It should not be so hard to write both poetry and fiction. Both arts, after all, make use of the same materials, words and punctuation. Poems...
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Set in Nairobi, Kenya, this delightful story captures us with its warm humour , beautiful scenery and sightings of many of its one thousand species of birds. Rose Mbikwa leads a bird watching group on a walk every week for the East Africa Ornithological Society. She's a Scottish widow and Mr. Malik, also widowed, is secretly in love with her and has gone on these walks to enjoy her company for three years now. Just as he's working up the courage to ask her to the Nairobi Hunt Club Ball, the really big social event of the year, his old school nemesis, playboy Harry Kahn, breezes into town announcing that he intends to ask her. Their conversation is witnessed by everyone at the gentlemens' Asadi Club and a way to determine who has the right to ask her is determined. Whoever identifies the most birds in a week's time can ask her to the Ball.
Mr. Malik, sixty, is described in birders terms as "small, dumpy brown-skinned, nondescrepit; distinguishing feature: hairstyle owes more to artifice than nature" (he has a comb-over). Harry Kahn, playboy, is identified by "brown skin, white hair, white teeth and a tendency to dress in white; distinguishing characteristics: highly ornamented, noted for flamboyant mating display." Harry proceeds by hiring people and vehicles (not strictly according to the rules) as if on a great hunt to chalk up the most birds. Mr. Malik goes about things more quietly and has a few adventures and mishaps along the way but we are rooting for him.
The birding details are fascinating as are the detailed pencilled drawings by the author that acompany each chapter heading. But the story also shows some of the corruption in the government and the dangers of being mugged in the everday life of the city. It's a good story, told by a somewhat cheeky narrator, laugh out loud funny in places and well worth reading. I enjoyed it very much and recommend it to everyone.
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This is a story about young men in the transition between their carefree college years and the realities of responsible manhood. Roy, an investment analyst in Boston, narrates this story about the two weeks he spends back home in smalltown Massachusetts. He's there to watch his 17 year old brother Bobby while their parents are away in Ireland. He adores Bobby, whom he calls "the Golden Child" for his abilities in sports and academics and his handsome good looks. But he's critical of small town ways and cynical toward everyone from his private school years, which he hated. He seems a little cranky and unlikeable as the story begins but give him time. His two best friends are Mark, who's now a policeman working hard to advance his career, and will let nothing stand in the way of that. Then there's Jay, who's been teaching for a year now and wants to quit. Jay has quit colleges, switched majors more than once, then gone home to live with his strongly Catholic family to teach. He can't seem to settle into anything. His indecisiveness is baffling to friends and family. The bonds of lifelong friendship are strong between Roy and his two friends, forged back in grade school. They don't hold back criticism of one another or of the decisions each has made. But when trouble comes to one, they're quick to get together and help. Jay will be the one who tests the limits of that friendship when his gambling debts to mob money lenders comes to a head. A surprising turn of events will changes their lives forever.
But for the few days that Roy's back in town they're going to party like they're teenagers again, drinking, fighting, gambling, and ogling women, hang the consequences. Roy does try to keep a better standard around his little brother though, hoping no will pull out any drugs while he's around. The narration is of an easy-going kind, Roy swears more than he needs to, his thoughts and opinions are clear enough without that. The conversation in the bars at night is sports and more sports. There are many sports references and metaphors throughout the book, mostly baseball. When Roy says that a man "fell like Ivan Drago" or a horse had "muscles that would have made Earl Campbell jealous" the effect was lost on me. I did understand the racing terms though because I had an uncle who had a thing for the horses. Sports are foreign to me otherwise. I think this is a book that most men will really enjoy, or women if they're into sports, although it's a story everyone can relate to. It makes you look back at that time in your own life and smile about yourself. Everyone is forced to grow up sooner or later, and Burns does a good job of showing us the struggles and triumphs that younger men have with that. His characters are believable, it felt as if I know these guys, or men just like them. I recommend this book and I hope Burns keeps writing. I'd like to see what he does next.
