If you like sad, disturbing short stories, you will love this. Not saying they weren't good. They are. Just not exactly uplifting.

I loved this book. It really captures the spirit of Oklahoma. My friend from Oklahoma also purchased this book and loved it. We can't wait to read more titles from Milligan in the future.

We are all poor in some sense of that word. This book looks at the poor of the world in short story format and we get a small glimpse into a world that is most likely drastically different than our own. Or are they? What would we do if we were at the bottom of the food chain? Where would we turn?
The stories are all darker but most have some grain of morality that we all grapple with.
Quick read but the impact stays much longer. Recommended for those who like a little truth in their fiction.

When [author:Noah Milligan|14831771] talks of poverty, he's not necessarily talking about the paucity of money. While many of the stories do feature people who are lacking in funds; other stories deal with people who are lacking in character, lacking in love, lacking in familial bonds, lacking something basic that most of us take for granted. For some people it seems to be their lot in life, for others it happens even when desperately trying to change their situation. It's been a few days, but I don't recall any of these stories having a particularly happy ending. The best anyone can hope for is a persistent melancholia. This is not a book for people who want to like characters or relate to characters. Many of them are just vile and anyone would be wise to run the other way if ever happening upon them.

<i>A Good Start</i> - A story about a few different forms of the cycle of poverty. 3/5
<i>Status Zero</i> - What happens when a college degree doesn't guarantee a job and the emotional toll that takes. 2.75/5
<i>Everything's Fine</i> - When someone who lacks the ability to connect with other people meets someone who is also unable to connect with people "properly". While the characters here stick with you, I kind of wish they didn't. Something about this story made me deeply uncomfortable even though I've read things that are much worse. Don't know why. 2.5/5
<i>Brought to you by Anonymous</i> - My favorite story of the bunch because it doesn't have the same downtrodden negativity as the other stories. In many ways, it's uplifting. Society has taken conformity to an extreme and people are challenging the status quo. 4/5.
<i>Amid the Flood of Mortal Ills</i> - Climate change and the end of humanity in the US. 3.5/5.
<i>Disobedience</i> - A teenager goes missing and the principal is the primary suspect. 3/5
<i>The Motion of Bodies </i> - The author's take on the story of a person who tweets something racist before taking off and finds themselves in a world of hate once the plane lands. 3/5
<i>The Deep Down Bone of Desire</i> -A jaded housewife racks up a ton of credit card debt. 3/5.
<i>Rainbow Pennant</i> - A man about to retire and his "post-mid-life crisis". A bit meandering and the plotline with the missing sister was just weird. 2.75/5
<i>Life Expectancy </i> - A truly forgettable story about a life insurance salesman. 2/5

It averages out to about 3/5. Even without averaging, some of the stories are memorable and stick with me and others really haven't. I would have given it a 3/5 even without averaging the scores of the stories.

I read the first story and it was depressing. I read the second story and it was gruesome and depressing. I started the third story and it was disturbing. Not reading any further .

3 stars Thank you to NetGalley and Central Avenue Publishing for allowing me to read and review this short story collection.

This book contains 10 short stories - 9 of which have been publicized elsewhere. Each short story reflects a form of poverty. Each short story contains a section of grit or violence or macabre. These stories do not connect through their characters or plots, however they are connected through their rough description of despair.

To think of poverty is to think of the lack of money needed to be comfortable. Money is not the feature in these stories. There is lack of social conscious, lack of direction, lack of love and happiness in these stories. Sometimes there is even the lack of a sufficient ending to the story.

Each story is different and unique, touching on gruesome, held together by a ribbon of despair.

What I enjoyed most about this collection of short stories is the book as a whole had this cohesive quality even though the stories were vastly different. That isn't always the case in a book of short stories. When I saw the title I assumed this was just going to be about having no money but the stories all were centered around the theme of lacking something whether it be direction, love, hope, control, etc.

While at times a few of the stories could be hard to read when they took shocking and graphic turns, each one was original and you were left feeling like you really got into the minds of the characters. My personal favorite of the bunch was "Brought to you by Anonymous" which I didn't care for at first but really ended up feeling invested in the relationship between father and daughter.

Overall, a good collection of stories that really show off the author's ability to create stories that are not only original but leave each reader taking away something different.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read an advance digital copy!

