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javinki_'s review against another edition
3.0
Some genuinely maverick and wildly inventive stories! Occasionally the phrasing was a bit long-winded for me, and there were a few stories which I wasn't particularly fussed about, but there's enough in here - especially "Literary Quartet", "Due Process", "Divination", "Befriended", and "The Amnesty" - that I'll be thinking about for a long time. Sauna Youth Rulez OK!
thebobsphere's review against another edition
4.0
Reading Jen Calleja’s short stories is like throwing a spanner into a functioning machine, or taking the Mona Lisa and then drawing cartoon buck teeth on her. What I mean by this analogy is that she presents something seemingly normal and then makes it quirky until the whole story becomes unhinged.
Take the early highlight, Literary Quartet. It starts off with a writer in a prize giving ceremony and I thought the story was going to be a satire of book prizes but then things change and the story evolves with the main character having and existential crises and abandoning the prize only to find out that the person won.
Another example of this muted surrealism would be The Natural where a young actor is fed up of people seeing him as a comedic talent. He then wrangles a meeting with a mega star, hoping that she will see the actor in a serious light. The way things play out, the reader will thinks that all will go according to plan but then she shes him as a comedic actor and tells to continue being funny.
Not all the stories are like this. Divination verges into the surreal and quite nightmarish, Gross Cravings details a pregnant woman’s desire to eat rich food and hang around moneyed people. The Debt Collector goes into the dynamics of ending a relationship ( the theme is revisited in the story Due Process)
I’ve always wondered how a short story can be approached in an interesting way and Jen Calleja manages this. The 13 stories in this collection will twist your brain, make you squirm and laugh. There’s an overall weirdness that makes these stories surprise the reader. They really do stand out.
If one thinks that the short story is a hackneyed format, think again, Jen Calleja has just pushed a couple of boundaries in this collection. Furthermore this is just the beginning. I’m sure more boundaries will be pushed even further in due time.
Take the early highlight, Literary Quartet. It starts off with a writer in a prize giving ceremony and I thought the story was going to be a satire of book prizes but then things change and the story evolves with the main character having and existential crises and abandoning the prize only to find out that the person won.
Another example of this muted surrealism would be The Natural where a young actor is fed up of people seeing him as a comedic talent. He then wrangles a meeting with a mega star, hoping that she will see the actor in a serious light. The way things play out, the reader will thinks that all will go according to plan but then she shes him as a comedic actor and tells to continue being funny.
Not all the stories are like this. Divination verges into the surreal and quite nightmarish, Gross Cravings details a pregnant woman’s desire to eat rich food and hang around moneyed people. The Debt Collector goes into the dynamics of ending a relationship ( the theme is revisited in the story Due Process)
I’ve always wondered how a short story can be approached in an interesting way and Jen Calleja manages this. The 13 stories in this collection will twist your brain, make you squirm and laugh. There’s an overall weirdness that makes these stories surprise the reader. They really do stand out.
If one thinks that the short story is a hackneyed format, think again, Jen Calleja has just pushed a couple of boundaries in this collection. Furthermore this is just the beginning. I’m sure more boundaries will be pushed even further in due time.
waveszz's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
botchedsonnet's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
elenaluisa's review
adventurous
challenging
funny
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
bartvanovermeire's review
5.0
Delightful seemingly normal yet weird stories. Brilliant, some of the best short stories I've read in ages.
arirang's review
3.0
Jen Calleja has hitherto been best known as a translator (e.g. of the 2019 MBI shortlisted [b:The Pine Islands|43406797|The Pine Islands|Marion Poschmann|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1546203393l/43406797._SY75_.jpg|57618994]), and as a poet, but this debut collection of short stories should also establish her reputation as an author of innovative fiction.
The book comes with blurbs from the author's of two of the best, and unique, books I've read in the last two years - Republic of Consciousness Prize winner [a:Eley Williams|15163114|Eley Williams|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] and twice RoC Prize and Goldsmiths shortlisted [a:Isabel Waidner|17184131|Isabel Waidner|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1570082899p2/17184131.jpg], and the book belongs in similar company, and that of fellow RoC nominee [a:David Hayden|497037|David Hayden|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] and of [a:Carmen Maria Machado|6860265|Carmen Maria Machado|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1461618720p2/6860265.jpg], but with a unique flavour of its own: playful but at times disturbing, anti-realist and yet recognisable.
The author's own take on her work (https://minorliteratures.com/2020/03/24/i-sometimes-find-realism-bizarre-an-interview-with-jen-calleja-by-thom-cuell/):
[a:Gabriel Josipovici|305308|Gabriel Josipovici|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1380522804p2/305308.jpg]'s in [b:What Ever Happened to Modernism?|8031504|What Ever Happened to Modernism?|Gabriel Josipovici|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328847998l/8031504._SY75_.jpg|12636479] commented that realist novels They do what they set out to do perfectly and adequately: they help tell a story and create a world and characters to inhabit that world that do not flout the laws of probability - Calleja's approach is certainly not this.
