Ron Carlson is primarily known as an award-winning novelist (The Signal) and short story writer, but he also writes very good poetry and other literary sundries, as Room Service demonstrates. He's the master of the ordinary, with a voice reminiscent of Steven Wright's comedy--droll, restrained, deadpan. He's hardly ever smiling, but inside he's laughing out loud (and readers with him). He reveals how the ordinary is absurd, and the common unique.
Here are a number of poems, short to very short prose pieces, and a handful of Beckettian mini-plays that Carlson has written over the years. His titles are just right and capture a zany, warm, welcoming feeling: "The Great Open-Mouth Anti-Sadness" or "A Simple Note on How Best to Use This Humble Bookmark." Some pieces are like fractured fairy tales, like the couple who use room service to order up rooms, from a glass room to a cloak room. In "Homeschool Insider," a brother and sister try to decide what their (home) school colors should be. "What I Did Not Teach You About Poetry" is a beautiful piece (lengthy for Carlson, at three pages) about growing up, family and art, as what the students didn't learn is mailed to their homes in a small, cardboard box.
The poems and prose pieces in Room Service are thoughtful, witty, sad and hopeful--rarely angry or mad. They reveal Ron Carlson as a humble writer you can enjoy over and over. --Tom Lavoie, former publisher