Things don't often go as the reader expects in Michael C. Keith's collection If Things Were Made to Last Forever. The death of a child becomes the occasion for purchasing lavish gifts and a dinner from McDonald's devolves into a national scandal. Even an honest attempt to rescue baby birds from a barren nest becomes an exercise in cruelty. Keith delights in putting his characters in unlikely situations and then watching them react in unexpected ways. Whether he is telling the story of the stray dogs who were killed to make way for the Sochi Olympics or introducing us to a boy who obsessively creates exact duplicates of each painting in the Van Gogh catalogue, Keith takes us into a world where all the rules have been rewritten and every guarantee has been revoked. If Things Were Made to Last Forever is a macabre smorgasbord of humor and absurdity. Craig Fishbane, On the Proper Role of Desire Michael C. Keith has come up with another collection of brilliant, inventive stories. "The Boy Who Would Be Van Gogh" is just one of the stories that's a must read. There are countless more. Cetywa Powell, Underground Voices This fantastic collection features a mix of lengths, forms, and subjects infused with a sense of banged-up knuckles and gritty fingernails. Keith startles readers with the beauty of his characters' scabs and bruises and some of the loveliest dirt we've ever seen. John Sheirer, What's the Story? Michael Keith's stories are a playful and inventive pleasure, as filled with humor as they are with wry commentary and strong emotion. Elizabeth Graver, The End of the Point