Three brother, identical triplets, have come home to Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, to bury their parents who've been killed in an accident. They haven't been together in all the years since they left home as young men. They're on the cusp of forty now. They've reunited from Toronto, Halifax, and Copehagen. A carpenter who sings beautifully in church choirs but has no interest in religion, Cameron has a blind daughter and a wife now living seperately. He has a great deal of guilt about his daughter, Mary Anne, wondering if drugs he took when he was young might be responsible for her blindness. Rory is an artist who exhibits his paintings in art galleries in Toronto. He experiences synesthesia, he hears colours, and his work is dominated by red. He's married to a doctor fifteen years his senior whom he adores. Adrian runs a haute cuisine restaurant in Copenhagen with his male partner who is seriously ill. Each of the three brothers has no idea what's going on in the others lives, they haven't kept in touch. They miss each other but are harbouring negative feelings toward each other and their parents, as most siblings do. But they all agree in their resentment of their older brother, "the Big B", who has stayed near his parents and has secrets of his own.
The story of their lives for the past twenty years is told in the form of a journal that each triplet keeps for four months then mails to one of the others. This form works very well, no sudden time shifts or confusion about which of them is telling their story in each chapter. I appreciated that aspect. Written in simple, not flowery language, as one brother opens up a little so do the others in what they tell about their loves, losses and triumphs. Their individual expression of themselves nicely dispels the myth of identical character so often presumed about multiple birth children too. Over time, they become more reflective and honest about their lives as children and the feelings that led to their ending up so far apart, at least in distance. They are clearly still deeply attached emotionally. Strong feelings emerge, a few raw emotions are revealed, but there is humour too. It's set in Canada but we get to travel through their eyes, both in Canada and in Europe. And we are priveleged to watch them come together in their journal accounts and rebuild a brotherhood of trust and love. I enjoyed this story and recommend it.
This is Christopher Meeks second book of short stories and I'm sorry that I haven't read his first, which was an award winning collection. I read these 11 stories through the first time for pleasure and it was that. I like them a lot. The characters here, whether humourous, tragic, or mildly absurd are likeable, believable, and not always predictable. Like ordinary people, but with quirks that make them memorable. I haven't had a collection of short stories stay with me as vividly for quite some time. Even better, when I looked back through them I realized that there's not a weak one in the bunch. The author clearly edited himself, choosing and arranging this group of stories carefully. I've always preferred longer short stories so I wasn't surprised that "The Sun is a Billard Ball" at 32 pages in length would appeal to me. Or the 25 page "Breaking Water". But even "Catalina" at only 3 pages is a solid and emotionally powerful account of a man's unexpressed grief . I read it several times because what the author doesn't say is as telling as what he does. This is the sign of a good writer. In the first of these three stories, the uncertainties and fears of impending illness and diagnosis are palpable, the tension is familiar and real. In the third a Greek American man, advised by an acquaintance to spend the day on Catalina Island, is angry and judgmental until " he is surprised to see that the dry hills leaping from the water were like the Chora Sfakion in Crete. His friend must have known."
There's a wide range in age and emotional experience of his characters. Whether it's a seven year old who's afraid of water in the more lyrical "The Wind Just Right " or a seventy-eight year old playwright losing his home and life's work to wildfires in" The Old Topanga Incident", Meeks is capable of seeing and writing from very different perspectives. He shows great versitility too by writing in the voice that most suits each story. His use of the first person singular for the main character of "The Holes In My Door" lets us into the depression and obsessive fears of this recently seperated man who's slipping into paranoid behaviour. Any other perspective would not have had the same power. The use of the second person in the "Topango" story work well too. "You open the door" to shouting firemen,"you run down two flights of stairs", "you grab the play, the only copy", "you wonder whether you can make it through this". The urgency and loss is keenly felt by the reader, it's perfect.
I especially enjoyed the title story "Months and Seasons". The main character is determined that the love of his life will have the name of one of the months or seasons of the year. He won't even date someone who doesn't fit the bill. This tale about putting limits on our own fate is touching and funny. When a woman at a party introduces herself as "August" I laughed out loud. Meeks creates believable female characters too as in the final story "Breaking Water", where a model must reshape her entire life after heart surgery. Her inability to get pregnant causes her husband to abandon her, but not until after she has recovered from surgery. He doesn't want to look bad after all. We are rooting for her at every new turn in her life. This is a great collection of stories that I look forward to reading again. Highly recommended.
There's icing on the cake here too with "The Hand", an excerpt from "The Brightest Moon of the Century" at the end of the book. This novel in the form of related short stories will cover 30 years in the life of a young Minnesotan named Edward. The first of these stories made me want to know more about what happens to Edward. Given this writer's gifted sense of storytelling, I expect this new book will be a winner too.
