Susan O'Neill (1)Besprekingen

Well written flash fiction told from immigrants point of view their voices.

NOTE: I won a free eBook copy of this book from LibraryThing's Early Reviewers (December 2021).

"Short, Vigorous Roots" was my introduction not only to flash fiction, but also to many facets of the immigrant experience which I had not considered before. Each of the vignettes in this volume read and feel markedly different, with their narrators and protagonists hailing from all corners of the globe and across several generations of history. Some are refugees, some are migrants, some are naturalized citizens in their new home countries, and some remain strangers long after they've arrived. Yet so many of these stories relate how it feels to be caught in a liminal space between worlds, nations, cultures, and identities. Particularly poignant are the stories in Part One, "Past the Limits of the Familiar," as they detail the trials, tribulations, and anxieties that transnational people experience. Other stories in Part Four, namely "Disbelief" and "The Immaculate Heart of Mary," venture into the surreal. Overall, this short fiction collection is a worthwhile read for its fresh perspectives on contemporary human migration.

A slim volume of short stories which speak to the immigrant experience. I liked how there were a variety of perspectives from recent immigrants as well as those who have come to call their new country home. I also appreciated the depth of locations which were represented. Recommend for anyone who wants to learn more about what it means to be an immigrant.

I've never read any flash fiction before, but these are great! As a current grad student, mom and full time worker, I only have little snippets of time here and there to read. These were just the right length. I've already read about half of the book!

Each story is a great dive into the complex issues and feelings of migrants. These stories definitely expanded my understanding and empathy for migrants.

Really enjoyed the flash fiction.

This is a great collection of engaging short stories. Diverse and thought provoking, each story stands on its own and every one of them is well worth reading.

Being an immigrant myself, I was fascinated by the focus of this book of short stories and couldn't wait to read it. I wasn't expecting the series of short stories that were presented to me in this anthology though. Experiences far different from my own privileged one which really gave me pause for thought. The stories in this book were beautifully told and well worth reading.

This collection is timely and important, yet I found it struggled with cohesion and pacing. Some of the individual author's stories shone brightly, others seemed misplaced or missequenced. As a migrant myself, I had trouble finding any sense of connection with the stories. Perhaps I was not the intended audience.

This is a thought-provoking collection of brief writings by immigrants from many different countries, revealing various backgrounds and motivations for their migration. It’s impossible for me to choose favorites among them, because what I might miss today could become a favorite as my own awareness changes. At the moment, I’m quite fond of the last entry, “Hilsa in Hog Plum Sauce” by Sayantika Mandal, for the deft arc of the story and the depiction of all the senses. There is tremendous variety in this collection and it is relevant for anyone who wishes to understand some of the human dilemmas of these determined individuals.

This is a collection of 40 short-short stories (

Short, Vigorous Roots is an anthology of short stories highlighting the immigrant experience. The book is divided into four sections, each dealing with different aspects of the immigrant /migrant experience. The first, Past the Limits of the Familiar, deals with the discovery of a new place, feelings of being adrift, strangeness. The second, entitled The Change is Slow, shows the process of finding one's way and reaching for some sort of comfort level in a new place. The third, Inheriting the Earth, deals with the feeling of being lost between two worlds. One is now here and the 'there' seems to be slipping further away. In the stories in the last section, Tired of Waiting for Home, the subjects have adapted to life in their new country as much as is possible for them. Still they will always know what it means to be other than.

The short stories in this book reflect experiences from many nationalities and are quite poetic and thought provoking. Some are written in such a way that their final words and images linger. I believe the impact of this well-curated work would be more profound if one were to read only one or a few selections at a time.

This book is a collection of short stories about the immigrant experience. I enjoyed some more than others but each one was unique. There were a lot of Eastern European stories especially, which I always love to read about. Overall it was a decent read, nothing spectacular, but I enjoyed it.

Received thanks to LibraryThing Early Reviewers!

Does what it says on the tin - short, sharp stories about a whole range of migrant experiences. Most of the stories were only two or three pages long. Some of them have stayed with me (the woman who was too loud, the confused children in the immigration office, the people crossing the border to the US, the communists who thought their saviours were coming) and some of them haven't. Since the stories were so short, as sometimes happens with short stories, the author showed but did not tell, and I was not quite sure what had happened!

This is a great book to dip in and out of. I would recommend only reading a few, or even one, at a time, to let the different stories percolate a bit. It's a good reminder that there are many, many migrant experiences. This book would be a great way to find some new authors to read. The author biographies at the end are definitely worth reading too.

