Fast Machine

by Elizabeth Ellen

The stories in FAST MACHINE come in three sizes: flash, regular, and too-long-for-journal-publication. Some were previously published. Some are brand-spanking new. The opening story, "State Liquor," concerns a twenty-five-year-old woman and her eighteen-year-old husband trying to buy alcohol on their way to their strip mall jobs, the afternoon of their wedding. In "Fistful," a pregnant teenager gets revenge on the young man who both impregnated and beat her, before leaving town with another man. In "Habitrail," a woman returns home after the death of her father, to find her husband in communication with the television set and a god he calls Chaos, rather than her. There are over ninety stories in this collection. Repeated themes include: driving, smoking, teenagers, drinking, escape, the Midwest, masturbation, self-loathing, blood and loneliness.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Essays

376 pages, Paperback

First published February 12, 2012

About the author

Elizabeth Ellen's stories have appeared in numerous online and print journals over the last ten years, including elimae, Quick Fiction, Hobart, Lamination Colony, Muumuu House, HTMLGIANT, and many others. She is the author of the chapbook Before You She Was a Pit Bull (Future Tense) and her collection of flash fictions, Sixteen Miles Outside of Phoenix, was included in A Peculiar Feeling of Restlessness: four chapbooks of short short fiction by four women (Rose Metal Press). Fast Machine is a collection of her best work from the last decade. She was recently awarded a Pushcart Prize for her story "Teen Culture" which appeared in American Short Fiction in 2012. She lives in Ann Arbor, where she co-edits Hobart and oversees Hobart's book division, Short Flight/Long Drive Books.

Reviews

[Lee Klein · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been reading EE for about a dozen years, first as submissions to the site I edit (one of my rejections once made her cry, she says), then as submissions I accepted and read on other sites online, and now in this omnibus of apparently everything she's published and posted since the internet came of age, so much more than I ever knew she'd written, so consistently good and consistently surprising -- usually autobiographical in the best way: that is, apparently autobiographical elements in the stories reinforce that what's being read is real. Variations throughout on autobiographical themes made me picture EE as she's pictured on the back cover in fishnet stockings or in the head-turnery pic we posted to accompany her Eyeshot Literary Escort Service profile long ago (my name shows up in the awesome bit of online literary history about stalking Eggers), a profile that ultimately netted a top-notch online literary editor who seemed to make his way through some of these stories. The explicitly sexy and apparently semi-psycho bits would seem like overshare if not for the variations on the autobiographical elements throughout that simply suspended belief in the action and let the reader hang out with EE, creating a feeling in this reader like the author herself has been read, which is maybe something semi-unusual in short fiction -- the sense that, without much exposition at all, in straightforward, sincere-seeming, artful prose, by relating stories often superficially about men but more so deeply about the author and her mother, someone is known. A great collection of short stuff that should be up the alley of anyone into readable accessible confessional fiction. For a while I've been saying that fiction that feels unlike fiction is my favorite sort of fiction -- here's a collection of prime examples of that sort of fiction published over the past dozen years.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yeah, I'm old friends with EE and I published her first book a few years back but even if I didn't know her, I'd be blown away by this solid punch of a book. The real standouts here are the ones that blur nonfiction and fiction (it's all in the details) and the longer stories like Winter haven, Florida, 1984, Period Sex, and the closer, Halfsies.
When I was nearing the end I texted EE and said: "I'm 99 pages from finishing your book." And she responded with: "Haha. Not sure if that's good or bad. I stuck all the leftovers back there!" I must call EE on her insecurities here: The last 99 pages don't feel like "left-overs" at all. Though there is a little repetition with some previous stories, it still rocked my world as much as the rest of it.
EE is a master of capturing the insecurities and inner-workings of her characters. They drink, fight, sneak around, seduce, and stumble around trying to figure their shit out. There is very little (if any) crying. EE's people are tough and defiant but somehow still vulnerable, and that vulnerability gives the book a true glow.

[Michael Seidlinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection is proof that in every waking moment of our lives exists a story in and of itself waiting for a talented enough writer to make it memorable and interesting.

[Kelby Losack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Irreverent, original, and hilarious.

