“Dustin M. Hoffman’s brilliant Such a Good Man could easily be titled Such a Good Woman, for the female characters show strength and resilience. These stories of hardworking, usually down-on-their luck, characters bring to mind the stories of Raymond Carver and Larry Brown. What a great, strong collection.”
— George Singleton, author of The Curious Lives of Nonprofit Martyrs
“There is much to admire in these stories of working-class lives—the fine writing, superb pacing, pitch-perfect dialogue—but what I find most impressive is Hoffman’s refusal to condescend to his characters. They are never mere caricatures but are complex human beings trying to cope with hardships life has dealt them. Such a Good Man is an excellent story collection. I look forward to reading more by this talented writer.”
— Ron Rash, author of The Caretaker
“Hoffman has written an inventive and thrilling collection about everyday working people that stares directly into darkness without ever abandoning his characters’ longing for connection. These wry, expertly crafted stories interrogate labor and masculinity with the skill of a practiced and accomplished writer.”
— Marian Crotty, author of Near Strangers
“Hoffman illuminates the world of work in its intricate tools of the trade, its unseen stories of those who make and do all around us, and the hidden heartbreaks that workers both carry and witness. From the realism of the recession to the surrealism of stars falling from the sky, Hoffman’s stories are filled with tenderness and humor and, above all, with heart. I absolutely loved this collection.”
— Anne Valente, author of Our Hearts Will Burn Us Down
“The stories in Such a Good Man are formally inventive, heartbreakingly funny, and always deeply grounded in the lives and struggles of their working-class characters. Reading them, I felt like I was flying as close to the edge as Hoffman’s characters, whipping down the highway atop a cherry picker, one moment from disaster and, because of that, fully alive.”
— Gwen E. Kirby, author of Shit Cassandra Saw
“In a collection that is punctuated with caustic humor, Such a Good Man emerges as a serious collection with much to say about our dying American dream.”
— Another Chicago Magazine
“Original, deftly crafted, memorable, fun and fascinating.”
— Midwest Book Review
“Stellar. . . . Reveals the resilience of the human capacity for hope.”
— New Ohio Review
“At a time in history when it’s easy to despair of the undoing of all that is good at the hands of unchecked, unreflective male ego (an anxiety worked through by the protagonist of the opening story), this collection is a welcome reminder that the collective We, even the collective We that is predominantly white and male and working class, is still a group as notable for its diversity as for its sameness.”
— Heavy Feather Review
“Hoffman’s on-page voice continues to bring his characteristic heart and humor to a sect of American life that often remains out of sight. . . . If Hoffman shows us a broken and lonely America, he shows us, also, that the individuals within it are survivors, able to heal when they recognize those around them, able to forgive when they feel seen themselves.”
— South Carolina Review
