Read in two days. Lovely prose that flows like a gentle river. An important story, but one that's been done more powerfully in the recent biopic film Read in two days. Lovely prose that flows like a gentle river. An important story, but one that's been done more powerfully in the recent biopic film titled "Philomena" starring Dame Judi Dench (do watch after reading this novella). So coming from that, I was not as drawn to this predictable book as others were (and it didn't help that I guessed at the main mystery from the beginning). Still, a delightful and heart-warming holiday story that sends a very important message to all. Read by the fire with a cup of cocoa or Irish coffee! A nice gift, too....more
"The greatest of human gifts is the ability to project a self-image larger than ourselves across a desert, an ocean, or a canvas."
Flood has the gift a"The greatest of human gifts is the ability to project a self-image larger than ourselves across a desert, an ocean, or a canvas."
Flood has the gift and this slim novel reads like an abbreviated Homeric Odyssey. The main character, Minister, journeys on a train, not the ocean, but his fellow passengers and the view from the train and the stops they make along the way all take on mythic weight and proportions.
As I was reading, I thought this might make an excellent play. Then I read his bio and saw that indeed he is a playwright. You have those blocked off, walled off scenes and dialog that encapsulate a life that translates well to a stage. I hope this will make it to one.
Some of the most gorgeous prose I've ever read, packed with human insight. Dark. As the subject matters calls for (the beginning of the great migration north). And in that darkness is one of the most chilling scenes I've ever read in my life. It broke my heart. No violence, just the prospective hint of it, which allows those of us who have not experienced lynchings to get a feel for the terror and loss. It will stay with me forever, those headlights...
This book may not take you where you want to go, but it's an important and beautiful journey by a promising new writer. Thanks to Angela for her lovely review which lead me to the book. I would not have heard of it otherwise, and it deserves more attention. 4.5 stars....more
I came late to this collection after reading and loving Hall's more recent The Snow Collectors. And the collection did not disappoint. She is a remarkI came late to this collection after reading and loving Hall's more recent The Snow Collectors. And the collection did not disappoint. She is a remarkable writer. Her foray into poetry shows through in her prose. She has the ability to look at the most common objects in the most miraculous of ways. She plays with the English language the way a maestro directs a symphony. Too many wonderful passages to quote.
I especially loved the novella at the back of the book, "All the Day's Sad Stories," a Caketrain winner. It's about a married couple trying to conceive, but as it is with all of Hall's stories, there is so much more...deception, darkness, death, mystery, then beautiful resolution. One of the best endings I've ever read. I love her longer works because I sink into her prose and characters' lives and don't want to come up for air for a very long time.
This book is forthcoming! Paperback Oct. 2, Audio Oct. 13. It's tiny but, I hope, packs a punch! It was fun to collaborate and experiment. We took twoThis book is forthcoming! Paperback Oct. 2, Audio Oct. 13. It's tiny but, I hope, packs a punch! It was fun to collaborate and experiment. We took two characters from our story collections and had them eventually meet up. Great exercise in writing back story. And I'm thankful to our AMAZING blurbers:
“With two writers as well matched artistically as Tara Lynn Masih and James Claffey, a collaboration is cause to celebrate. This richly woven, haunting novelette transcends the confines of its brevity; feels tender, sprawling, immersive. The Bitter Kind is an alchemy, a duet, a gorgeous melding of two of our most treasured literary voices.” —Kathy Fish, author of Wild Life: Collected Works from 2003–2018
“With short, alternating passages, James Claffey and Tara Masih vividly illuminate the separate and commingled lives of Stela and Brandy in this original and elegantly textured novella. It is a story, human and soulful, of place, mysticism, and the hard-won ground we all struggle toward.” —Robert Scotellaro, author of Nothing Is Ever One Thing