This was a very fine collection of short stories. He does an excellent job of showing and making you feel for the MC of each story, even if they’re despicable or do despicable things. It’s a decent commentary on debt and the working poor but definitely not was I was expecting or what the collection is billed as. That said, it’s relatively quick read & hopefully all of the formatting issues are fixed by pub date because they’re incredibly distracting.

'When I was in the room, Frank stared at me the way men have since I was eleven years old, with a mixture of lust and apathy.'

While this is a slim collection of stories it is so peculiar and wonderful that I hope Milligan writes more, I just realized he wrote a novel too titled An Elegant Theory that I will have to acquire. What I love about these stories is that they aren’t about perfect, successful happy folks.The men and women in this book seem to live outside the lives people imagine are waiting for the well-adjusted. Everything’s Fine is fantastic, what an odd story, there are some authors you read and ask yourself, ‘what inspired this tale?’ It is deeply sad, and these are the sort of characters (people) that will never be ‘normal’. Our narrator did strange things to herself, she tells us, when she was little. You can imagine her parents hovering over their daughter through her entire childhood scared, not of outside dangers, but of what she could do to herself. But that isn’t really the story, the story is where she works as an adult, at the Rosewood Medical Center for the Severely Disabled. More forgotten people who live in the cracks of time, stuck in facilities, lucky if their caretakers are gentle and kind. She meets the brother of a patient, and so begins one of the weirdest relationships I’ve read and yet this ‘living at a distance’, vicariously through another’s happiness that makes sense.

The Motion of Bodies exposes the dangers of our social comments whether they are light-hearted jokes or not. What’s more terrifying than an offhanded comment or joke that turns on you, makes you a social enemy? Not as far-fetched as we think. It can cost more than we ever thought we’d have to give up. How do you defend against a few words that paints a picture of you as someone you’re not? Especially if you wrote them? What we mean in this age is impossible to reign in, all it takes is one person to shape your thoughts, usually strangers. The jungle seems to be social media now.

A Good Start is the first story, a man grapples with caring for a boy who may or may not be his son, and truly what does it matter to him? He doesn’t much take to the idea of being ‘obligated’ to anything or anyone. I just kept thinking ‘born alone, die alone’. If it is his son, their childhoods and their mothers are mirrors. It produces raw thoughts and ugly feelings to imagine there are such upbringings that makes no room for innocence. Little boys and girls who learn all too soon not to trust any adults, most especially not their mothers and fathers, and that they better get streetwise fast if they have any chance of survival.

These are not your usual short stories, they aren’t pretty in fact in one a man’s job is to clean up crime scenes, suicides, and nautral deaths in Status Zero, some are really weird but all are original. I read the following on goodreads.com under the book summary. The title comes from Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, “Wherever there is great property there is great inequality. For one very rich man there must be at least five hundred poor, and the affluence of the few supposes the indigence of the many. The affluence of the rich excites the indignation of the poor, who are often both driven by want, and prompted by envy, to invade his possessions.” There must be five hundred poor.

Publication Date: June 1, 2018

Central Avenue Publishing

Three stars. While it was a nice change to have a quick read~ short stories that I could start and finish within minutes, I found I was not as taken by these stories as I expected. These stories were not necessarily about the poor, in the money sense, but more about those who were lacking in other areas. This included: morals, confidence, relationships, happiness. The stories were well written, but for some reason just did not resonate with me. Thank you to Central Avenue Publishing and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

If I had to choose only one word to describe this collection of short stories, it would be "raw." Each one of these ten stories was real, sometimes crude, and very original. These stories weren't always comfortable to read, and several ended so abruptly I was left feeling incomplete. Isn't that one of the marks of a great short story? When it leaves you wanting more? I believe so.

Each of these short stories are set in Oklahoma. Originally from Oklahoma, I personally loved all of the references to my home state. (The description of the chicken fried steak at Cheever's made me homesick.) At first, I was worried that the characters and situations in the story would be stereotypical--ignorant cowboys living in a flyover state--but that wasn't true at all. These characters were troubled and flawed and honest. Their lives aren't easy and they struggle with the hardships that they have been given.

