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White Dialogues
With all the brilliance, bravado, and wit of his award-winning debut, A Questionable Shape, Bennett Sims returns with an equally ambitious and wide-ranging collection of stories.
A house-sitter alone in a cabin in the woods comes to suspect that the cabin may need to be “unghosted.� A raconteur watches as his personal story is rewritten on an episode of This American Life. And in the collection’s title story, a Hitchcock scholar sitting in on a Vertigo lecture is gradually driven mad by his own theory of cinema.
In these eleven stories, Sims moves from slow-burn psychological horror to playful comedy, bringing us into the minds of people who are haunted by their environments, obsessions, and doubts. Told in electric, insightful prose, White Dialogues is a profound exploration of the way we uncover meaning in a complex, and sometimes terrifying, world. It showcases Sims’s rare talent and confirms his reputation as one of the most exciting young writers at work today.
A house-sitter alone in a cabin in the woods comes to suspect that the cabin may need to be “unghosted.� A raconteur watches as his personal story is rewritten on an episode of This American Life. And in the collection’s title story, a Hitchcock scholar sitting in on a Vertigo lecture is gradually driven mad by his own theory of cinema.
In these eleven stories, Sims moves from slow-burn psychological horror to playful comedy, bringing us into the minds of people who are haunted by their environments, obsessions, and doubts. Told in electric, insightful prose, White Dialogues is a profound exploration of the way we uncover meaning in a complex, and sometimes terrifying, world. It showcases Sims’s rare talent and confirms his reputation as one of the most exciting young writers at work today.
202 pages, Paperback
First published December 3, 2012
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1,518 people want to read
About the author
Bennett Sims
6books57followersBennett Sims was born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. His fiction has appeared in A Public Space, Tin House, and Zoetrope: All-Story. A graduate of the Iowa Writers� Workshop, he currently teaches at the University of Iowa, where he is the Provost Postgraduate Visiting Writer in fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
September 12, 2017
The brilliant, austere stories of White Dialogues are, in their marrow, horror stories: the terrible anxiety of thought loops, the certainty of fate, the specter of death, the inescapability of one’s own mind, the monstrosity of human impulses. With the uncanny perception of Nicholson Baker, the formal playfulness of David Foster Wallace, and the domestic terror of Shirley Jackson, Bennett Sims wrangles fictional forms, pop culture, and philosophy to his own dark ends. Incantatory, cerebral, and profoundly unnerving, White Dialogues is pure, perverse pleasure. Sims is one of our best early-career fiction writers, and this is a collection worth celebrating.
February 27, 2022
It’s difficult to assign a star rating to this; at points I felt it was giving me exactly what I’m always looking for in a short story collection, but at other points my interest collapsed and/or the stories weren’t to my taste at all. Opening story ‘House-sitting�, about a man increasingly gripped by creeping paranoia as he stays in a forest cabin, is excellent, as is the closer, ‘White Dialogues�, a sort of ontological horror story in which horrible significance is assigned to the words mouthed by background extras in scenes from films by Hitchcock. Naturally, I also loved a story called ‘Ekphrases�, describing numerous imaginary works created ‘at the edge of death�; and also ‘The Bookcase�, about a man who destroys his own reputation and relationship by retelling a ‘funny� personal story on a podcast.
The language is surprising and playful, often explicitly so (in ‘House-sitting�, the protagonist rearranges the letters of the titular word until he gets an apparent statement of intention: I unghost site). The book plays with recurring themes: broadly, a person being consumed by events in their imagination; more specifically, the idea of horror of one’s own reflection is repeatedly revisited, and two separate stories (including another standout, ‘Two Guys Watching Cujo on Mute�) seem to retell the tale of a boy with a debilitating fear of dogs. A few of the others, especially ‘Destroy All Monsters� and ‘Radical Closure�, take a particular approach � a Nicholson Baker-esque attention to the minutest detail of a situation � which I personally find soporific. At these points I found myself skimming over whole passages. I also found a few jaunts into fantasy, such as ‘City of Wolfmen�, unsatisfying.