“From ghost-soaked frontier towns to leafy waterways, frozen river basins, and the open road, Tara Masih’s and James Claffey’s parallel narratives tumble along through stunning landscapes of loneliness and beauty. The writing is evocative and tender, exploring both the haunted and the haunting; touching in its examination of broken things and masterful in its prose.” —Kimberly Lojewski, author of Worm Fiddling Nocturne in the Key of a Broken Heart
“With beautiful imagery and a seamless voice, Masih and Claffey move us through decades as two parallel lives seek solace and healthy human connection. Stela, long plagued by abusive relationships, and Brandy, spurred by tragedy and unlucky in love, are shaped and steered by the things that haunt them, and, perhaps, the things that will someday guide them to heal. This winning collaborative effort is both stirring and satisfying.” —Mel Bosworth, author of FREIGHT and coauthor of Second Acts in American Lives
“With their binocular lyric lenses, Masih and Claffey provide a lacquered and sanded depth to this compilation set in the chambered karst of our heartfelt heartland. The book is a layered lanyard, a laurel wreath, an ouroboros, Mobius’s Mobius, an effortless enso, and a terrific torqueing torus. The diastolic/systolic dub-Dub, a syncopated sink or swim, of the call and response had me reeling, a time step timed to hit the one and the three. What I am saying is that this is a tour de force, a fait accompli.” —Michael Martone, author of Brooding and The Moon Over Wapakoneta
Beautiful, original, poetic hybrid novella from the talented New Zealand author Michelle Elvy. Each "chapter" is exquisitely condensed, highlighting tBeautiful, original, poetic hybrid novella from the talented New Zealand author Michelle Elvy. Each "chapter" is exquisitely condensed, highlighting the main character Zettie who stops talking at age 7. Instead, she listens. And hears what most of us ignore.
An ode to the earth, the environment, and to one woman's unique decision to live life on her own terms.
"But her gift has been to hear the minutest of leaf crackle and spider spinning, to hear a violin in Berlin hover over a lion's yawn reaching across the Serengeti plains. The sounds that shake the earth."
Highly recommend to lovers of flash, hybrid, and poetic prose....more
4.5 stars. I was worried I would not like this book, as it began with what for me was a traumatic scene of a near hate crime, which the main character4.5 stars. I was worried I would not like this book, as it began with what for me was a traumatic scene of a near hate crime, which the main character took part in with no remorse. And there is a narrated story of child abuse. But just when I was about to throw in the towel, the story of Grainier drew me in. Johnson has written a little classic about the dying West. The shifting of borders, the growth of industrialism, the changing roles of men and women. With a dab of mysticism thrown in.
I loved his descriptions of the natural world ("It was only when you left it alone that a tree might treat you as a friend"), especially of the fire that destroys his landscape and his family. This is I suppose how Johnson depicts Grainier's perceived punishment for his early crimes against man and nature and the dead landscape that slowly returns in a different way mirrors his partial absolution.
"You're not growing in the direction of your own nature" he tells his adopted mongrel. In essence, the main character slowly grows into his own nature, and I LOVED the ending. Many literary books have IMO kind of flat endings, but this one literally ends on a long, lonesome, exquisite howl....more
Sort of Shirley Jackson's "Lottery" meets "The Hunger Games" and "Lord of the Flies." I love Moss's prose, her almost stream-of-consciousness style inSort of Shirley Jackson's "Lottery" meets "The Hunger Games" and "Lord of the Flies." I love Moss's prose, her almost stream-of-consciousness style in this brief novel, her attention to the natural world which fills most of the scenes and gives this book a feeling of being a nut contained within a shiny glossy shell. Having taken many courses in archaeology and anthropology, I also was super interested in the history of the bog people, which reveals an underlying menace in our current society.
However....I think Moss sacrificed much-needed room in telling her story and developing more fleshed out characters to that concentration on nature description. The opening is horrific and I almost could not read the book, and I think it gives too much away so that the ending is a foregone conclusion rather than being the unsettling surprise it could have been. And when I got to the final page, I looked to the acknowledgments thinking the book continued on to a new chapter. It didn't. After such a long and protracted journey with the narrator, while it was a beautifully written ending, it seemed incomplete to me.
