Swallow Hill Music is walking distance from our place & every so often we wander over there to see whoever happens to be playing.
Last night, it was this guy, Marty O'Reilly. The man was holy crap *amazing*. If you have a chance to see him, I highly recommend.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=riSl...
Close up of rearview mirror inside a car, in the mirror is a blurry image of a passenger.
The Uber driver said he was done driving Uber. He had just picked me up, and we were going to the airport. He was getting his CDL—he said—and he would drive big rigs cross-country. He had finished all the tests and stuff, and he just needed his drug screen results to come back. How long has it been? I asked. For the drug screen results? Well, that had been Tuesday. No, Wednesday? No, Tuesday. So he’d been waiting for over a week now. Then he could start driving trucks. He needed to make money.
So, I sat down in an Uber, and this week's story sort of landed in my lap...
#15 of 52 Fictions — "The Uber Driver's Tale"
"The Uber driver said he was done driving Uber."
nickarvin.substack.com/p/the-uber-d...
Many great assholes suggested here. Thanks all!
We 100% support plugging one's own books here! Thanks!
I need to read this!
There are a few in Austen, now that you mention it...
Now that you mention it, Dostoevsky has at least one in pretty much every book!
I need to read this, thank you!
Oh, that's good.
Yes!
Hell yeah!
Yes!
Those last two are new to me, look great. Thanks!
I see this is in the Complete Stories, which I read a long time ago, but I don't remember that story. I'm looking forward to revisiting it.
This one crossed my mind, but tbh I read it so long ago I couldn't remember the balance of assholery to just pathetic. I'll have to look at it again!
Awesome, thank you!
Absolutely.
Good one, yes.
Been meaning to read this one forever...
This is new to me. Looks cool!
I need to read this...
That's a great example, thank you.
Great list, thank you! Gandalf is interesting to think about...
I really got to read this.
Thank you! I need to look at the F Scott again...
Ah. Been meaning to read this forever!
hi friends! I wrote a story that’s an actual eBay description for an actual item: you can read it, you can bid (for a good cause) as part of the #significantobjects2026 project: www.ebay.com/itm/26764354...
Olive Kitteridge might be an example.
Reader friends, help a fella out -- I'm looking for examples of*assholes* in fiction. To be clear, not necessarily bad people or villains, but plain old assholes.
A favorite is Regeneration by Pat Barker, really terrific book, weaves in Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, the WWI poets.