Perhaps my favourite story of all was Literary Quartet, set at the annual ceremony Prize of Prizes Prize, a brilliantly inventive and bizarre satire of literary prizes and indeed the literary industry.
Another highlight was a Town called Distraction, the story of a rather distracted journey:
I knew I would be distracted by the world. The world requests time. I’d been listening to the news on the radio before leaving and had to spring back upstairs to note down names mentioned in the broadcast to look up later on. The bus pulled in while I was scanning the headlines in the newsagent’s in front of the bus stop and I rushed out to meet it. It had been the wrong bus, so I waited and wondered how long ago the council had had the bus shelter replaced, if ever.
Once on the correct bus I sat beside a woman completely unlike myself reading a newspaper. I sought out the important parts out of the corner of my eye. I completely agreed with the style of dress chosen by a French politician. I read all the stories about America. I had to unpick the tears sitting on my lower lashes after reading about a memorial service up north. I didn’t notice the woman leave, but remember picking up the newspaper from her empty seat to continue reading it.
It has to be said though that not all the stories reach these heights and it's a slightly uneven collection in that regard. 3.5 stars although some of the individual stories are 5 star stories.
The book comes with blurbs from the author's of two of the best, and unique, books I've read in the last two years - Republic of Consciousness Prize winner [a:Eley Williams|15163114|Eley Williams|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] and twice RoC Prize and Goldsmiths shortlisted [a:Isabel Waidner|17184131|Isabel Waidner|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1570082899p2/17184131.jpg], and the book belongs in similar company, and that of fellow RoC nominee [a:David Hayden|497037|David Hayden|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] and of [a:Carmen Maria Machado|6860265|Carmen Maria Machado|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1461618720p2/6860265.jpg], but with a unique flavour of its own: playful but at times disturbing, anti-realist and yet recognisable.
The author's own take on her work (https://minorliteratures.com/2020/03/24/i-sometimes-find-realism-bizarre-an-interview-with-jen-calleja-by-thom-cuell/):
Things like misogyny, xenophobia, class inequality and personal agency feature repeatedly, so they’re all naturally connected in that sense. Power dynamics and hierarchies come up a lot, identity and one’s sense of self versus how others perceive us, but also how all texts are fictions or have the potential to become narratives; the ways we fictionalise ourselves or are made characters in official documents, for instance.
...
I sometimes find realism bizarre, absurd, even creepy in its attempt to be a simulacrum of lived life, especially in how narrow its view of life and the people within it can be. I suppose I like how fables give you the bare bones and you as a reader have to furnish the bones with your own flesh.
I think what makes it most appealing as a form is that the same narratives and messages and myths from very old stories created to teach children and especially young women still dominate our contemporary moment. A couple of the stories in the book explore the idea of ‘happy ever after’ for instance, or of leaving the small town for the big city, or the obsession with the ultimate prize of wealth and regard. These narratives surround us in the media, in film, and especially reality TV, and seep into the fabric of reality.
[a:Gabriel Josipovici|305308|Gabriel Josipovici|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1380522804p2/305308.jpg]'s in [b:What Ever Happened to Modernism?|8031504|What Ever Happened to Modernism?|Gabriel Josipovici|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328847998l/8031504._SY75_.jpg|12636479] commented that realist novels They do what they set out to do perfectly and adequately: they help tell a story and create a world and characters to inhabit that world that do not flout the laws of probability - Calleja's approach is certainly not this.
Perhaps my favourite story of all was Literary Quartet, set at the annual ceremony Prize of Prizes Prize, a brilliantly inventive and bizarre satire of literary prizes and indeed the literary industry.
Another highlight was a Town called Distraction, the story of a rather distracted journey:
I knew I would be distracted by the world. The world requests time. I’d been listening to the news on the radio before leaving and had to spring back upstairs to note down names mentioned in the broadcast to look up later on. The bus pulled in while I was scanning the headlines in the newsagent’s in front of the bus stop and I rushed out to meet it. It had been the wrong bus, so I waited and wondered how long ago the council had had the bus shelter replaced, if ever.
Once on the correct bus I sat beside a woman completely unlike myself reading a newspaper. I sought out the important parts out of the corner of my eye. I completely agreed with the style of dress chosen by a French politician. I read all the stories about America. I had to unpick the tears sitting on my lower lashes after reading about a memorial service up north. I didn’t notice the woman leave, but remember picking up the newspaper from her empty seat to continue reading it.
It has to be said though that not all the stories reach these heights and it's a slightly uneven collection in that regard. 3.5 stars although some of the individual stories are 5 star stories.
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