New Release: Not So Perfect

I'm thinking it might not surprise you that I've already made my second foray into flash fiction since I enjoyed my first outing so much.  This is another one that was featured in RobAroundBooks' Flash Clash Challenge.  Actually, it was Nik Perring's Not So Perfect that inspired Rob to start his challenge in the first place.  It took me a while to get a copy though because I had to get it from The Book Depository as it's not available in the states yet.  Luckily, I won a blog contest for any book and I chose this one to be sent to me.

Perring's tiny book, barely the size of my hand, contains twenty-two stories that take the reader through an impressive range of emotions.  It journeys from fertility woes through old age and death and leaves the reader breathless at the end.  Many of the stories are sad but, because of their brevity, they don't necessarily wallow in that sadness.  Instead, they give you a glimpse into a distress that you hope never to feel but that might not be so unfamiliar after all.  And yet, a few of the stories scattered throughout the collection are mood-lifting and seem to come at just the right time to remind you that life can be beautiful as well.

I found myself re-reading some of the stories mere minutes after I had finished the book and was thinking about them for days to come.  I jotted down one word reviews again this time but instead of writing out the story titles and linking them together, I thought I would just list the words here.  It's hard to believe that I went through all of this in just over an hour -- tear-jerker, chilly, distant, ironic, explosive, sad, intense, dark, fated, unexpected, denial, symbolic, rebirth, truthful, universal, unobserved, pathetic, myopic, release, lovely, literal, heart-breaking.

I'm incredibly glad that my favorite story of the collection, Watching, Listening, is available to read online at 3:AM Magazine.  I hope that you will take a moment and go read it.  I doubt you will be able to stop thinking about it.

Brevity reveals the soul of humanity,
K


Buy Not So Perfect at The Book Depository.  We own our copy.