Category Archives: Short Stories

February 18, 2015 · 12:00 am

Review: Turtleface and Beyond by Arthur Bradford

I received an advanced review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley

My Review:
TurtlefaceThis collection of stories can be categorized as dark comedy and I have to admit that I laughed out loud at the stories many times.  The author’s subtle and ironic wit permeates all of the tales.  In the title story, “Turtleface,” Otto dives off of a cliff into a river and sustains a disfiguring facial injury.  It turns out that he hit a turtle when he entered the water.  Georgie, the narrator of the stories, finds the injured turtle, spends $800 to nurse the turtle back to health, and keeps it in a pool in his apartment.

Although all of the stories stand alone as individual narratives, they are all focused around episodes in the life of Georgie.  He has many adventures and makes irresponsible decisions that lead to comical, and sometimes tragic, outcomes.  He loses part of his leg in a wood chipper, lives in a communal farmhouse full of hippies one winter in Vermont and buys a house with a mysterious metal box that sits in the backyard.

Georgie also encounters strange and sometimes sad people in his adventures.  He lives in interesting and varied places, from Thailand to New York City.  Georgie also has a string of interesting jobs which include working in a legal library, writing short stories for magazines and cleaning up in a nursing home.  All of these elements are adroitly combined to make TURTLEFACE AND BEYOND an entertaining and clever collection of short stories.

 

About The Author:
Arthur BradfordArthur Bradford is an O Henry Award winning writer and Emmy-nominated filmmaker. His writing has appeared in Esquire, McSweeney’s, Vice, Men’s Journal, and many other publications. His first book, Dogwalker, was published by Knopf and Vintage paperback in 2002, and has been translated into ten languages. In 2012 McSweeney’s published Benny’s Brigade, a children’s book. Bradford’s newest book, “Turtleface”, has been published by Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux.

Bradford is also the creator and director of the acclaimed “How’s Your News?” documentary series, versions of which have been broadcast on HBO/Cinemax, PBS, and Channel Four England. He developed the concept into a series for MTV which ran throughout 2009. A new film in the series, “Election 2012” was released Oct. 2012 and can be seen in full at howsyournews.com. In 2011 Bradford directed the Emmy-nominated documentary, “Six Days to Air”, about the making of South Park, for Comedy Central. He is currently shooting a feature documentary about Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

Bradford lives in Portland, Oregon and works at a juvenile detention center.

 

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January 15, 2015 · 12:00 am

Review and Giveaway: From The Fifteenth District by Mavis Gallant

Today I welcome France Book Tours back to my blog with an interesting collection of short stories.  I invite you to read my review, enter to win your own copy of the book, and visit the other stops on the tour.

My Review:
15th DistrictThis is a unique, and at times bizarre, collection of stories that are set in Western Europe before, during and after World War II.  The characters in the stories are not soldiers or directly fighting in the war, but their lives are in many ways deeply affected by the war.  All of the stories are melancholy in tone and have a stream of consciousness feel with meandering narratives.

I enjoyed the story “Four Seasons” because it showed how this war affected citizens all over Europe.  A British family is living on the coast of Italy and barely making ends meet as they are running a small printing business out of their home.  This story is typical of the collection in that it has a melancholy tone and none of the characters seem happy with their lives.

The husband and wife barely interact with each other or their twin girls who are toddlers.  When they hire a nanny who is an Italian girl that barely speaks English, they do not bother to get to know her very much either.  As the outbreak of the war threatens, the family is forced to travel back to Britain and we are left wondering what might have happened to the family and their children’s caretaker.

In the “Moslem Wife,” we at first learn about the history of a husband and wife who are first cousins.  They run a hotel on the French Riviera which they inherited from Netta’s parents.  The narrative style of this story is typical of the whole collection in that wanders haplessly from one character to the next and sometimes feels rather random.

The author takes us through the stories of different characters who visit the hotel, including Jake’s mother, and the eccentric friends of Jake’s mother.  When Jack ends up in America and cannot get back to Europe because of the war, their marriage undergoes an obvious strain.  Will the couple end up together again after a long separation of five years?  Will the war, like many things in Europe, destroy their relationship?

If you enjoy historical fiction set during World War II, then these stories are definitely worth giving a try.  They are certainly unique among the vast array of short stories I have read and reviewed.