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The language is surprising and playful, often explicitly so (in ‘House-sitting�, the protagonist rearranges the letters of the titular word until he gets an apparent statement of intention: I unghost site). The book plays with recurring themes: broadly, a person being consumed by events in their imagination; more specifically, the idea of horror of one’s own reflection is repeatedly revisited, and two separate stories (including another standout, ‘Two Guys Watching Cujo on Mute�) seem to retell the tale of a boy with a debilitating fear of dogs. A few of the others, especially ‘Destroy All Monsters� and ‘Radical Closure�, take a particular approach � a Nicholson Baker-esque attention to the minutest detail of a situation � which I personally find soporific. At these points I found myself skimming over whole passages. I also found a few jaunts into fantasy, such as ‘City of Wolfmen�, unsatisfying.
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December 9, 2017
A set of ultra-rarefied, hyper-intellectual, maddeningly dense and complex horror stories. Very high on cerebration and low on action, but terrifying if you have the patience to parse them. The title story is far and away my favorite, and would make a great companion piece to Gabe Blackwell's "Madeleine E."
December 31, 2019
Very strong collection. Some of the stories reminded me at times of Brian Evenson. Standouts were the title story, and 'House-sitting,' The Bookcase', & 'Ekphrases' (which ends, btw, brilliantly). The others were fine, though a few went on a bit too long.
A few notable passages. I copied the second quote, btw, and posted it on ŷ to the author's page. This appears to be first time anyone's quoted him. Odd, because this is his second book, and his prose is very quotable.
"Brambles and branches close in on the house, and eventually they will fold over it completely, subsuming it, the way that a tree's bark flows over a nail. That is what the cabin reminds you of, in the end: a nail. Five rooms and a roof hammered into the heart of the forest, where they wait, with the patience of a nail, to become ingrown." -'House-sitting'
"Being in love, they had agreed in bed one night, meant being in a state of interpretive hysteria. Every detail was significant, polysemous, charged. That was why lovers had to be especially careful with one another, so as not to arouse suspicions. No literary critic in the world, B had claimed, was more vigilant than a suspicious lover." -'Za'
A few notable passages. I copied the second quote, btw, and posted it on ŷ to the author's page. This appears to be first time anyone's quoted him. Odd, because this is his second book, and his prose is very quotable.
"Brambles and branches close in on the house, and eventually they will fold over it completely, subsuming it, the way that a tree's bark flows over a nail. That is what the cabin reminds you of, in the end: a nail. Five rooms and a roof hammered into the heart of the forest, where they wait, with the patience of a nail, to become ingrown." -'House-sitting'
"Being in love, they had agreed in bed one night, meant being in a state of interpretive hysteria. Every detail was significant, polysemous, charged. That was why lovers had to be especially careful with one another, so as not to arouse suspicions. No literary critic in the world, B had claimed, was more vigilant than a suspicious lover." -'Za'
March 29, 2024
Among the greatest short story collections I have ever read, full stop. Sims harnesses the neurotic, microscopic focus on Wallace with the psychological horror of someone like Iain Reid or John Darnielle. If you need any further convincing, track down the opening story "Housesitting" and then tell me you're not immediately convinced.
This is one of our generation's rarest and most undersung talents, and it's a fucking tragedy that the world probably won't see it until long after he's gone.
This is one of our generation's rarest and most undersung talents, and it's a fucking tragedy that the world probably won't see it until long after he's gone.
October 6, 2023
Me when I snort crack cocaine
favs: house-sitting, the bookcase, two guys watching cujo on mute
favs: house-sitting, the bookcase, two guys watching cujo on mute
March 1, 2023
I've never read any horror/psychological thriller stories before but I liked this as a way to dip my toe in. Lots of captivating characters and inner monologues that are so subtle in their ways to make you think: "Maybe I'm going crazy too!" It's a book that begs to be read as if there were words between words. One should read this in the dark, alone, not because it'll make it scarier, but because it'll really get you into the heads of the characters. Though not all of the stories seemed like they deserved to be here. There is a good handful that just doesn't work for me. Concepts flow from story to story, which can be annoying, but also really cool when done right.
Favorites:
Za
House-sitting
White Dialogues
A Premonition
Ekphrases
Favorites:
Za
House-sitting
White Dialogues
A Premonition
Ekphrases
March 8, 2024
I will, in fact, be reading all of my teacher's work.
