The following review by Amanda Leduc mentioning "Guga" appeared on completelynovel.com This is a wonderfully hard anthology, each piece smooth and polished
and complete. These stories are prime examples of flash fiction —
stories that offer a glimpse into another world while still staying
soft around the edges, stories that allow the reader to become
complicit in the creation of each world on offer. The winning piece,
‘Taking Care of Joseph’, manages to convey so much in such a short span
of words: three people, one act, the heavy fall of dirt.
My
favourite piece in the collection, ‘Guga’, by John Jennet, also rotates
on this ambiguity. A man and a broken white bird, the heavy smell of
the sea, and the fate that all of this plays on the life of one small
girl. It’s masterful writing, absolutely.
Two
other stories that I also loved were ‘Pobrecita’, by Kirsty Logan, and
‘This is Your Pebble’ by Michele Waering. ‘Pobrecita’ plays with
language and structure while still managing to get a brilliant set of
images across. (‘… Connor pulls off his t-shirt one-handed, an
afterthought.’ I love that image. I wish I’d written it!) And ‘This is
Your Pebble’ feeds the reader a brilliantly vivid set of pictures —
white van, fall, the flop of an injured arm — while still shrouding its
narrator in mystery.
Overall, a lovely collection. Take heed of these names — I’m sure they’ll soon be everywhere! | 