reduced and recycled

I picked up this collection of short stories while hunting down hunting down appropriate English workbooks for a colleague. I was in a bookstore, so I was in a trance, almost. I spotted copies of the ‘Silverfish New Writing 6′ collection of short stories on a sparse shelf while looking through other bits of local fair, flipping through the pages. I soon walked out of that bookstore with the book in my large plastic bag.

There are twenty-five stories in all, and I found myself plowing through them quickly. I was reminded of something someone once said of short stories: that they are like hundred meter sprints with little room for drawn breaths, when done right. I definitely felt that way about the stories within. My fave stories:

• “Round Trip”: a beautifully-told story jumping timelines and yet remaining firmly in the present in which the story revolves. There’s more to say, but you should just read it.
• “The swamp creek”: I loved the simplicity and the innocence in this story, it was just a joy to read, and it resonated quite a bit, especially with the events of the past few months.
• “The Prince of Frogs”: a great story, I just loved the way the author weaved correspondences between the protagonist, his obsession and his love.
• “Ever After”: a beautiful story which drives deeper and deeper into the characters portrayed, and the climax of the story felt like the resolution of something already inherent within the characters. It was just beautiful.
• “Scented smoke”: when I finished reading it, I chuckled quite a bit, recognizing all the elements of a bollywood classic couched in a light-hearted caricature of such movies.
• “Bonsai Monkey”: gripping, excellent, loved the tension and really was breathless after reading it. Very nice. :)
• “Creation”: excruciating (in a good way!), morbid especially when juxtaposed against the obvious reference to the biblical creation story. Like a story of imperfect beings stumbling toward oblivion, and more.

The other stories not mentioned here are also excellent, especially “Hi, I am MS” and “Snake”.. and I found that each story had something exemplary to recommend it. A collection of stories definitely worth a read.