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A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson
posthumouser, November 17, 2008
Set in Nairobi, Kenya, this delightful story captures us with its warm humour , beautiful scenery and sightings of many of its one thousand species of birds. Rose Mbikwa leads a bird watching group on a walk every week for the East Africa Ornithological Society. She's a Scottish widow and Mr. Malik, also widowed, is secretly in love with her and has gone on these walks to enjoy her company for three years now. Just as he's working up the courage to ask her to the Nairobi Hunt Club Ball, the really big social event of the year, his old school nemesis, playboy Harry Kahn, breezes into town announcing that he intends to ask her. Their conversation is witnessed by everyone at the gentlemens' Asadi Club and a way to determine who has the right to ask her is determined. Whoever identifies the most birds in a week's time can ask her to the Ball.Mr. Malik, sixty, is described in birders terms as "small, dumpy brown-skinned, nondescrepit; distinguishing feature: hairstyle owes more to artifice than nature" (he has a comb-over). Harry Kahn, playboy, is identified by "brown skin, white hair, white teeth and a tendency to dress in white; distinguishing characteristics: highly ornamented, noted for flamboyant mating display." Harry proceeds by hiring people and vehicles (not strictly according to the rules) as if on a great hunt to chalk up the most birds. Mr. Malik goes about things more quietly and has a few adventures and mishaps along the way but we are rooting for him.
The birding details are fascinating as are the detailed pencilled drawings by the author that acompany each chapter heading. But the story also shows some of the corruption in the government and the dangers of being mugged in the everday life of the city. It's a good story, told by a somewhat cheeky narrator, laugh out loud funny in places and well worth reading. I enjoyed it very much and recommend it to everyone.
(0 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)
The Kings of Innocence by Michael Burns
posthumouser, September 9, 2008
This is a story about young men in the transition between their carefree college years and the realities of responsible manhood. Roy, an investment analyst in Boston, narrates this story about the two weeks he spends back home in smalltown Massachusetts. He's there to watch his 17 year old brother Bobby while their parents are away in Ireland. He adores Bobby, whom he calls "the Golden Child" for his abilities in sports and academics and his handsome good looks. But he's critical of small town ways and cynical toward everyone from his private school years, which he hated. He seems a little cranky and unlikeable as the story begins but give him time. His two best friends are Mark, who's now a policeman working hard to advance his career, and will let nothing stand in the way of that. Then there's Jay, who's been teaching for a year now and wants to quit. Jay has quit colleges, switched majors more than once, then gone home to live with his strongly Catholic family to teach. He can't seem to settle into anything. His indecisiveness is baffling to friends and family. The bonds of lifelong friendship are strong between Roy and his two friends, forged back in grade school. They don't hold back criticism of one another or of the decisions each has made. But when trouble comes to one, they're quick to get together and help. Jay will be the one who tests the limits of that friendship when his gambling debts to mob money lenders comes to a head. A surprising turn of events will changes their lives forever.But for the few days that Roy's back in town they're going to party like they're teenagers again, drinking, fighting, gambling, and ogling women, hang the consequences. Roy does try to keep a better standard around his little brother though, hoping no will pull out any drugs while he's around. The narration is of an easy-going kind, Roy swears more than he needs to, his thoughts and opinions are clear enough without that. The conversation in the bars at night is sports and more sports. There are many sports references and metaphors throughout the book, mostly baseball. When Roy says that a man "fell like Ivan Drago" or a horse had "muscles that would have made Earl Campbell jealous" the effect was lost on me. I did understand the racing terms though because I had an uncle who had a thing for the horses. Sports are foreign to me otherwise. I think this is a book that most men will really enjoy, or women if they're into sports, although it's a story everyone can relate to. It makes you look back at that time in your own life and smile about yourself. Everyone is forced to grow up sooner or later, and Burns does a good job of showing us the struggles and triumphs that younger men have with that. His characters are believable, it felt as if I know these guys, or men just like them. I recommend this book and I hope Burns keeps writing. I'd like to see what he does next.