[Dottie B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well first of all, this book is a great value. I love good values. My favorite store is the Budget Center. I bet they would sell this book there. There's so many wonderful stories inside. If you broke it down, each story costs about 28 cents. That's cheaper than coffee! I "heart" coffee. I could have done without the SCANDALOUS photo on the back of the book though. I have grandchildren in my house, Ellen! Put some clothes on! Your stories about your husband remind me of when Roger and I were young. We used to go around in the Winnebago and have a wild old time! It was a HOOT! Anyway I guess that was before you became a famous TV star. Can I just take a moment and tell you how great it is that you take time from taping your talk show, Ellen, to write these beautiful stories. And you sure can dance! And I thought that Anne Heche was crazy to begin with. I would like to see you in a nice dress though. But just make sure it covers more skin than the cloths on the back cover! Laugh out loud! Ok well, time to turn in. I hope you get this letter, Love, Your Biggest Fan, Dottie. Go Buckeyes! P.S. Are you a Buckeyes Fan, Ellen? YOu seem like you would be. Love you!

[Leesa · Rating 5 out of 5]

i loved it i loved it. and i loved how some of the stories were long and some were ittybitty. and in one story ee writes: "we sit like this a while, not saying anything, your hand changing stations, mine stopping you when i hear something i like: rush's "tom sawyer," led zeppelin's "when the levee breaks." I have stopped wondering when you'll kiss me."

AND IF YOU HAVE EVER MET ME/READ ANYTHING I'VE WRITTEN/WALKED PAST ME/TALKED TO ME IN PERSON OR OVER EMAIL EVEN FOR ONE SECOND...YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I LOVE STUFF LIKE THAT. it is everything i wanna read when i pick up a book. CLASSIC ROCK AND KISSING.

also she writes abt bathtubs and gas stations a lot. i like that too. also @ one point she mentions kurtis blow and new edition. soooo, favorite book is favorite.

BIG FAST LOVE FOR FAST MACHINE.

[Zac · Rating 5 out of 5]

like the bible, this book is very small, physically. it has a lot of stories printed on very thin smooth pages. you will be surprised by its weight (literally and emotionally).
i laughed a lot during this collection, and was also moved a bit. i felt moved less frequently than i laughed, though. there are so many stories in this thing (something like 94 stories, over the course of 368 pages).
this book seems really good for the person on-the-go. most of the stories are 3 or 4 pages long, (the ones listed below are exceptionally longer). i think it is the size of a vhs tape but a few inches shorter.
stories i especially enjoyed were 'period sex', 'the last american woman', 'how i stopped loving dave eggers and stole your bfa', and 'halfies'.
there is a portrait of the author that takes up the entire back-side of this book that makes the $11.95 msrp seem like even more of a steal.

[Joseph Michael Owens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Micro-review: the book is amazing, truly. I love that the stories are so well balanced regardless of length, and by that I mean, each one has a distinct punch to it. If you read this book without knowing Elizabeth Ellen wrote it, it'd still be clear the author was in complete control over her (or his) voice on the pages; every story is written with a palpable sense of confidence, and every story feels important -- a characteristic that is lost with some collections when "filler" stories are added. Great stuff here! Hobart and SF/LD are really brining some fire right now!!

N.B. Fast Machine and Hobart #13 are the only two things that have pulled me away from the Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire series: a truly amazing feat!!

[Guy Choate · Rating 2 out of 5]

There’s something like a hundred short stories/essays/poems(?) here—some as short as a sentence or two, some up to 30 pages or so. Some seemed to be related, others not. Some seemed to be in chronological order, others not. Most characters didn’t have names—“you,” “the man/woman who [description]”—which made some narratives difficult to keep up with. All of these factors made it hard to get invested in a lot of the pieces, but there is also an admirable rawness to the writing. If you don’t want to read the whole book, do yourself a favor and read these three:

1. Halfsies
2. How I Stopped Loving Dave Eggers and Stole Your MFA
3. I Will Destroy You

[Joe Sacksteder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spoilers:

One of my favorites was Winter Haven. I worked in a boarding school for a few years, and I've been known to write a few stories about the volatile dynamic of teenage girls penned together in such a setting, especially during a long winter. It's poignant in this story how girls can put on tough exteriors that hide a woundedness and vulnerability. I've worked at rich schools and poor schools, and privileged problems are way scarier.

Lots of love too for Last American Woman. Here we have subject matters that commonly work well together - the road, the West, alcohol, and wilderness survival - but Elizabeth subverts any hint of back to nature epiphany via the narrator's stupid mistake. Here we have a work of fiction interacting in interesting ways with other pieces that seem like nonfiction. Other commenters have noted that it's difficult to tell what's true and what's not; suffice it to say that any reader picking up Fast Machine will likely be playing this game the whole time they read. It's a fun game that not too many writers throw at us, but at times it can make the reader feel voyeuristic. Themes return, and our readerly bloodhound noses catch the sent and say aha! only to find ourselves somewhere unexpected the next story. Readers who like disorientation will find the effect alluring; those who grow frustrated easily will find the book's desultory composition too much to handle.

