Entries Tagged as 'Short Stories'
As Joseph Conrad once wrote, true terror is the kind that men feel toward their imagination.
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Tags:Anxiety·imagination·imagined·terror
Katagiri found a giant frog waiting for him in his apartment. It was powerfully built, standing over six feet tall on its hind legs. A skinny little man no more than five-foot-three, Katagiri was overwhelmed by the frog’s imposing bulk. “Call me ‘Frog,’ ” said the frog in a clear, strong voice.
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Tags:Surrealist
“You know what I think,” Shimao said. “You need to lighten up and learn to enjoy life a little more. I mean, think about it: tomorrow there could be an earthquake; you could be kidnapped by aliens; you could be eaten by a bear. Nobody knows what’s going to happen.” “Nobody knows what’s going to [...]
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Tags:Carpe Diem·life
Synopsis: The nephew of an eccentric Professor of Anthropology discovers the horrors of the inter-galactic, flying cephalopod worshiping “Cthulhu Cult” while investigating the circumstances of his grand-uncle’s death. First-rate, tongue-twisting horror. My Take: While I’m not much of a science fiction fan (relative to its real adherents), as a general principle I do try to [...]
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Ok, so I’ve been MIA from Blogging the Bookshelf for a while now (a few weeks in fact!). Things have been fairly busy work wise so I’ve had to cut back on discretionary activities and the blog was the first to go. Unfortunately I think work will continue to be quite demanding for the foreseeable [...]
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Tags:China
Synopsis: Series of nine short-stories published before Perlman really hit the big time with “Three Dollars” and then “Seven Types of Ambiguity”. Not badly written, but just not to my taste. My Take: The way I remember it (and it could have course been completely different for everyone else), the mid-90s were a strangely depressing [...]
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Tags:Elliot Perlman
Synopsis: An assortment of hilarious vignettes from the periods of Burroughs’ life not already canvassed in “Running with Scissors” or “Dry”. Brilliant, Brilliant, Brilliant. My Take: Here’s the thing about Augusten Burroughs. I love him – at its best, his writing zings and fizzles with caustic, but good natured wit. Sadly, my fiancée’s first exposure [...]
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Tags:Augusten Burroughs
Synopsis: A collection of 15 of Haruki Murakami’s most surreal short stories. My Take: The Elephant Vanishes is classic Murakami – strange, whimsical, reflective and more than a little confusing. You don’t find stories based on of the disappearance of a man’s favourite elephant or a woman being haunted by a gardening, green monster in [...]
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Tags:Haruki Murakami
Synopsis: Young former Melbourne corporate lawyer turns hundreds of other young, former Melbourne corporate lawyers green with envy by publishing a phenomenally successful collection of nuanced and beautiful short stories. My Take: Sigh. I guess it is an inevitable part of getting older to be confronted with the increasingly spectacular public successes of people who [...]
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Tags:Nam Le