Finally, while yes, women have been mostly dominated by men for centuries, this story was way too brutal on them. We are no longer bog people. The men came across to me as caricatures, rather than thoughtful, intelligent males who just suddenly got carried away with their experiment in domination and slipped oh so easily into the past. That would have been a more powerful message for me.
Still, I'd for sure read more of her work. *UPDATE*: This article might be of interest after you read the book:
I read this in about an hour. Barely a novella, this surreal, erotic story packs a punch. There are notes at the end from Duras that indicate staging,I read this in about an hour. Barely a novella, this surreal, erotic story packs a punch. There are notes at the end from Duras that indicate staging, which to me means she wrote this to be staged or filmed. There is an omniscient narrator above the He/She actors playing out the age old struggle between male and female, yin and yang. The only elements are white sheets and a black roiling sea that continually roars in the background. Some great observations on love and the lack of it....more
4.5 stars. This began slowly for me. There was little to capture my attention in the first "chapter" (the novella collects 12 linked stories as a whol4.5 stars. This began slowly for me. There was little to capture my attention in the first "chapter" (the novella collects 12 linked stories as a whole), which mostly attended to the narrator finding an apartment after a marital separation. But gradually the beauty of her poetic insight started to shine through quite literally as the novel plays with light and shadow and dreams and images as a reflection of the interior soul. As someone who was a single divorced mother for 9 years and started off with a child of the same age, I could very much relate to the feelings and struggles this young woman faced. I had to keep reminding myself this was written in the 70s in Japan where I'm sure divorce carried way more stigma than it had in the States and was much rarer. The honest journey was worth the read. Well translated, too....more
I know nothing about this author, but saw some buzz about the book, and am remarkably impressed with the author's incredibly deft way with prose. OverI know nothing about this author, but saw some buzz about the book, and am remarkably impressed with the author's incredibly deft way with prose. Over and over, I marked passages to be repeated, but there are too many. Aridjis is a poet at heart, and a highly intelligent one, at that. I LOVED her way with words and her quick sketches (the book is really a group of tiny sketches strung together) on history, shipwrecks, sea forms that interrupt the flow of the plot. This is a very brief, contemporary Odyssey (set in 1990s Mexico), and the young female narrator comes to learn that imagining travel is "probably better than actually traveling since no journey can ever satisfy human desire."
So, indeed, the reader is left as unsatisfied as the narrator at the end of the book. Luisa never finds the Ukrainian dwarfs she is in search of (and why I picked up the book), and we never learn why they are so important to her. Still, it's an extremely deft coming-of-age story and Aridjis is a brilliant writer. 5 stars for her prose....more
I found myself more engaged with this long short story than I thought I would be. Saunders narrates as FOX 8, the name given to a real fox by his den.I found myself more engaged with this long short story than I thought I would be. Saunders narrates as FOX 8, the name given to a real fox by his den. It's in the form of a letter or story to "Yumans." Part of the charm is the phonetic spelling throughout, because of course a fox cannot spell but has learned "werds" from listening to Yumans tell stories. Normally I hate this gimmick, but in Saunders' hands, it shines.
What is at times sweet, funny, recognizable, is at other times dark and tragic, as Yumans encroach on the den's territory. I also read this is a parallel to how some are treating the immigrants who are crossing our borders and entering our ports.
Illustrated with simple line drawings by Chelsea Cardinal. This gives it the feel of a children's fairy tale. Both beautiful and a warning of some kind....more
"Time had orphaned her." I'm not quite sure what my thoughts are on this brief novel. It changed throughout the reading. One thing that drove me crazy"Time had orphaned her." I'm not quite sure what my thoughts are on this brief novel. It changed throughout the reading. One thing that drove me crazy (and which was probably intentional on the part of the author) was not being able to fix this story into any place in time, past, present, or future. "A brutal civil war has savaged the country," yet we don't know which civil war. Most of the time it seems to be the American Civil War between the North and South in the 1800s. Yet...Hagy doesn't settle fully into this time period either. So, is it the future? If so, why are people living like they did in the past? Is this a warning to us in the present?
