Author: Ben Loory
Pages: 208
Pub: 2011
Genre: Fiction, Short Stories
Etc: ARC from Netgalley
The Short of It
Clever and odd short fic fun.
The Long of It
This is a collection of oftentimes surreal (an octopus who has slight agoraphobia living downtown) and oddly unique short stories. Some are relatively harmless, while others have a bite that will tear at your mind.
For example, in “The Book” a woman freaks out after purchasing a book that ends up having blank pages. She then verbally attacks the author and anyone else who purchases it. Or “The Tree” where a tree decides to get up and explore it’s surroundings, roaming the world.
The Thoughts about It
I cannot capture how odd these stories were. After reading a couple of them, my immediate thought turned to how awesome some would be for my classroom. The majority of the stories are about five pages long, but the depth to them is something fierce. Ooooh and the writing? Wowzers. Is it over the top to say lyrical? Feisty lyrical prose?
The only downside was really more about me rather than the collection. I’m not disciplined enough to read only a couple of short stories at a time, and I think that’s how they probably should be read. Rather, I sorta devoured the whole text in a day or two which led to the stories bleeding into one and another. I also could probably have read them on a different level entirely if I had the patience.
Luckily though, this is a collection that warrants the time to read again and again.
Sounds interesting. That's an interesting short story problem. Happens to me with short books...I have to live with a story for a while for it to really stick.
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