Quintet by Douglas Arthur Brown
posthumouser, September 4, 2008
Three brother, identical triplets, have come home to Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, to bury their parents who've been killed in an accident. They haven't been together in all the years since they left home as young men. They're on the cusp of forty now. They've reunited from Toronto, Halifax, and Copehagen. A carpenter who sings beautifully in church choirs but has no interest in religion, Cameron has a blind daughter and a wife now living seperately. He has a great deal of guilt about his daughter, Mary Anne, wondering if drugs he took when he was young might be responsible for her blindness. Rory is an artist who exhibits his paintings in art galleries in Toronto. He experiences synesthesia, he hears colours, and his work is dominated by red. He's married to a doctor fifteen years his senior whom he adores. Adrian runs a haute cuisine restaurant in Copenhagen with his male partner who is seriously ill. Each of the three brothers has no idea what's going on in the others lives, they haven't kept in touch. They miss each other but are harbouring negative feelings toward each other and their parents, as most siblings do. But they all agree in their resentment of their older brother, "the Big B", who has stayed near his parents and has secrets of his own.The story of their lives for the past twenty years is told in the form of a journal that each triplet keeps for four months then mails to one of the others. This form works very well, no sudden time shifts or confusion about which of them is telling their story in each chapter. I appreciated that aspect. Written in simple, not flowery language, as one brother opens up a little so do the others in what they tell about their loves, losses and triumphs. Their individual expression of themselves nicely dispels the myth of identical character so often presumed about multiple birth children too. Over time, they become more reflective and honest about their lives as children and the feelings that led to their ending up so far apart, at least in distance. They are clearly still deeply attached emotionally. Strong feelings emerge, a few raw emotions are revealed, but there is humour too. It's set in Canada but we get to travel through their eyes, both in Canada and in Europe. And we are priveleged to watch them come together in their journal accounts and rebuild a brotherhood of trust and love. I enjoyed this story and recommend it.
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Months and Seasons by Christopher Meeks
posthumouser, September 2, 2008
This is Christopher Meeks second book of short stories and I'm sorry that I haven't read his first, which was an award winning collection. I read these 11 stories through the first time for pleasure and it was that. I like them a lot. The characters here, whether humourous, tragic, or mildly absurd are likeable, believable, and not always predictable. Like ordinary people, but with quirks that make them memorable. I haven't had a collection of short stories stay with me as vividly for quite some time. Even better, when I looked back through them I realized that there's not a weak one in the bunch. The author clearly edited himself, choosing and arranging this group of stories carefully. I've always preferred longer short stories so I wasn't surprised that "The Sun is a Billard Ball" at 32 pages in length would appeal to me. Or the 25 page "Breaking Water". But even "Catalina" at only 3 pages is a solid and emotionally powerful account of a man's unexpressed grief . I read it several times because what the author doesn't say is as telling as what he does. This is the sign of a good writer. In the first of these three stories, the uncertainties and fears of impending illness and diagnosis are palpable, the tension is familiar and real. In the third a Greek American man, advised by an acquaintance to spend the day on Catalina Island, is angry and judgmental until " he is surprised to see that the dry hills leaping from the water were like the Chora Sfakion in Crete. His friend must have known."There's a wide range in age and emotional experience of his characters. Whether it's a seven year old who's afraid of water in the more lyrical "The Wind Just Right " or a seventy-eight year old playwright losing his home and life's work to wildfires in" The Old Topanga Incident", Meeks is capable of seeing and writing from very different perspectives. He shows great versitility too by writing in the voice that most suits each story. His use of the first person singular for the main character of "The Holes In My Door" lets us into the depression and obsessive fears of this recently seperated man who's slipping into paranoid behaviour. Any other perspective would not have had the same power. The use of the second person in the "Topango" story work well too. "You open the door" to shouting firemen,"you run down two flights of stairs", "you grab the play, the only copy", "you wonder whether you can make it through this". The urgency and loss is keenly felt by the reader, it's perfect.
I especially enjoyed the title story "Months and Seasons". The main character is determined that the love of his life will have the name of one of the months or seasons of the year. He won't even date someone who doesn't fit the bill. This tale about putting limits on our own fate is touching and funny. When a woman at a party introduces herself as "August" I laughed out loud. Meeks creates believable female characters too as in the final story "Breaking Water", where a model must reshape her entire life after heart surgery. Her inability to get pregnant causes her husband to abandon her, but not until after she has recovered from surgery. He doesn't want to look bad after all. We are rooting for her at every new turn in her life. This is a great collection of stories that I look forward to reading again. Highly recommended.
There's icing on the cake here too with "The Hand", an excerpt from "The Brightest Moon of the Century" at the end of the book. This novel in the form of related short stories will cover 30 years in the life of a young Minnesotan named Edward. The first of these stories made me want to know more about what happens to Edward. Given this writer's gifted sense of storytelling, I expect this new book will be a winner too.
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