Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Arcade Publishing (1999), 224 pages
Description
Brief dreamlike sketches deal with a safari in the suburbs, a mother struck by lightning, a cow wearing lingerie, and a visit from dead parents.
User reviews
LibraryThing member SqueakyChu
Picture this. A young man’s father is dead. One day the father appears, emerging naked from a large soap bubble, to visit his son. After the visit, the father leaves, again via soap bubble. The story is called (you guessed it!) “Soap Bubble”. It is a total of two paragraphs long.
Strange?
The writing is good, but there are so many stories which are so bizarre that, after a while, they all seem to blend into one another and not much stands out. There are two stories, though, which did stand out for me. In the “Animals”, the narrator’s father turns into a gorilla while his mother turns into llama. In “Safari”, the longest and best story, the narrator and his dad go on a safari on their front lawn.
I’ve never read a book quite like this one. The size of the stories are more or less those of flash fiction and mostly completed within a page or two. Of other authors I've read, I’d most compare Yourgrau’s writing style to that of the Israeli author Etgar Keret. If you like reading something different, I’d say give this book a try. Even if you end up not favoring it that much, it won’t take long to read through its total of 127 pages.
Strange?
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That’s almost exactly what all of the stories in this thin volume are like. Most of the stories involve the narrator and the use of first-person story-telling. Many of the stories concern the narrator along with his mother, his father, or sometimes both. Occasionally, there’s an attractive young woman in the stories. The writing is good, but there are so many stories which are so bizarre that, after a while, they all seem to blend into one another and not much stands out. There are two stories, though, which did stand out for me. In the “Animals”, the narrator’s father turns into a gorilla while his mother turns into llama. In “Safari”, the longest and best story, the narrator and his dad go on a safari on their front lawn.
I’ve never read a book quite like this one. The size of the stories are more or less those of flash fiction and mostly completed within a page or two. Of other authors I've read, I’d most compare Yourgrau’s writing style to that of the Israeli author Etgar Keret. If you like reading something different, I’d say give this book a try. Even if you end up not favoring it that much, it won’t take long to read through its total of 127 pages.
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Language
Original language
English
Physical description
224 p.; 5.5 inches
ISBN
155970487X / 9781559704878