I'm afraid this question, which might say more about my personality than the book, drove me a bit bonkers while I read. Still, I love the creepy, haunted feeling that still lingers. I love the use of folklore and Hagy's experimental format and prose, which is as dark and dirty and eloquent as the story. It's about the power of story, of confession, of love, and redemption. Don't read if you like Hollywood endings. Read if you want to be challenged and are OK feeling off kilter and reading original prose. And I confess, if she wrote a sequel, I'd read it....more
Being from the flash world, this intrigued me. The writing is about as sparse as you can get in a work of prose. Some beautiful phrasing and strong imBeing from the flash world, this intrigued me. The writing is about as sparse as you can get in a work of prose. Some beautiful phrasing and strong images that reflected the incessant waves in the ocean. However, while I'm a fan of quiet books, this was a bit too quiet even for me. Not enough tension and I did not like the ending. Plus, if I had not gone back to browse the first part, I would not have gotten what he had tried to do with the plot. I would totally have missed it. That's all I will say so as not to spoil this. He is a great writer, but this long short story didn't resonate enough with me. Perhaps if I had read this as a short story instead of a novella, I would have given it a higher rating....more
4.5 stars. Came across this in a remainder pile and finally got the chance to read it. Sorry to see so few reviews and hoping this one will bring it m4.5 stars. Came across this in a remainder pile and finally got the chance to read it. Sorry to see so few reviews and hoping this one will bring it more attention. Anyone who reads literary fiction, WW II novels, will appreciate this little gem. It reminds me of Visitation. Bercovitch has his own writing style. At times I had to reread sentences. They are thick with alliteration and unique vocabulary. There were times I felt I did not need to know the names of each type of fauna, but still, I could not help but be entranced by his ability to create a wallow in the woods where his two main characters, two boys, hide from Nazis.
It's a brutal and beautiful coming of age story, and their friendship is at the core of their survival. Of course the relationship is tested. And it's up to the reader to decide if it survives intact. I don't want to spoil the ending, but it kept me from giving this a 5. I still feel this is a very special book and hope more Goodreads readers pick it up. There are many Holocaust novels, but this one adds something unique and important....more
I picked this little book up at the library because I was surprised to see such a small book. It's hard to get novellas published, but this looks likeI picked this little book up at the library because I was surprised to see such a small book. It's hard to get novellas published, but this looks like part of a novella series from Tor. I'm not a reader of SF so don't feel quite qualified to review this, but as a reader of short fiction, I was impressed.
Set in the future, when technology is more advanced and antiquities are high commodities, this is the provenance tale behind an old typewriter Katya finds and is preparing for sale. She types this story on the machine, and it includes her typos. A bit gimmicky: for me as a proofreader, it drove me a bit crazy. But I'm all for woodsy stories, and as she gets abducted into the forest, there is a bit of thriller and mystery. I won't spoil it, but I did find the ending seemed rushed and flat. I would love to see this expanded into a novel, however. The material and setting and characterization is all there. But maybe the author doesn't know what is happening either, so she had to let it stand as is. Still, I enjoyed it for its originality and brevity....more
First off, I for sure want to read Winter's Bone and The Outlaw Album at some point. However, this book did not do much for me. In fact, it gave me a First off, I for sure want to read Winter's Bone and The Outlaw Album at some point. However, this book did not do much for me. In fact, it gave me a bit of a headache, literally. There are some wonderful reviews for this book, and some terrible ones. I fall in the middle. I loved the sparseness of this novella/short novel, much of the writing, the sort of 9/11 quality of the central theme of a dance hall explosion that takes many lives, and Woodrell's empathetic chapters centering around some of the victims, which illuminate the tragedy in ways that we don't often get anymore in the brief bylines of the news.
