Kick In the Head: Stories

"On the sixth day of her hunger strike, Lydia Martinez entered my dreams and immediately died there."

Steven Rinehart's debut introduces us to a world where men struggle with themselves to get to a point where they can struggle with women. Rinehart's characters are dysfunctional, his worldview bizarre, yet his deft and often hilarious tales take us close to the heart of the yearning and desire all of us share.

Here you'll meet a young man attracted to trouble who gets more than he bargained for when he meets a seductive older woman; a high school teacher who struggles to resist becoming involved with a troubled female student; psychotic Boy Scouts; a man who, while investigating the accidental shooting of his best friend, finds himself involved with the dead man's wife.

These stories are about men whose lights are on--but no one's home. Rinehart conveys a seemingly weird sense of the world that ends up making perfect sense. Remarkable for the strength and distinctiveness of his characters, Rinehart writes in accomplished prose and with style that is astonishing in a first work of fiction.


In "Kick in the Head," the title story in this collection, a young man attracted to trouble gets more than he bargained for when he meets an older woman à la Mrs. Robinson. In "The Order of the Arrow," we meet a psychotic Boy Scout. And in "Make Me," a high school teacher tries to resist becoming involved with a troubled female student.

Given the current renaissance of the short story, Rinehart has the kind of memorable voice that every publisher wants to add to its list. He writes like a kinder, gentler Denis Johnson, and his stories will certainly establish him on the literary scene.-->

Steven Rinehart spent his childhood on military bases in Europe. His family then moved to Illinois, and he went to school in Hawaii and Iowa. His stories have been published in a variety of magazines, including Harper's, GQ, Story, and Ploughshares. A recipient of both NEA and Michener fellowships, Rinehart is now at work on a novel for Doubleday. He lives in New York City.