Nicolette Polek
Paperback | Pages: 128 pages Rating: 3.69 | 220 Users | 51 Reviews
Declare Appertaining To Books Imaginary Museums
| Title | : | Imaginary Museums |
| Author | : | Nicolette Polek |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 128 pages |
| Published | : | January 14th 2020 by Soft Skull Press |
| Categories | : | Short Stories. Fiction. Contemporary |
Narrative Supposing Books Imaginary Museums
In this collection of compact fictions, Nicolette Polek transports us to a gently unsettling realm inhabited by disheveled landlords, a fugitive bride, a seamstress who forgets what people look like, and two rival falconers from neighboring towns. They find themselves in bathhouses, sports bars, grocery stores, and forests in search of exits, pink tennis balls, licorice, and independence. Yet all of her beautifully strange characters are possessed by a familiar and human longing for connection: to their homes, families, God, and themselves.Point Books As Imaginary Museums
| Original Title: | Imaginary Museums: Stories |
| ISBN: | 159376586X (ISBN13: 9781593765866) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Rating Appertaining To Books Imaginary Museums
Ratings: 3.69 From 220 Users | 51 ReviewsArticle Appertaining To Books Imaginary Museums
The publisher says the book is made up of compact fictions, and its true, this slim little collection, Imaginary Museums, is less short stories and more little fragmented vignettes. We get to drop briefly into quirky, unexpected scenarios, immersing ourselves in the satirical moment at hand with oddball characters. Themes of disconnection, loneliness and longing are tempered with humor and whimsy; the language is spare and appealing. This collection is entertaining, mildly disturbing, and taps**I received a ditital ARC copy of the book via Netgalley to review**"Imaginary Museums" is one of those books that you cannot have too much of because of how highly saturated and almost "sugary" they are. Polek is no doubt a skilled and clever writer. The stories are like rooms in a cosmic dollhouse that the reader peaks into, and even when characters are named they are still like open shells that the reader can insert themselves into; the "story" "Girls I No Longer Know," located in the last
"Short shorts", "quick fiction", "compact fiction" - so many names for this genre. 115 pp, and with the large type, wide margins, loads of white on every page, and blank pages in between stories, it could have come in at about 80 pp probably.I find I need to take a break every few stories to reboot - otherwise they all kind of meld into one. Surrealistic edge to this collection. And her Cleveland/Slovak heritage adds an E European/peasant tint to some of the stories. When I read these types of
Overall, I would say this collection is amusing and unsatisfying. I really enjoyed some of the stories but found others to be too short and/or too abstract to really get into reading. I do appreciate writers who can tell so much story in just a few pages. Sometimes Polek succeeds in this, and other times she does not. But the stories I liked, well, I really liked them. I smirked and delighted in their humor, their strangeness.
It was a good read.
Despite my two star rating, the writing here is not horrendous, the stories are not catastrophic, it's not annoying in any way, really. Honestly, there's not even much to complain about. It's just bland. As a reader and writer of flash fiction, the length of the stories presented here were not a deterrent to my reading. Flash, always underrepresented and less valued has only made my love for it deepen-- and here we have an opportunity to support a published flash fiction collection.
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