November 11, 2017
I purchased this collection of short stories at Two Dollar Radio, which seems to be a combo publisher/coffee house/book store/event space, because the back cover review referenced David Foster Wallace. I certainly see what the reviewer means. Every story reminded me of that scene from Infinite Jest in which a character describes in minute detail his addiction to marijuana. Not in subject matter, but in depth of dive. Most of these stories are about someone studying something tiny and mundane so hard that they convince themselves into states of crippling anxiety or start waxing poetic about the inevitability of death. Which I can get down with, for a story or two. I like the deep and narrow dive. But almost every story was this way. They were all mind dialogues (yes, I get it, White Dialogues) and there was almost no actual dialogue, as most stories featured one character observing something. I could have used a story or two with a broader scope, is all. There are two stories whose plots can be boiled down to: dude watches and self identifies with a lizard. These stories are not about the plot, but even the conclusions were too similar. Both stories were comments on death.
April 16, 2018
My review appeared in .
One of my favorite writers. I've been teaching "The Bookcase" for years. The title story and "Destroy all Monsters" are particularly brilliant.
One of my favorite writers. I've been teaching "The Bookcase" for years. The title story and "Destroy all Monsters" are particularly brilliant.
January 6, 2020
There was one story out of this entire selection of 11 stories that I really really liked. I would give it five stars!!! I probably won’t forget it, because it was such an enjoyable read…extremely clever and it held my attention throughout: “The Bookcase�. It was about a person who had related a story over and over again to his friends and to his girlfriend and then he ended up relating the story to a popular radio show host on National Public Radio in the US, This American Life by Ira Glass, and that got aired on the show. You don’t have to know about that show to enjoy this story.
I was disappointed or deeply disappointed in the other stories…can’t believe they came from the same person. Besides “The Bookcase� there were four others that had a modicum of merit that I would give a grade of C- to D+: “House-sitting,� “Ekphrases,� “Two Guys Watching Cujo on Mute� and “Fables�. The others I just soldiered through so that I could say (to myself) that I read the book in its entirety, and to give the book a rating.
I was disappointed or deeply disappointed in the other stories…can’t believe they came from the same person. Besides “The Bookcase� there were four others that had a modicum of merit that I would give a grade of C- to D+: “House-sitting,� “Ekphrases,� “Two Guys Watching Cujo on Mute� and “Fables�. The others I just soldiered through so that I could say (to myself) that I read the book in its entirety, and to give the book a rating.
December 31, 2018
On the whole, Bennett Sims' short stories read less like narrative pieces of fiction and more like formally playful thought experiments. That means they're probably not for everyone, but if your interest is piqued by the use of banal events/objects/observations as vehicles to delve into almost obsessive psychological and linguistic analysis, you're gonna love this book.
The opening story is a haunting slow burner about isolation and the effect of one's environment on the psyche, and the titular closing story is a scathingly hilarious (and fascinating) indictment of academic ego and pretension. Though the stories in between are just as diverse as the bookends, the collection's title, White Dialogues, is an aptly self-aware one, as the stories collectively plumb the depths of a brand of paranoia that's typically only afforded to people of privilege. It's something that's been written about many times over, but not quite like this.
I'm eager to pick up Sims' novel A Questionable Shape and check out other Two Dollar Radio offerings in the near future.
The opening story is a haunting slow burner about isolation and the effect of one's environment on the psyche, and the titular closing story is a scathingly hilarious (and fascinating) indictment of academic ego and pretension. Though the stories in between are just as diverse as the bookends, the collection's title, White Dialogues, is an aptly self-aware one, as the stories collectively plumb the depths of a brand of paranoia that's typically only afforded to people of privilege. It's something that's been written about many times over, but not quite like this.
I'm eager to pick up Sims' novel A Questionable Shape and check out other Two Dollar Radio offerings in the near future.
March 7, 2020
I don’t tend to gravitate towards short stories, which is too bad, because when I do read them I find that I enjoy enlightening stories whose authors are judicious with their words. I had an expectation that Mr. Sims� stories would fall into that vein, since this collection was highly rated and considered a “must read�. I found the stories were too deep into minutiae that didn’t matter, and I found it difficult to discern the point of the stories.
September 14, 2021
favourite stories include house-sitting, the bookcase, two guys watching cujo on mute, city of wolfmen, destroy all monsters, za, radical closure, white dialogues.
