book in an afternoon and couldn't put it down. One thing that is interesting is the variety of landscapes that the author shows us--most of the stories are set in California, one in South Florida, and one even in New York. The author handles each landscape masterfully. I would have loved to have seen another Florida story ("The Exterminator" was just my kind of twisted!) but I am also a sucker for the desert (in may of the stories) and for flea markets and most of the other just-outside-of-the-ordinary that the stories show us. Looking forward to Joe's next book!
• 
  Logan

  This is a fun collection of stories. And it's exactly that: a collection. There's no central theme or interwoven narrative or characters tying them together. So, you can read them all at once, read them out of order, or read them in between other things. I read them all at once and in order because I can't really do otherwise, but it was nice having this grab-bag of stories that traverse a wide range of genres, styles, voices, characters, and settings. You'll get dark noir, action, and other stories that veer off into a kind of Twilight Zone vibe. Stories take place everywhere--from rural small towns to LA, Oakland, and Siberia. These are stories of revenge and capers, bad decisions, madness, and violence. A true collection of pulp fiction. Favorites for me were "Tripping Biscuits," "Red Pistachios," and "Nix Verrida."
• 
  Rory Costello

  I believe I saw somewhere (likely on Joe Clifford's own blog) that he loved "The Twilight Zone." I can see that, because he certainly does have a way with twist endings. But that's far from the only iron in his bag. He's full of clever and diverse ideas, and he's got a flair for language...sharp and economical. Looking back after a few months, "The Captain" is the story that's really staying with me from this collection (not that the others have faded -- "Red Pistachios" being another good example).
  
  I look forward to more of his forthcoming work -- or I'd love to see him get his own TV show.
• 
  Marley

  I'd never heard of Joe Clifford and ran across him at the suggestion of amazon.com on Kindle. Kinda a cross between James Ellroy and Rod Serling. A great send-up of reality TV with Rag to Riches.(You just know something like this story has happened or will. My favorite though is Nix Verrida, a Serlingesque tale of PSTD and electric trains. Tripping for Biscuits is another one to think about. then there's Another Man's Treasure for the not faint of hearted. I'll be looking out for more of Joe's work.
• 
  Todd Morr

  A great short story collection always appeals to the color outside the lines part of me in that you can just open it randomly, find some bold type and start reading. Joe Clifford collection of desperate people doing desperate things fullfills this desire, as whichever page I turned to I found another awesome tale.
• 
  Tom

  Dug it. Joe has been consistently firing out quality shorts for the past few years now, and this serves as a tidy "greatest hits"(so far). Looking forward to a longer work from this author. I hear there's one on the way.