About The Author:

From the 15th district Mavis GallantIn 1952 Mavis Gallant (1922–2014) left a successful career as a journalist in Montreal to live independently as a writer of fiction in Europe. She had gained international recognition in 1951 when she was published in the New Yorker, which in subsequent years released over one hundred of her short stories, most of which are set in European cities or Montreal. Random House published twelve volumes of her work. Gallant was awarded the 1981 Governor General’s Award for Home Truths, the 2002 Rea Award for the Short Story, and the 2004 PEN/Nabokov Award for lifetime achievement.  She was a companion of the Order of Canada, the country’s highest honor.  After traveling widely in Europe, in 1960 Gallant settled in Paris, where she died in 2014. The Journals of Mavis Gallant: 1952–1969 is tentatively scheduled for publication by Alfred A. Knopf in 2015.

See more books by Mavis Gallant.

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Giveaway:
Open to US residents only. You may choose either a kindle or epub of this book. Click on Entry-Form below to enter the giveaway and follow the instructions:
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CLICK ON THE BANNER BELOW TO READ OTHER REVIEWS, AND AN EXCERPT:

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January 9, 2015 · 12:00 am

Review and Giveaway: Island Fog by John Vanderslice

Today I welcome TLC Book Tours back to my blog with a very interesting set of short stories. I invite you to read my review and scroll down to the end of the post to enter to win your own copy.

My Review:
Island FogAll of the stories in this collection are set on the small town of Nantucket and take place during a wide range of years, 1795 through 2005.  Although the author says that only 2 of the stories have any basis in reality, I think one can learn quite a bit about the history and culture of these interesting island.  We learn from one of the stories, “King Philip’s War,” that the island was inhabited by Native Americans long before the British arrived.  In this story, the son of a native American finds that bigotry and prejudice against anyone who is not white still exists on the island.  Although Jacob has made friends with the white son of a sheep farmer, there is always an underlying resentment in their relationship even though they are just young boys.

The first story in the collection, “Guilty Look, reminds us of the very strong Quaker presence on the island in the 18th and 19th centuries.  In this story, which is set in 1795, the Nantucket Bank is robbed and the head of the bank, who is a devout Quaker, immediately fingers the non-Quakers on the island for pulling off the heist.  Even when evidence to the contrary is presented, the non-Quakers are still rounded up and thrown in jail.

The second half of the book tells us that there is still the mentality of “us vs. them” on the island, but it exists not between different religious or ethnic groups, but instead between those who live there full-time and those who just visit.  In “Morning Meal,” a plumber who has lived on the entire for his entire life, suffers a lonely existence after his wife and daughter die in a tragic ferry accident.  The plumber sees a lot of the “visitors” as he is oftentimes called to jobs at their lavish vacation homes.  His wife was actually a tourist, but he loved her nonetheless and she was the only woman who ever truly loved him back.

Alan, in the story “Haunted,” used to be a visitor to the island, but now he runs a successful business giving tours of different places on the island that are said to be haunted by ghosts.  Alan actually fled to Nantucket after he was dumped and kicked out by his boyfriend.  When letters from Alan’s ex start showing up in his mailbox, Alan can’t decide whether he should go back to Boston or stay on Nantucket.  This story, just as all of the others, ends in a cliffhanger.  All of the stories lack a neat and tidy ending, and they make the reader use his or her own imagination to decide what will happen next in each story.

ISLAND FOG is a clever, well-written and entertaining collection of short stories.  It makes me eager to read longer works by the author.

About The Author:
John VandersliceJohn Vanderslice teaches in the MFA program at the University of Central Arkansas, where he also serves as associate editor of Toad Suck Review magazine. His fiction, poetry, essays, and one-act plays have appeared in Seattle Review, Laurel Review, Sou’wester, Crazyhorse, Southern Humanities Review, 1966, Exquisite Corpse, and dozens of other journals. He has also published short stories in several fiction anthologies, including Appalachian Voice, Redacted Story, Chick for a Day, The Best of the First Line: Editors Picks 2002-2006, and Tartts: Incisive Fiction from Emerging Writers. His new book of short stories, Island Fog, published by Lavender Ink, is a linked collection, with every story set on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts.

Giveaway:
The author is giving away one paperback copy of the book (US/Can).  Just leave a comment below and let me know you want to win!  It’s that easy!  Giveaway ends 1/22 and winners will be notified via email and have 48 hours to respond.

