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.406For many American men, baseball is the game of boyhood. Memories of days spent at the park, fast friendships with teammates, and the culture of competition are the essential fabric that gives so many of these childhood memories their texture. But there comes a day for everyone when the game catches up with them, and they need to call it quits.

In Short Relief, Ben Shahon (A COLLECTION FOR NO ONE TO READ) asks the question of what happens when men are not yet ready to give up that boys’ game, the national pastime. In nine stories (including ones collected from Free Library of the Internet Void and Flash Boulevard), he traces the stories of a Minor League pitcher holding onto his last shed of hope for promotion to The Show, Little Leaguers’ formative experiences, and a host of men and boys in between.

Thoughts of Taco Bell comfort a college student. A dad hates Disneyland. Corn. A child ruins her school photo. Late Capitalism grinds upon an office drone. The outside world scares a liberated prisoner. Total annihilation befalls a town, one house at a time. A magician receives his comeuppance. A Cyclops lodges a complaint. A beautiful night out that can’t be repeated. 

Connected by an absurdist sense of humor and unnerving sense of existential dread, A Collection for No One to Read exhibits a sense of play, delivering one literary meme after another. Fed through a variety of forms such as list story, dramatic monologue, and one-sentence tongue twisters, A Collection for No One to Read asks questions about parents and children, the monotony of work, and the human condition.