Jackie's Been On A Short Story Bender Lately

It started with Jess Walter's We Live In Water, his first collection of stories.  These stories are all about men who are fringe or broken: criminals, con men, highly questionable husbands and fathers.  And they aren't getting any better.  But Walter can create a multi layered character in just a few pages that you will not easily forget.  I've got two favorites.  The first one is based in the near future and a zombie workforce--"Don't Eat Cat".  On the surface, it's hilarious.  But it has darker shadows of intolerance and prejudice when you actually stop to think about it.  My other favorite was more autobiographical for Walters, "Statistical Abstract For My Home Town, Spokane, Washington".  He begins with basic facts, and then goes on to tell what I have assumed are true experiences regarding these statistics.  He tells a story about a woman's safe house that was down the block that made me fall for him in a very hard way. I already liked the guy, but now I truly admire him.

I moved on the George Saunder's Tenth of December.  I felt like I had to read this book given the fact that every publishing related bit of email or Facebook update was talking about that book.  I'd never heard of him, and kind of went into the book with a attitude of "this had better hold up to the hype".  It did.  It really did.  While what he writes about is "out there" in a lot of ways, and was often miles away from my comfort zone, I hung in there because the writing was so wonderful.  He took me to horrible places with beautiful words, leaving me with a notion that I should say thank you for the experience.  I think of one of the stories, "Escape from Spiderhead", just about every day.  It taught me a whole new dimension in horror, introduced me to a hideous but terrifyingly plausible future.  And the whole book taught me the quality of Saunder's work, another thing I will not forget.  

I rounded off the binge with Karen Russell's Vampires in the Lemon Grove, a collection of delightfully quirky stories that made me laugh out loud at times.  Her imagination is limitless, as is her ability to write an engaging tale.  There is so much magic and wonder in this collection I could not choose a favorite.  That being said, I know I will always smile at the mental picture I have of two geriatric vampires sitting on a bench sucking on lemons in beautiful Italy.

 ---Jackie

Ben Is A Fan

"George Saunders has done something special with his collection of stories, The Tenth of December. Saunders has maintained a unique style and an intensely close eye on the inner-workings of each of his characters in these widely varied stories - varied not just in subject matter, but in emotional depth, satire, and all those other things we look for: unique flaws, interactions with other unique characters, situations, etc. etc.  This was not my first interaction with Saunders. Another collection Pastoralia introduced me to Saunders' unique style: his comedy, his depth, his inventive style, and in Tenth of December Saunders maintains and has sharpened his voice. Many of his characters seem to possess the rambling, worried inner-monologues that so many of us non-Saunders-character-people live with. My favorite pieces include the flash piece "Sticks" and the title story "Tenth of December" which closes the collection on such a powerful emotional note (it is a story about an older man with cancer saving the life of a young boy, after all). I had to re-read the last two pages several times, not just for the emotional weight but for the overwhelming beauty in Saunders' prose. A fantastic writer and a fantastic collection!"

--Ben

"Frankly, I'm in awe of this collection," says Jackie

Alethea Black's deeply moving and wholly original debut features a coterie of memorable characters who have reached emotional crossroads in their lives. Brimming with humor, irony, and insights about the unpredictable nature of life, the unbearable beauty of fate, and the power that one moment, or one decision, can have to transform us, I Knew You'd Be Lovely delivers that rare thing—stories with both an edge and a heart.

Read a piece by Alethea Black about writing this book on ReadItForward.com (there are some bonuses to be had there as well).

Jackie says:
"If every short story writer was able to write with such succinct intensity and blazing purity of message, I'd be a much bigger fan of the genre.  At the very least, I am now a HUGE fan of debut author Alethea Black.  There are thirteen stories in this amazingly slim volume, but the quality of reading experience for each and every one of them rivals many novels that are told in ten times the pages.  She is able to use just a few words to convey a highly charged emotional setting, getting you completely invested in the characters within a couple of paragraphs.  Frankly, I'm in awe of this collection, and cannot recommend it highly enough.  I especially loved the author's notes section at the end of the book where she explains her inspiration for every story. I also think this would be a great read for a book club--there are an amazing number of issues covered in these stories should lead to some very lively discussions."