I have yet to be disappointed by a recommendation from the NPR best books concierge, and Three Moments of an Explosion may be my favorite so far. A collection of sometimes sci-fi, sometimes fantasy, sometimes horror short stories, Three Moments starts with a base of a very realistic world, and adds in each of its stories an element of something beyond, something more magical or sinister. The stories in the collection typically start with or are based in a real object, or a regular person, that has become corrupted […]
“I’m working on my own life story. I don’t mean I’m putting it together; no, I’m taking it apart.”
I borrow the The Tent from Caitlin_D after she complained that she didn’t like it, and possibly just does not like short stories. Caitlin, I am determined to prove you wrong! I love Margaret Atwood, and in fact beside Stephen King, she’s probably the one author whose short stories I actually seek out. “I suffer from my own multiplicity. Two or three images would have been enough, or four, or five. That would be allowed for a firm idea: This is she. As it is, I’m watery, I […]
Well that was unexpected….
Tranquil Star by Primo Levi
I know Primo Levi primarily from his personal narratives. He is an Auschwitz survivor, and many of his most famous writings relate his various experiences during that time. Some of his other writings discuss his work as a chemist or his brief stint in the Italian army before the war. This collection of short stories began in a similar vein. The very first story is about a captured Italian partisan who has the opportunity to set of a opportunistically positioned German grenade. As I was […]
The problem here is I don’t think I like short stories
This collection of short stories feels more like Atwood published her “idea journal” for public consumption. I read one review that suggested that, despite its short length, it may be better enjoyed in short spurts which I did not consider until it was too late. In the few instances I found myself enjoying a story it would inevitably end a few sentences later, as is the nature of short stories. The longer poems were probably the most enjoyable because they felt the most complete as […]
Oh, Jojo, I just can’t quit you
3.5 star rating for Paris for One (a novella); 2.5 star rating for the “other” stories). Paris for One is the story of Nell, 26 and unmarried (insert gasp!) but dating a rather useless boyfriend. After mentioning to him that she’s never been to Paris, he responds with “you should go one day, you’d love it), so she immediately buys plane tickets and books a hotel room for a weekend getaway. Unsurprisingly (at least, to everyone but Nell), useless boyfriend no shows, and she’s left to navigate the city […]
Thought-provoking and … kind of freaky
I purchased Story of Your Life and Others after I saw Arrival in theaters, which rocked me to my core, and I wanted to see just how it translated from the page to the screen. The answer? Very differently. For one, Chiang is a lot more technical in his descriptions, and I really appreciate the sparse-ness of his language. He does not use wordy descriptions to manipulate emotions out of his readers; he simply lets the readers draw the parallels between the science-y concepts he talking about […]
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