Having said that, I felt he got too carried away and trapped in his own style. This is one of those sentences that made my head hurt:
"But when the door closed behind they again must not from this time until the next know each other by face or name if they crossed paths or anybody asked."
Maybe just how my brain works, but without punctuation, sentences like this made me cringe and say, oh, just say it plainly! The story also jumps around too much for my taste, shifts povs in ways I did not like, and left the best character to the side, IMO (Alma, the maid). The ending also just left me flat. Good mystery, great town and characters, but too much artifice for my taste....more
4.5 stars. This is a spare tale of three German soldiers who "hunt" for Jews in Poland during World War II. It is a novella and takes place over the s4.5 stars. This is a spare tale of three German soldiers who "hunt" for Jews in Poland during World War II. It is a novella and takes place over the span of 24 hours. To me, it had the feeling of a one act play. And a very powerful one at that. By French author Hubert Mingarelli, it is beautifully translated by American author Sam Taylor.
Your stomach will be in knots the whole time, as the outcome of this snowy venture is always held out there ahead of you as you read. It's a complex look at how men follow army orders, or don't. Why they make the choices they make, and the repercussions. What is not said has more weight than what is said. The only reason I'm not giving it 5 stars is because . . . frankly, I'm not sure. Maybe a part of me did not like the ending and is blaming the writer, but the ending is sadly very realistic. Or maybe because the complexity of the German mentality during WW II cannot so easily be boiled down to one shared meal. Destined to be a European classic, however....more
I was not prepared for the innovative prose and fever-pitched story that Raffel weaves so deftly. This brief novel in stories and fragments won't appeI was not prepared for the innovative prose and fever-pitched story that Raffel weaves so deftly. This brief novel in stories and fragments won't appeal to everyone, but I drank it in and marveled at each clipped, concise, broken, poetic, loaded sentence. It takes some time to become comfortable with what the author is doing. But I soon found myself drawn in to the dreary world she paints with dabs of words like an impressionist painting. I envied her brilliant construction and know this is something I could never achieve myself. I loved the fragments that appear to be nothing, bits of useless prose, but on second and third readings take on mammoth proportions.
A train enters the scene every night, spewing soot, and the tale of the Three Little Pigs keeps resurfacing to underscore and help explain the story.
The main narrator (simply called "aunt") is trapped in the house in which she grew up, and is taking care of her elderly father. A bit of mystery that becomes exposed later in the novel, an errant sister who returns with a sick son who will capture your heart, alcohol infusing the delivery of the narration, keen observation for details of a world, a life of objects ("The house flashed before her as if it were a life"), all throttling to a startling conclusion.
I think the best part of this novella is the title and the last two paragraphs. Not much holds up this story which seems more like an early sketch forI think the best part of this novella is the title and the last two paragraphs. Not much holds up this story which seems more like an early sketch for a longer novel. If you are looking to read Bolano, I'd read one of his earlier works....more
Highly recommend for flash and short story lovers. Becker has a unique voice. Her prose is simple, but packs a wallop of an intellectual and emotionalHighly recommend for flash and short story lovers. Becker has a unique voice. Her prose is simple, but packs a wallop of an intellectual and emotional punch. Beautiful stuff here. Update***Finally read the novella. Blown away. Wish I could even think to write like this. Her keen observations, her ability to tell truth through negation, her sentence construction is unique.
Some quotes from the novella:
"With every hurt word, I hid behind furniture, and nail polish and sweaters. I hid in lines, on buses, underwater. I hid in burritos and cookies big as hands and milkshakes topped with awful cherries. I let the cherries sink to the bottom with the melt. With every hurt word, I was less able to cause hurt. When I peeled a cucumber, I felt the sting of losing skin. I threw out the cucumber and ate the waxy rinds."
"I emptied the condom I found in the trash and made it irrelevant. " OMG, who ever wrote that about a condom?
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