4 out of 5

Wow man, what the fuck? he asked, eloquently, denoting his turnaround surprise at enjoying Staff Picks.

With One Story, I’ve had plenty of instances of stories that aren’t, genre-wise, of any appeal, that win me over as I go along.  I’m not sure if I’ve had an instance of getting the feel for the writer and straight-up loathing their approach – how many pages is this?  When can I put it down? – only to have the thing become a page turner.  And it’s not like I judged the tone wrong: author George Singleton creates the moon-faced character Staffordshire and loads her up with quips a’plenty; quips that are probably intended to make us laugh but just had me rolling my eyes at the forced humor; and the premise of Staff observing and wits-battling the other participants in a last-hands-on competition over an RV is the kind of quirky setup that quirky writers with writers quips love.

But…

But… in spite of herself, and I suppose in spite of my judgments, Staff becomes oddly endeared to one of her fellow participants, professional bowler Landry, just as I found myself becoming endeared to both of these characters, bit by bit of their conversation.  It’s essentially a meet cute, but between two rather not-so-cute people, by their descriptions, and yet who Singleton doesn’t go out of his way to cute-ize, which is the magic ingredient that I think makes this become such a pick-me-up story.  Sure, its the kind of fantasy conversation/situation you wish you could fall in to, but it’s so damned naturalistic and syncs, at every point,  with the standoffish / boastful personalities established for each character that you’re so happy its working out, all of your black-hearted hatred for the world temporarily set aside.

And that Singleton works in a subplot that motivates the meet-cute is slick, and smart, and makes for a great where-we-go-from-here ending.

I’m still remaining a blowhard on the use of humor, as I found myself amused not by the direct beats but the off ones, but ’twas a good experience, being caught so off guard by a story, even if that makes Singleton a bastard for adding more reading options to my list.