January 28, 2023
Dear Mr. Sims,
You are the most interesting writer (that I have read) living today.
You introspect on the mundane with so much depth
that reading you honestly feels like a DMT trip.
How do you do it?
Your concepts are good but not sci-fi spectacular.
You've got the story sense but,
you can't care less if we're having fun.
I think it's the writing.
Your words, your sentences, they are rich with flavor.
Sometimes candy cane sweet.
Sometimes oak dark espresso.
I don't remember the last time I was this terrified by a written work as I was with 'House-sitting'
'The Bookcase' is hilarious.
Immediately after finishing it I felt
I had to make more people check it out.
Especially couples.
At the end of 'Ekphrases' I literally wrote:
'David Lynch.
Goosebumps all over my prefrontal cortex.'
And 'White Dialogues'
*Chef's Kiss*
Somehow you mixed comedy and fear
in one single dish.
YUM.
I'm not even kissing ass because I want to go to Iowa.
I hate short stories.
I really do.
I hate writing them.
I hate reading them.
It's not fun.
I need a good thick novel.
But mate,
aside from Ray Bradbury's 'Martian Chronicles'
I don't remember the last time I had such a good time with a short story collection,
as I had with White Dialogues.
Reading you makes short stories fun.
Reading you makes me feel like a better writer.
I can't wait till you release some more stuff.
Warm regards,
Yash Wadhwani
You are the most interesting writer (that I have read) living today.
You introspect on the mundane with so much depth
that reading you honestly feels like a DMT trip.
How do you do it?
Your concepts are good but not sci-fi spectacular.
You've got the story sense but,
you can't care less if we're having fun.
I think it's the writing.
Your words, your sentences, they are rich with flavor.
Sometimes candy cane sweet.
Sometimes oak dark espresso.
I don't remember the last time I was this terrified by a written work as I was with 'House-sitting'
'The Bookcase' is hilarious.
Immediately after finishing it I felt
I had to make more people check it out.
Especially couples.
At the end of 'Ekphrases' I literally wrote:
'David Lynch.
Goosebumps all over my prefrontal cortex.'
And 'White Dialogues'
*Chef's Kiss*
Somehow you mixed comedy and fear
in one single dish.
YUM.
I'm not even kissing ass because I want to go to Iowa.
I hate short stories.
I really do.
I hate writing them.
I hate reading them.
It's not fun.
I need a good thick novel.
But mate,
aside from Ray Bradbury's 'Martian Chronicles'
I don't remember the last time I had such a good time with a short story collection,
as I had with White Dialogues.
Reading you makes short stories fun.
Reading you makes me feel like a better writer.
I can't wait till you release some more stuff.
Warm regards,
Yash Wadhwani
June 28, 2020
If you've come to this collection off a review or recommendation that it bears some relation to horror fiction or, alternately, to the voice of David Foster Wallace (both of which were my prompts), you'll be best served knowing that the latter is truer than the former. That alone is saying something if you're a Wallace fan. Sims' rich vocabulary and wordplay are, for sure, regularly reminiscent of Wallace. But this isn't a horror collection except in maybe the most abstract, lenient use of the term.
"Gritting your teeth, you clench your eyes violently, as if trying to crush something between
cheek and brow. What you are trying to crush is every throbbing thought in your skull."
The story I'd heard most about going in was "Destroy All Monsters"--apparently a readers' favorite--but while I found it neat in concept, I thought its pace pretty much matched that of the featured gecko that crawls onto and across the narrator's windowpane with its "fernlike fronds of micrometric hair," instigating the bulk of this story's reverie. Pace is, in fact, an issue with most of these 11 stories, and yet I think they are unquestionably original and memorable (with two exceptions: "Ekphrases" and "City of Wolfmen" both seem like exercises, and for me neither really worked). An exception to the pace problem is "Za," which is one of my favorites here. Not only does it show a definite familiarity with the boardgame Scrabble, it also includes the phrase "a whole hermeneutics of cuckoldry." My very favorite selection here, though, is the title story, "White Dialogues," in part because it shows an intimate knowledge of and appreciation for Hitchcock movies but also because its premise and payoff are just funny and very well done. That story and "Za" are easily in the 4- or 5-star zone. The three is for the collection as a whole, which I found worthwhile, but it also left me wondering how different my reaction would have been if I'd had different expectations going in.