I thought Period Sex should have been buried somewhere in the middle rather than front loaded. It's about writers having a wild time at a conference or something, and I worry that it too immediately alienates any reader not part of that world (although Elizabeth rather too frequently makes sure the reader knows that she - or whatever narrator seems like it might be a version of her - doesn't have an MFA). It makes this particular branch of the literary community seem as insular and incestuous as some people think it really is. Period Sex felt to me like the obligatory "road song" every band in the 70s put on their second album. Unless the listener also happens to be road-weary from touring, it seems self-involved. A good story, but I wouldn't have started with it.

But how about Xenia? How much ass does this story kick? There is something nagging and unsayable about how this story operates on the mind. The fire, the brother's sleepwalking, the more-than-hints of incest, the way all of this has unmoored this shell of a girl... to me this felt like a really good horror story, one that refuses the reader access to its mind and history.

Others, too, have commented on the book's readability. You can put it down for a while, and when you return to it (you will return to it) it doesn't scoff at you for your neglect. You're right back in it. This could go either way, but I mean it as a compliment: you can read this book at the bar. In fact, it may just make your cozy reading niche and hot chamomile seem absurd.

[Ryan Bradford · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are only four words, repeated twice, on the exterior of Elizabeth Ellen’s Fast Machine, which I just typed. On the back, there is a photograph of the author, clad in a leather jacket, stockings and looking off to her right. She looks like someone (out of frame) has begun a “I have good news and bad news” conversation and they’ve moved on to the bad news. It’s a look of fleeting happiness, trepidation and building rage.

I think this picture is a better summation of Ellen’s work than any blurb or synopsis usually reserved for that space.

Fast Machine is technically a collection of Ellen’s work over the last ten years, but it feels like a novel. The narrators endure abusive mothers, malnutrition and countless father-figures in childhood; premature marriages, alienating boyfriends and nomadic lifestyles in adulthood. Ellen’s characters live in Ohio and Florida. They smoke weed and watch mediocre movies. They masturbate a lot.

That description makes it sound like a livejournal book: angsty, melodramatic but ultimately inconsequential. And at first, I that’s what I thought too. Her story “Period Sex” (which appears early in the collection) seemed like a meandering account of a sexual encounter, told with the same passive detachment as an entertaining Thought Catalog article. Good but without substance. (I also admit to being slightly drunk when I read that one).

“Winter Haven, Florida, 1984″ is what sold me. It’s been a long time since I’ve read a story so honest to adolescence–the alienation, the self-consciousness, the hurt and the fun–as Ellen’s story of a boarding school. It gave me context for everything else to follow. What I thought was meandering prose became intense confessionals–the kind that connects readers with the mistakes they made in their own youth. It’s such an unflinching account of family history and tragedy that you can’t help but feel a kinship. I wouldn’t be surprised if Fast Machine earned Ellen some stalkers.

Despite how damaged her characters are–from the shit they’ve seen or how they’re treated–there’s a subtle rage inside that keeps you on their side, which I think separates Ellen’s work from a lot of innocuous indie lit. Backed into a corner, this book will snap back.

[Claudia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Big, brave book.

I loved this book. I've been reading Elizabeth Ellen for years, but I was not prepared for scope of this collection. I can tell you my favorites - probably 1984 and Halfsies - but I read all these pieces interdependently, and the momentum they build is breathtaking. Really. I felt like the breath was knocked out of me when I had finished.

It's a sprawling book, and, structurally you would think it might not work. But it does. There are lengthy pieces that feel much like memoir, and there are short short pieces that can only be described as bites (as in someone biting into you), and long long stories. There are stories that take on an almost hallucinatory violence and there quieter pieces. Yet as a reader I had to connect them, and what I came away with when I had finished was the feeling of having known these characters, in dingy light, in daylight, poolside. Known them now and known their fat lonely sixteen year old selves.

Yet I would not call these coming of age stories, because time doesn't really feel linear in this collection. That comes, in part, from reading the pieces all together. There is the feeling that any one of her characters could slip again at any moment.

I also love the way Ellen writes stories set in the past - they capture the feel of the times, but I would not call them nostalgic. Her work has been called raw, vulnerable, fierce. It is all these things.