A very timely read, this is a collection of flash fiction by immigrant authors speaking of the immigrant experience. As typical for short story collections, I liked some more than others. Overall a decent and important read.

This is a collection of passionate stories about immigrant experiences that are as energetic and vibrant as they are painful. The mythology about the U.S. persists and contributes a great deal to this pain--mythology such as what it means to be an American, to look American, and to sound American. Many of the stories revolve around escaping war (and memories of war) which is, unfortunately, timely given the current situation in Ukraine; thus, moving to the U.S. is more about a desperate fleeing to the U.S. hoping for a better life. This intense collection is valuable especially for people who are far removed from the immigrant experience.

From the Colophon (p. 153):

"Yarrow is ubiquitous; it grows around the globe, throughout the east and west. It can be found in Asia, Europe, Australia, and the Americas. Yarrow has a rich cultural history; some regard yarrow as a weed because it spreads rapidly and tolerates distressed soil.

"Yarrow yellows and dries out for the cool seasons. When the days get warmer, it returns to lush green foliage and blooms, starting the cycle all over again. This miraculous little
plant is remarkably resilient—as are the characters featured in this collection—making yarrow symbolic of the themes presented in this flash fiction anthology."

One of my problems with reading a great deal of fiction is that there are few writers whose headspaces (as they used to say) I could really enjoy sharing for a long period of time, which is what is required for reading a serious work of fiction. The majority, I find, are after a while suffocating, through a combination of either large ego, self-centeredness, blazing neurosis, or an absorption in concerns that are far from my own and of little interest to me.

Thus I find short stories easier to tolerate, with less of an advance commitment. For flash fiction, that should apply even more so, though I have little experience with it. Designed for short attention spans ? Possibly. But as with short stories, the form seems to require a focus and precision that demand considerable artistry to execute well.

Not having followed the genre at all, this was a new experience for me, but I would certainly return for more. I was not familiar with any of the authors listed here, but there were none that did not inspire a Google search on my part, and hardly any I believe I would regret spending more time with. A few pieces tend toward the mawkish or predictable, but in general the choices are refreshing and very readable.

The theme itself -- migrants and migration -- could hardly be more timely in this era of refugees and displacement. The range is about as international as one could hope for, though most of the authors appear to be based in the United States. Politics and matters of larger international affairs enter only peripherally; the focus, appropriately, is on the day-to-day: goodbyes, passports and paperwork, strange languages, unfamiliar food, deprivation, faceless and uncaring border officials, the tension between parents & children, the experience and consequences of listening and not listening within families, new houses and old, landscapes familiar and unfamiliar, habits and traditions, clinging and letting go/ It is very human, and makes for compelling reading.

One small quibble: is it really flash fiction ? Many of the pieces have the air of being extracted from a larger work, or being part of a draft toward such a work. No matter.

In addition to the delights of the works themselves, the act of Googling led to some nice serendipitous finds:

BoomerLitMag (www.boomerlitmag.com)

Spilled Words (www.spilledwords.com)

Borderless (www.borderlessjournal.com)

Reflex Fiction (www.reflexfiction.com)

World Literature Today (www.worldliteraturetoday.org)
and numerous others.

Ooligan Press, the publisher, is a student project based in Portland, Oregon; it seems a worthy endeavour.

Short, Vigorous Roots is a patchwork of many different immigrant experiences and points of view. I wish it could be given to certain Republican legislators who will remain nameless, to remind them that immigrants are in fact people, and in many cases arrive here not out of choice (gasp! you mean they didn't want to come here?) but out of utter necessity from overturned lives. Some of the accounts here are heartbreaking, others hopeful. I thought it was a very good read.

I received this PDF through the LibraryThing early reviewer program. Thanks for that!
Is a collection of diverse short stories. there is everything for everyone, wars, moves, losses, encounters and new futures.
I am an immigrant myself and I felt close to some of these stories.
I take the liberty of rescuing an idea that really touched sensitive fibers, it talks about the accent of a migrant who left many things behind and clings to part of his being:
"In school, the teacher.... warning them of the foreign accent their daughter would acquire... We lost everything else..., they’d rescued consonants, vowels, a trail of syllables...."
I’d recommend this collection.
Thank again!