The Winner of the Giveaway is: Martha R.

Click on the TLC tour banner below to see all of the stops on this book tour.

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January 5, 2015 · 1:09 pm

Review: Almost Famous Women by Megan Mayhew Bergman

I received an advanced review copy of this book from the publisher through Edelweiss.
My Review:
Almost Famous WomenThe stories in this collection revolve around women who were famous for a brief period of time.  As the title suggests, they were “almost,” but not quite famous enough, to become household names.  The first thing that struck me about these stories is that many of the women all do jobs or tasks that are usually reserved for men in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: riding motorcycles, racing speedboats, and painting nudes.

These women are daring and take risks and will not settle for loneliness, boredom or obscurity.  When a woman wakes up in a hospital bed wondering if her grave injuries during a motorcycle crash were worth risking her life, she decides she cannot go back to living a lonely and dull life in eastern Maine.

The women in these stories also lead terribly sad lives and none of them really have happy endings; an illegitimate baby is discarded at a convent by her parents, an actress dies of an overdose and a reclusive painter is taken advantage of by her nurse.  The story that I found the saddest is the first one in the collection in which conjoined twins are abandoned by their birth mother and taken in by a women who exploits them.  The twins’ caregiver parades them around and makes them sing and dance and everyone treats them like outcasts.  At the end of their lives, shunned by society and broke, they are forced to work long hours at a grocery store where they still get strange looks from the customers.

I also liked the fact that the author gives us a visual, as the stories are accompanied by a picture of each woman it describes.  If you want a collection of stories that tugs at your heartstrings and makes you think about unusual women who strive to live outside of societal norms, then ALMOST FAMOUS WOMEN is a great read.

About The Author:
Megan BergmanMegan Mayhew Bergman is the author of Almost Famous Women (January 2015) and Birds of a Lesser Paradise (March 2012) – both from Scribner, and both Indie Next selections. Megan was a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers pick and will receive the Garrett Award for Fiction from the Fellowship of Southern Writers.

Megan’s work has appeared in the New York Times, Best American Short Stories 2011, New Stories from the South 2012, McSweeneys, Ploughshares, One Story, Oxford American, The Kenyon Review, Narrative and elsewhere.

Raised in North Carolina, Megan now lives on a small farm in Vermont with her two daughters, veterinarian husband, and a host of rescue animals.

 

 

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December 22, 2014 · 8:58 am

Review: Christmas at Thompson Hall And Other Christmas stories by Anthony Trollope

My favorite Christmas story to read around the holidays is A Christmas Carol by Dickens.  But this year I was looking for something new and came across this wonderful collection of Christmas short stories by Anthony Trollope.

My Review:

Christmas StoriesIf you are looking for some lighthearted, warm and entertaining stories to read this holiday season, then I highly recommend this collection of Christmas stories by Trollope.  In each one there is a misunderstanding, where human pride gets in the way.  But, due the fact that the setting is Christmas time, these misunderstandings are quickly forgiven.

The title story, Christmas at Thompson Hall, is my favorite of the collection.  In this tale, a husband and wife are traveling back to England to spend Christmas with the wife’s family in her ancestral home, Thompson Hall.  The couple usually spends Christmas in France, but the wife is determined to make it back to England by Christmas Eve this year and is dragging along her reluctant husband on the journey.  While they are at a hotel in Paris, they accidentally meet the wife’s soon-to-be brother-in-law.  The circumstances under which these new relatives meet, however, is rather embarrassing and hysterical.

Two of the stories tell of young couples in love whose pride is getting in the way of their happiness.  In Christmas at Kirkby Cottage, Maurice Archer mistakenly says to his beloved that “Christmas is a bore.”  Can Isabel forgive Maurice for saying such a crass thing about a holiday which she holds so dear?  The Mistletoe Bough has a similar plot in which a man and woman in love are brought together for Christmas and must decide if they can get over their past transgressions.

I found The Two Generals interesting due to the setting of the American Civil War.  I have never read a story about The Civil War written by a British author, so I found Trollope’s perspective enlightening.  Two brothers, who grew up in Kentucky, each find themselves on opposite sides of the battlefield.  They say some regretful words to each other before they depart on Christmas.  But can another holiday force these the brothers to set aside their differences and put family first?

These stories are an easy and delightful read and just the thing to get us all in the Christmas spirit.  Happy Holidays!

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