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Hiding Out:
Best books of 2007: “Each story was a gem on its own, and his interlacing of small stories with longer ones and absurd stories with serious ones made for a very rewarding read.”—Omaha World-Herald
Messinger is a writer of nuance in this fearless collection of short stories.…Messinger’s stories are aching, not bleak, and the collection, wittily and expressively illustrated with Rob Funderburk’s line drawings, is fun, engaging, and a bit more than thought-provoking. A fresh, spot-on debut.—Booklist
“To call the beautiful little gems in Jonathan Messinger’s Hiding Out “slices of life” would be underselling. The stories in this collection of shorts are gouged chunks of surrealism…”—Ink 19
“…captures the universal nervousness of adolescence and adulthood. Occasionally profound and often familiar, “Hiding Out” is tiny enough to slip in your jacket pocket for a rambling autumn walk. Lucky, since its stories feel made for this season.—Boston Globe
Hiding Out “expertly captures a mixture of teenage summer malaise and a hint of innocence lost.”—Publishers Weekly
“Jonathan Messinger’s debut collection of short stories, Hiding Out, hits the mark in every possible way.”—Newpages
Messinger is a master craftsman who bridges over many gaps that lesser writers fall into….On one hand, Messinger is absolutely clever and witty—the book is full of skillful turns of phrase and creative situations—but the stories have a true foundation, balance, and meaningful resonance, evidenced by the fact they’re still rattling around in my brain weeks after the initial reading.—Razorcake
You think you know where Messinger’s writing is taking you, but just in the nick of time, he changes directions and leaves you smiling with surprise.—UR Chicago
The book is an unusual, nearly pocket-sized shape, and adorned with cartoon-like illustrations by Rob Funderburk: Hiding Out isn’t just a volume of stories (or “decoys,” as Messinger calls them), it aspires to be an objet d’art in itself. As such, its contents function partially as elements of a collage or a piñata: colorful, appealing and—as featherproof’s name suggests—lightweight. This is not to say that these stories are insubstantial, but that they, nearly all anchored in loneliness and isolation, are driven, almost paradoxically, by an unshakable, garrulous good humor and optimism. It’s as if Messinger is gazing down into the tarn of loneliness while skating nimbly on its surface, whistling and talking to anyone willing to listen.—Independent Weekly
Small in size, but not lacking in originality or feeling, Hiding Out is filled to the brim, almost bursting out of its bound pages with stories of loneliness, of unrequited love, of the fear of aging, of curiosities and of mistakes in action, but above all these are stories full of those things that have felt true to all of us at some point in our lives….At times funny yet wrenching, simple yet perfectly detailed, the stories in Hiding Out make us think about what it means when we try to be something we’re not and, conversely, when others perceive us to be something other than who we are….the entirety of Hiding Out is an absorbing read.—Gapers Block
Critic’s Choice Messinger…is most evocative when recounting the dehumanizing effects of the contemporary workplace, noting of Waysun, who wears a smock at the factory, “he is uniform.” The stories themselves are equally oblique, and a matter-of-fact tale set in a Chicago office can seem as otherworldly as a fable like “Not Even the Zookeeper Can Keep Control,” in which a man-eating wolf seems to be devouring a town’s entire population.—Chicago Reader
Noteworthy New Release Jonathan Messinger, cohost of the local literature-meets-comedy hour Dollar Store, finds inspiration for this show from dollar store bookshelves. He brings this spirit of randomness to his debut collection of short stories, which is full of lonely, but endearing characters, including himself.—Chicago Magazine
Hiding Out author emerging There are other strange things going on in this book, due out next month. Strange and wonderful. Many stories are inventive and fun…there are undertones of the influential George Saunders. Like Saunders, Messinger deftly walks the thin line between sentimentality and absurdity. But there also are deeper, richer stories.—Omaha World Herald
Getting into Hiding Out [A] powerful voice controls the stories, holding the reader’s interest from beginning to end…He strings words and events together in a way that offers surprises to the reader in every other line. The collection has everything flawed, fragile and fresh that you’d expect from a first book.—Birmingham Weekly
“When the Messinger is hot” Interview at Chicagoist. “With his first collection of short stories due out in October and a partnership with WBEZ’s Third Coast International Audio Festival taking off, founder and host of the much-celebrated Dollar Store series Jonathan Messinger is really cleaning up.”
Writer’s Corner interview at What to Wear During an Orange Alert: “There is a running sense of humor throughout his work, even in the face of the most sobering issues.”
The Dollar Store:
fictionary Spring/Summer 2007
The Bastion, February 2007
“What can you do with a dollar? Come to the monthly reading series that expounds on the wonders of cheap things.”
The Methods Reporter, November, 2006
Reservoir, November 2006
“Chicago’s most dynamic literary event.”
Eight Forty-Eight, August 2006. Listen here.
WNUR’s Lit Show.
Chicago Sun-Times, January 2006. “Everyone cheers when Messinger finishes, and you think The Dollar Store is some kind of bargain.”
Bookslut calls us “excellent.”
Chicago Sun-Times, 2005: “Some of the best young writers in town show up on the first Friday of each month at the Hideout, a bar at 1354 W. Wabansia, to partake in a performance series called “The Dollar Store.”