He recibido este PDF a través del programa de revisores anticipados de LibraryThing. ¡Gracias por ello!
Es una colección de relatos cortos diversos. Hay de todo para todos, guerras, mudanzas, pérdidas, encuentros y nuevos futuros.
Yo misma soy inmigrante y me sentí cercana a algunas de estas historias.
Me tomo la libertad de rescatar una idea que realmente tocó fibras sensibles, habla del acento de un migrante que dejó muchas cosas atrás y se aferra a parte de su ser:
"En la escuela, la maestra.... les advertía del acento extranjero que adquiriría su hija... Perdimos todo lo demás..., habían rescatado consonantes, vocales, un rastro de sílabas.... "
Recomiendo esta colección.
Gracias de nuevo.½

I had a great time reading Short, Vigorous Roots. Not to say it's all chipper. There are some very emotional stories here (especially considering their incredibly short amount of time to build). It's incredibly pertinent to the world today due to the ever increasing coverage of migrants across the world. I, for one, have never been an immigrant nor so closely connected to any to hear their stories first hand. Perhaps the closest idea we may get from American literature would be Grapes of Wrath.
Being flash fiction really allows the reader finishing the collection to get a snippet from the lives of many authors. Short fiction, nonfiction, biographical fans should definitely give this a go. It reads fast and hits hard, so it can cover a lot of genre ground for folks. This feels like something I'd have been given in a college course to read for either history or literature.
It's a wonderful book you should experience.

Short Vigorous Roots is an anthology of flash fiction stories (each less than 1000 words) from 30+ migrant writers from all over the world. The collection is not pro or con migrant. Nor is it politicized to either side of current arguments about who has the right to live where. Rather each story is a window into lives and experiences of fictionalized migrants as they try to find home on this complicated planet of ours. In the best scenario, these stories will touch you, perhaps even allow you to experience different possibilities of understanding.

Thoroughly engaging and descriptive of the immigrant plight to make it to their new lives in various countries across the world. Many stories make you want to hear more, discover what happened to them after their immigration journey. Highly readable and quite interesting to hear from the immigrants about their often grueling experiences; it is flash fiction but felt like non-fiction stories.

I received this book under the LT Early Reviewers scheme. It took me quite a while to finish this book as I began it before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and it became very upsetting to read. All of the stories are well written, although some leave me wondering what exactly was going on. My personal favourite was the one called “The Ravine” which is set in Ukraine. It’s a brilliant book with stories that resonate any time, but sadly especially now.

Short, Vigorous Roots is an amazing and heart-catching book. It is a collection of very short (under 1000 words) stories about being a stranger in a new land. The stories are written by forty multigenerational immigrants from over 25 nations. They are wonderful, emotional stories about the immigrant experience - all sharing certain aspects yet all so very different. They are at once devastating and beautiful. The stories deal with leaving behind one's country, traditions and languages to travel to an unknown culture. This is a brilliant group of stories. Many thanks to Ooligan Press and LibraryThing for the advance reader copy of a book I will never forget.

How do I review a book such as this? Each story was so incredible, so beautiful and heartbreaking, so unique and
stunning, I am struggling with finding the words to best write the review. This is a collection of short stories brilliantly
written by immigrant authors who have all come together in one book. Then, it's the seamless editing by Mark Budman
and Susan O'Neill that really brings Short, Vigorous Roots together. What a truly wonderful collection of short stories.
Many thanks to the publisher, Ooligan Press, and Library Thing's Early Reviewer program for allowing me the chance to
read this eBook in exchange for an unbiased review.
Thanks to the authors for sharing their stories as well.
The authors are:
Elison Alcovendaz
Nancy Au
Genia Blum
Aida Bode
Raffi Boyadjian
Philip Charter
James Corpora
Walerian Domanski
Ingrid Jendrzejewski
Varya Kartishai
Masha Kisel
Ruth Knafo Setton
Nina Kossman
Rimma Kranet
Shaun Levin
Amit Majmudar
Maija Mäkinen
Sayantika Mandal
Erick Messias
A. Molotkov
Feliz Moreno
Kathy Nguyen
Alexandros Plasatis
Irina Popescu
Stuart Stromin
Edvin Subasió
Yong Takahashi
Alizah Teitelbaum
Lazar Trubman
Jose Varghese
Marina Villa
Yara Zgheib

I admired the broad variety of voices and experiences depicted in the short stories in this collection. The stories touched on settling in the unfamiliar new homeland, feeling both connected to and disconnected from family, traditions, and the past, finding a sense of home with people rather than places. I also loved the beautiful illustrations.½