These stories aren't for the squeamish. Some descriptions, topics, and situations are comfortable to read about, but that is what makes each story so good. The author doesn't hold back. Two of my favorite stories, "Brought to you By Anonymous" and "Amid the Flood of Mortal Ills" were such unique stories, almost dystopian in nature. Both were stories that I didn't want to end. I would recommend this book to all of my reader friends, not just those living in Oklahoma.

Five Hundred Poor is a very clever, fascinating and uniquely constructed book. There are 10 short stories that are unconnected in terms of storyline, but they combine to create a profound theme of loss and despair. We may consider our lives to be poorer when our dreams don’t materialise, when fate transpires against us, when we experience unrequited love or when our health limits our quality of life.

<blockquote><i>”Wherever there is great property there is great inequality. For one very rich man, there must be at least five hundred poor, and the affluence of the few supposes the indigence of the many.”</i></blockquote>

Each story is provocative, sharp and gritty, and while some deal with poverty in financial terms, others see poverty in loss of integrity, hope or faith, either from a personal, family or social perspective.

Sometimes bad choices or illegal activities can lead to a downward spiral of misbehaviour and hostility. We understand these as a typical consequence but what really challenges us here is that in some instances the characters can’t do right for doing wrong. No matter what choice they make it will acutely and negatively affect their lives. The sharp and reflective aspect of each story is often reinforced with quite an abrupt end. It entices our imagination but leaves us in no doubt that the outcomes are harsh and often fatal.

Because the stories are so short and crammed into 192 pages, any comment on plot or characters would be a spoiler, but I would recommend reading this book. Some of the stories have continued to play on my mind since finishing. It is very different, profound and refreshingly provocative.

Many thanks to Central Avenue Publishing and NetGalley, for an ARC version of the book in return for an honest review.

Noah Milligan's first short story collection takes its title from economist Adam Smith: "Wherever there is great property there is great inequality. For one very rich man there must be at least five hundred poor ..." Economic insecurity, as experienced across every social class in contemporary life, is explored in this book. Set in Milligan's native Oklahoma City, its standout pieces include 'Good Start', 'Brought to You by Anonymous', and 'Life Expectancy'.

OK stories..........nothing tht will remain in my head for long.

I was very hopeful about this collection of stories because the subject matter was something that interested me. The stories early on in the book are exactly what I expected: true to the overarching theme, thought provoking and somewhat harsh, in the best way.

However, the later stories didn't really seem to fulfil a purpose. The only thought they provoked was "why is this even here?" They seemed out of place in the collection but also unintenteresting as stand alone short stories. I generally like when, in a collection, stories have no real connection to each other and throw you from one world to the next or they have significant links to each other. These had neither. There was no significant connections but the recurring factors were very odd: walking pneumonia and inappropriate sex with young girls, for example.

There were some thought provoking gems about gentrification, materialism, global warming, the foster care system, etc. I think the most alarming to me was the story about a levvy that is about to burst and drown those below it. The sea levels are rising and people are struggling to survive but a couple are expecting a child. They planned to have the baby knowing they can provide little and will be bringing their child into a world where it may not survive very long. It brought up the controversial question of why people have children in our current world knowing they'll raise them in poverty. "Their decision was shortsighted and naive, maybe, but it was something to look forward to." This line of explanation was probably the most poignant of the entire book for me. It's understandable that in dire surroundings, with little control over their own lives, people will take any bit of happiness they can regardless of how much sorrow accompanies it.

Overall, I'd say the book isn't too enjoyable for people who just want an entertaining read without having to analyse it like an English Literature student. I felt, and hope, that I missed some important aspects that made the collection make more sense to others but when I was done reading I felt nothing but the frustrating sense that I hadn't grasped the point the author was trying to make and it's still eluding me now.

This was my first introduction to Noah Milligan, and I'll definitely be looking for more from him. These stories are mostly set in Oklahoma, the characters are poor (if not financially, then morally), and there is a bit of a shock to each short. Sometimes the shock comes from an abrupt ending, or an ending so bizarre it seems intended for a different story, or there's a sudden admission of sex, or recognition of a real life scenario; Milligan never run out of surprises.

I love the cadence to the local vernacular, and how Milligan includes the smell of a place in addition to describing its look and feel. Most of all I appreciate his black humor, whether targeted at abandonment, crime scene clean-up, stalking, a life-ruining-tweet, fatherhood fear amid environmental disaster, shopaholicism, or family drama with a twist.