A WEEK at SURFSIDE BEACH by P. Koslosky, Jr. – Short Story Collections, Vacation Stories, Family & Relationships

Vacationers from all walks of life converge on Portofino II-317C, South Carolina, a quaint blue beach house, in Pierce Koslosky Jr.’s short story collection, A Week at Surfside Beach.

From May 30th-December 26th each group of people comes to stay one week at a time, to forget their cares of the big city, to work, to celebrate, or to simply get away. Surfside Beach has much to show them, including temperamental weather.

The small town itself offers a charming supermarket where fishing supplies, whoopie pies, and local southern favorites can be found. The Christmas vacationers, the final of the thirteen beach house renters, struggle to find a tree in time; a real tree simply wouldn’t allow enough space for the family to sleep, and the fake tree would cost too much. But they find arts and crafts supplies in town, to fashion a paper Christmas tree during a day of rainy weather.

We all know that during vacations there are disagreements, lover spats, lessons learned, stolen kisses, and many other moments for a reader to see through the eyes of the characters at Surfside Beach.

The house itself exists in the real world, as does the town of Surfside Beach. Koslosky purchased the actual house after Hurricane Hugo hit the coast of South Carolina. The short stories connect the characters through this realistic setting.

These thirteen stories are rich with emotion and relationships. Even in just one tale, two families quarrel over a better view, a better beach house, an entrée item at dinner, their kids fighting, and a lack of parental approval of the feuding families’ son/daughter Romeo and Juliet hidden romance. Human compassion shines through these conflicts, such as in a later story where a father shows his son kindness and understanding when a gang of locals leads him astray, presenting a strong faith in humanity.

Koslosky creates a believable work of fiction which flows from story to story, recreating a well-known setting of a beach house, the characters playing out a reminder that while nothing is perfect even in paradise, nothing needs to be perfect.

A Week at Surfside Beach by Pierce Koslosky Jr. won Grand Prize in the 2020 CIBA SHORTS Awards for Short Story Collections.