First line of "Za":
"Two weeks after B leaves, A receives her first email from him."
First line of "White Dialogues":
"Listen to her, Bereyter says, as together we watch the mute woman mouthing something on the screen."
"Gritting your teeth, you clench your eyes violently, as if trying to crush something between
cheek and brow. What you are trying to crush is every throbbing thought in your skull."
The story I'd heard most about going in was "Destroy All Monsters"--apparently a readers' favorite--but while I found it neat in concept, I thought its pace pretty much matched that of the featured gecko that crawls onto and across the narrator's windowpane with its "fernlike fronds of micrometric hair," instigating the bulk of this story's reverie. Pace is, in fact, an issue with most of these 11 stories, and yet I think they are unquestionably original and memorable (with two exceptions: "Ekphrases" and "City of Wolfmen" both seem like exercises, and for me neither really worked). An exception to the pace problem is "Za," which is one of my favorites here. Not only does it show a definite familiarity with the boardgame Scrabble, it also includes the phrase "a whole hermeneutics of cuckoldry." My very favorite selection here, though, is the title story, "White Dialogues," in part because it shows an intimate knowledge of and appreciation for Hitchcock movies but also because its premise and payoff are just funny and very well done. That story and "Za" are easily in the 4- or 5-star zone. The three is for the collection as a whole, which I found worthwhile, but it also left me wondering how different my reaction would have been if I'd had different expectations going in.
First line of "Za":
"Two weeks after B leaves, A receives her first email from him."
First line of "White Dialogues":
"Listen to her, Bereyter says, as together we watch the mute woman mouthing something on the screen."
March 31, 2022
this was very polarising, for me; i either loved a story or it didn't work for me at all. each story in this collection shares the same sense of intense interiority, often returning over and over again to the same central anxiety or idea, which at its best creates an atmosphere of dizzyingly claustrophobic existential horror and at its worst (when the author fixates obsessively on an idea that doesn’t quite fascinate me as it does him - the dog not responding to its own name, the concept of a ‘thought structure� occupying a physical space, both of which were concepts best handled in the first two stories they appeared in and much less interesting in the second two) made me skim entire paragraphs like Ugh Okay I Get It Can We Move On To Something Else Now Please! to which often the answer is ‘no� and also ‘lmao.� nonetheless sims is a very talented writer and i really enjoyed his bold and eloquent use of language for the most part, except for his tendency to veer on occasion into pomposity & longwindedness which made me think some of these stories could probably have have been improved with a slightly more rigorous edit. that said, the final & titular story is genuinely excellent and will definitely stick with me even if the rest of the stories in this collection broadly do not
October 29, 2020
Sims has an amazing vocabulary. I tried not to get frustrated by it, but I didn't always succeed. Had I not been reading a library book or reading in bed before sleeping, I would have about 30 new words in my repertoire.
For my reading taste, some of the stories were more interesting in their premise than in their execution. My recollection is that many (most?) of the stories took place in the mind (the story was a description of the protagonist's thoughts), and that can become tedious. Lots of meta thinking, at times interesting. I kept thinking "thought experiments," but that's not accurate. It felt like that though.
Expect haunting, premonitions of death, inescapable events, thoughts becoming reality. There are some interesting comparisons, such as writer's block and animal camouflage.
Quotes
"The law of communication is that to hear is to speak, and to speak is to pass the burden of speaking to whoever has heard you, as in a room of men who have been given the word hello." (98)
"To flee from Death is just to jog in place. Spinning inside one's dying." (134)
For my reading taste, some of the stories were more interesting in their premise than in their execution. My recollection is that many (most?) of the stories took place in the mind (the story was a description of the protagonist's thoughts), and that can become tedious. Lots of meta thinking, at times interesting. I kept thinking "thought experiments," but that's not accurate. It felt like that though.
Expect haunting, premonitions of death, inescapable events, thoughts becoming reality. There are some interesting comparisons, such as writer's block and animal camouflage.
