Brendan Connell

It's not very consistent and often too self-consciously "arty" for its own good -- there's a fine line between being hurried because There's Simply Too Much To Get In In This Flash Fiction and just being hurried because you don't know what needs to be developed. Connell is most successful when he's more reliant on dialogue (the cannibal trial) or when he's focused on one particular image (ex. decapitated head, giant nose) and can let it marinate for a minute. It's not "good" overall but idk I read it on a short flight and I wasn't mad… (meer)

First off, this book is downright hilarious at times. At others it can actually be surprisingly touching. It is almost always, sadly, representative of the ability of corporations and the media to manipulate almost all of us. If I wasn’t so certain of what Connell is doing here I would say he was trolling for product placement kickbacks. But we know that can’t be, don’t we?

The introduction by Isis is Priceless. The Divinity Student collaboration I’ve read elsewhere in the Mark Samuel’s tribute volume still didn’t get me but everything else is top notch. The first story and the bicycle cop story will leave you in stitches.

It’s signed, blah, blah… (meer)

Well, this my first win and first read for First Reads...

The trouble with a book of short stories is that the review rolls around in your head in fragments the whole time you are reading it. And, where you might be quite impressed with one story or indifferent to another you might actively dislike yet a third. In all there were eleven stories in this book, a work of fiction according to the back and everything I read online. However two were based on actual historical accounts The Life of Polycrates and Brother of the Holy Ghost (based on the election of Pope Saint Celestine V in 1294). The Author clearly took some liberties with these two stories, but they were for the most part true.

The Life of Polycrates, pronounced Puh-lick-ruh-teeze (Think "Socrates" and you're halfway there. Unless of course like Bill & Ted you pronounce "Socrates" So-crates, in which case please identify yourself below so that I can immediately remove you from my friends list!), is about an ancient Greek ruler of the island of Samos. Polycrates is told like a story more than a historical account, despite the footnotes expounding on the various historical figures as they enter the scene. He cites no historians or other works on the subject. I would say that I half enjoyed this portion. Being Greek and a fan of history in general this should have been right in my lane. But, whenever I began to enjoy myself just as the story started to flow; the author would pull me to a halt with an extraordinarily short chapter containing nothing but a list of make-up and face creams some guy had in his ditty bag (or the ancient Greek equivelant of a ditty bag). I believe he was reinforcing his point regarding the man's effeminance. However, I had not doubted him when he stated it boldly earlier on. This list (and similar such road blocks along the way) kept it all a bit choppy for my tastes.

Now, with Polycrates over and moving on to story numero dos I received a rather more violent shock. The second story (Collapsing Claude) I had no trouble believing as fiction, disturbing, dark and frankly disgusting fiction. Unfortunately for me; I read this story over my lunch hour and it actually put me off my food! The author is gifted at painting a picture with words. his descriptive language is incredibly effective. I felt as though I could see, hear and virtually SMELL his words. While I cannot say that I actually "liked" this story, for it was too repulsive to "like", I felt that Connell did an amazing job in the telling of it.

From here on I think I can just group the remaining stories. Some I liked better than others, some were a bit more rambling. Sometimes the descriptive language got a little over the top for me. As a result I felt more as if I were reading some really dark and disturbing poetry rather than a short story and got a bit lost in the author's verse.

It was not bad. I have no fault with the writing itself or the editing. It just wasn't really my thing. If you like dark and disturbing tales full of sexual perversion or obsession (there was a guy in one story with a fetish for high heeled shoes and another with a big game hunter/tranny - those being two of the milder afflictions), then this might be a book you would love. For me, it only got three stars, because I felt that Connell's mastery of description was so well done at times, or it probably would have been two. To someone who enjoys this type of work I'm sure it would be a 4-5 star book.… (meer)