As long as this book is, I read it in just a few days. It's the kind of book you want to stay up all night reading.

[Vincent Scarpa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good lord, Elizabeth Ellen is something else. I forced myself to read this over the course of a month, though the temptation was to take an afternoon and devour the near 400 hundred pages of story in one sitting. I'm glad I opted for self-control, because doing so has allowed me to carry the book with me—literally and figuratively—for weeks now, and I've just finished the final story—the perfect, brilliant "Halfsies"—this evening. I'm sad to be finished, but so humbled and in awe of these stories. I usually roll my eyes when a reviewer describes something or someone as "fearless" but i think it's awfully fitting here. Because Elizabeth Ellen actually *is* fearless—in her insight, in her language, in the situations she chooses to examine in her stories.

So many favorites here, so I'll just name a handful: "Winter Haven, Florida, 1984," "Habitrail," "The Loyalist," "What I've Been Told With Regard to the Pianist," "Arizona," and "Halfsies." It's no coincidence that the majority of these stories are ones that find the characters to be children acting like adults and adults acting like children. It's one of my favorite themes to see worked with, and EE does it with expert grace.

[Stephanie Austin · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's something like 400 little stories in here. Some are a page. Some half a page. Every once in awhile, I'd get the feeling that Elizabeth Ellen put everything she's ever written-- long, drawn out stories to notes on a cocktail napkin--into this collection. Reading it is like a hazard, a mish-mash, a jumbled up twisty thing...that I could not put down. At the heart of all that lust and pain and heartache and insanity is this recurring (at least, it seemed to be she was recurring) protagonist who splits herself open and is not afraid of anything, least of all her readers.

[Anna Bukowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this at Powell's in Portland because it wore a note that said "this book will make you fall in love with writing again." TRUE! It's short and long and compelling and beautiful and ugly. Her style is refreshing; it's easy to get lost in the prose. I couldn't get enough of it when she let the short stories run long. The boarding school piece was my favorite. So, if you want to fall in love with writing again - just read it.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is some seriously powerful writing, heavy hits that definitely move. Gritty, each word deliberately carved, the images permanently burned onto the back of your retinas. Very raw, but from how close it gets you into things since the writing is some high caliber stuff. Impressive.

[Jordin DeSenzo · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite collections of short stories. This will always be my go-to public transportation book because I love how bite-sized but still impactful these stories are. Of course, they have some hits and misses but I generally enjoyed the stories.

[Chelsea Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

i have lent this book to some of my favorite people

[AutomaticSlim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enough gems in here to cover for the very few I didn't care for. Enough that it deserves a full five stars. There's something about her writing that sneaks up on you. The long stories were good, but there's this little quarter pager that I might consider my favorite - Let Me Tell You Something.

Round up 5 star

[Phillip Vernon]

Read this years ago; found it via a staff recommendation at Powell's in Portland. Just stumbled across it again here, and was reminded about how much I adore this book. My favorite short story collection. Riveting, creative, dramatic, heartbreaking, and unbelievably honest.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is thick with stories. Strange stories and less strange stories and more strange stories but always uncompromising and compelling. I loved it.

[Aidan · Rating 4 out of 5]

elizabeth ellen.... i like you....

[Xime Silva · Rating 4 out of 5]

really like

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fast machine is exactly what it sounds like. A chugging abrupt look into disparate lives dealing with disillusionment breakdown of self and general ennui. It's a whole lot about sexual dynamics but the stories also delve into the pain of wanting someone or something that has no interest in you whatsoever. Pretty good.

[Joedtrinkle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this. Unique, semi-consistent mental state. Period Sex and The Loyalists were definitely my favorite, the latter mostly because of the similarity to my childhood. Parts of that story actually freaked me out to the point where I stopped reading it; it was so eerily close to home and well-described.

The one pastoral story about going to Wyoming and having to cut her arm off sort of got on my nerves, just because it seemed too--I don't know--cute (which sounds strange, because of the auto-amputation). Like that depressing kind of romance that you can only experience by yourself, which was there, but then with an overly dramatic ending. That happens a little bit, this insertion of unnecessary drama, but, in all honesty, I just point that out because I otherwise loved the general feel of the book and that element caught me off guard.

But that was one story, and I'm just one person. The sense of wholeness that the other stories carry throughout almost give it the feel of a well-developed fragmented novel, although you can tell that it wasn't constructed as such. It's nice and sad, and, above all of that, it comes across with refreshing honesty, especially as so many collections of this caliber seem to be either annoyingly uber-ironic or flat-out idyllic. I appreciate the lack of writing school artifice.