Quotes
"The law of communication is that to hear is to speak, and to speak is to pass the burden of speaking to whoever has heard you, as in a room of men who have been given the word hello." (98)
"To flee from Death is just to jog in place. Spinning inside one's dying." (134)
May 20, 2018
WE GET IT BENNETT YOU KNOW WORDS. lmao i'm jokin...i'm just serious. I loved the first story, it really captured some of the creepy crawly crazy feelings I get. Loved the last part of Ekphrases (I had a coworker read it and she went, "What?" in this shocked and creeped out way. I hated Destroy All Monsters. Idk why but it just dragged on, sorry. And Radical Closure was like lol MY LIFE as a writer, holed up in my apartment.
January 25, 2018
House-sitting, the Bookcase, Destroy All Monsters, and Fables blew me away. This kind of high-minded horror feels singular in contemporary fiction. A special shout-out for teaching me my new favorite word: borborygmus.
October 14, 2021
A very clever and distinctive take on horror. Although Sims' writing inarguably demonstrates a formidable intellect, the tone was overall far too navel-gazing for me to really enjoy. Of this collection, Two Guys Watching Cujo was the only one I found myself able to really get into.
January 10, 2018
if goodreads had HALF STAR RATINGS then i’d give this a 3.5. it was pretty okay, writing was good. it was just wayyyyyy tooooo slowwwww and left me bored in numerous places.
March 9, 2018
hits and misses; singular focus on creepy
January 8, 2020
the author clearly has some unresolved issues with dogs
October 29, 2020
h/t to Carmen Maria Machado for recommending this extremely Iowa, but very enjoyable collection of creepy short stories.
What's a positive word for 'pretentious'? Erudite, maybe? Not since DFW have I seen a writer trying to casually throw cynegetic, spicules, stigmergy, and háček into print, but hey, it's exciting to learn new vocabulary at my advanced age.
The best story is the one mentioned by CMM, "House-sitting." It has everything you could want in a horror story, in the Poe vein. Other stories read like exercises, but still hit hard: "Ekphrases" genuinely unnerved me, and I can't say that for much horror I read. I more or less liked all the stories in the collection, though two seemed oddly repetitive.
Anyway, it was great, and I'm glad I found it, because my public library had it in the "Teen" section, lolol.
What's a positive word for 'pretentious'? Erudite, maybe? Not since DFW have I seen a writer trying to casually throw cynegetic, spicules, stigmergy, and háček into print, but hey, it's exciting to learn new vocabulary at my advanced age.
The best story is the one mentioned by CMM, "House-sitting." It has everything you could want in a horror story, in the Poe vein. Other stories read like exercises, but still hit hard: "Ekphrases" genuinely unnerved me, and I can't say that for much horror I read. I more or less liked all the stories in the collection, though two seemed oddly repetitive.
Anyway, it was great, and I'm glad I found it, because my public library had it in the "Teen" section, lolol.
February 1, 2020
The first story is such a showstopper, maybe one of the best I've read in years. The rest make me hypothesize that Sims has 2 primary modes of storytelling - paranoid discursive internal narrative and weird flash fiction. Most of the former worked for me but I was reading the book fast because someone else had it on hold, so I couldn't pause the way I wanted to in between stories so my brain tired of entering one paranoid discursive monologue after another and I did skip the Godzilla story and part of another. So like 98% of the time I was enthralled.
September 18, 2024
Infuriatingly plodding. The narratives are not circuitous or meandering - they are linear, yet, they seem to go nowhere and take forever to reach any semblance of resolution. Uniformly, for all the stories, a semi-engaging plot with some potential is ruined by stale narrative and bland characters.
The plot synopses in Wikipedia are more interesting than the actual stories.
The plot synopses in Wikipedia are more interesting than the actual stories.
March 4, 2019
So enjoyable. Each story was told in it's own language so every chapter truly felt like you were reading a new book. I would describe these short stories as ones that instill "worry" in the reader. Personal favorites were The Bookshelf and Za
February 21, 2020
4.25 I found these stories inventive and original in a way that I haven't seen from a white male author in a while. Maybe it's just because I haven't been reading many white male authors lately. Oh well. This book is great. Especially the titular story.
January 29, 2021
Some real gems in here and even the stories I didn’t love had some great lines or ideas. The title story gave me this frisson of physical fear of the book that I got from House of Leaves and almost no other writing.
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