[Brian Alan Ellis · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you asked (you wouldn’t, but if you did) what the perfect book was, I’d be hard-pressed not to answer with: Fast Machine.

For starters, the book is beautifully designed, and despite its length of nearly 400 pages, is small enough to fit inside a purse or coat pocket (which doesn’t mean you should steal it; the book won’t cost you much, anyway).

Secondly, the stories therein (like, 100 of them!) are funny, honest, brave, sad, poignant; compact and durable; a pleasure to the eyes and to the mind and to the heart—they have wonderful openings (“I was eight months pregnant with a black eye. More importantly, I was late for work and my shirt still wasn’t ironed. I didn’t have time for any of Jenny’s shit.”), quirky titles (“Samuel L. Jackson Is Not a Good Name for a Rabbit”), juicy middle portions (“I had a bad habit of making my life about the people who were no longer in it.”), and closing lines (“She will remain alert and focused, knowing she is moving toward something again, rather than away.”) which, like any literature worth a damn, leave you winded, lifted.

Basically, Elizabeth Ellen’s Fast Machine is a warm friend you’ll need while navigating the soul’s many cold spots; a contemporary classic; most crucial, indeed.

[Fernando Fernández · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too many pages, needs heavy editing to become a solid volume, but that also makes it interesting for a foreign reader. I felt the urge to cut up some lines and make collages so as to not feel bad for having spent 14 euros in something that is neither a classic nor a definitely new voice (fertile style or view on the world, etc.). Nevertheless, there are some nice lines and facts which may be useful for an anthropological study on the mutations of the mind in the alternative literary scene of the hegemonic world power before China takes over. Minor writers can be enjoyable, also. Hence, although most of the texts are plain OK, it is useful enough to deserve three stars. This said, it is important to acknowledge that when it's not semi-fictional memoir of sorts, and chiefly in the case of the flash pieces, a careful reader can quite often find easy tricks and sadden when a series of them indulges regularly in shticks. The biographical experiments are appealing at some points, when they don't become boring or even irritating, self-centered writers dealing with how difficult their emotional life is deserve an internship at a sweatshop in Thailand. Ever heard of politics? Oh, but she has interesting thoughts sometimes.

[Matt Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of short stories/fiction starts out amazing; the stories are filled with the raw, unfiltered, unapologetic emotions of characters which may or may not be based on EE herself. The characters are complex and frustrating, not just to the reader but to themselves. They would love nothing more than to just stop doing the predictable, destructive behaviors that make their lives miserable, but can't and shouldn't be blamed for them any more than our own failings. The stories exist in a odd dreamspace, perhaps EE's subconscious, where variances on the same themes - absent/abusive mothers, non-existant fathers, omnipresent use of booze & drugs, pregnancies, sibling incest, homoerotic feelings, deadbeat teenage boyfriends - all coalesce and play them selves out differently every time. Each character making slightly different decisions, creating new realities that exist within the sphere of EE's experiences. It creates a refreshingly real reading experience, but towards the end the repetitive nature of the themes work against themselves. However, it's a solid collection and a great debut from an exciting voice.

[Downward · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is a mostly repetitive collection of fiction that is redeemed by its bone-deep honesty. the stories here are often sexual in nature, tied up in the feelings of giving yourself to someone else or watching someone else give themselves to someone else- feelings of being on the outside of where you want to be even if when you get to where you want to be the perimeters change and you're still outside looking in. Elizabeth Ellen takes some risks here and bares some ugly truths in ways that feel confessional or autobigraphical even though the only proof i have of that is the author's use of her own name. it FEELS true. but it does get bogged down in being too many stories about the same things too many times, the emotions are dulled through repetition, which might be what it feels like to live them.

[Mellow Pages Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

matt wrote a paired review for Mellow Pages Review with Elizabeth Ellen's Fast Machine.

Here's a bit:

"See, when I read Elizabeth Ellen for the first time, it wasn’t really my first time. She came out with a chapbook on Future Tense called Before You She Was A Pit Bull. Many of the stories in the chapbook are in the big book. I was rereading a part of my life when I was happy, ensconced in a Seattle forbidden to me previously but now/then open and bleeding like warm concrete in summer. Elizabeth’s stories dance with each other. I was reminded of William Gay and Sugarbaby..."

here's the rest:
http://mybrotherbecamedependent.tumbl...