Showing posts with label superheroes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label superheroes. Show all posts
26 June 2023
'Broken Light' by Joanne Harris
29 October 2014
Pound for Pound
Unfortunately, it's been quite a disappointing month for me, reading-wise. Don't get me wrong, it's been fabulous in terms of buying books, with new novels from Bernard Cornwell and Rachel Joyce coming out, plus Books are My Bag, but that sort of thing is not going to lead to a happily every after for my strained bookshelves. So, to try to get back on track, I decided to read something short. It turns out that, at just 88 pages, you can't get much shorter than 'The Tiny Wife' by Andrew Kaufman.
'The Tiny Wife' is the story of a very unusual robbery and its consequences. An unconventional thief with a gun enters a bank one Wednesday afternoon, but he doesn't want money. Instead, he steals one item of sentimental value from each person in the building before making his escape. This seems odd enough, but soon strange things start happening to the victims...
Andrew Kaufman's work is certainly an acquired taste. It's magical, surreal, off-the-wall, creative, fantastical, hypnotic, peculiar and, on the face of it, rather random. But this writer knows exactly what he's doing. Even a story as short as this makes you think and look at things a little bit sideways for a while. The best comparison I can think of is a fairy tale, in which tricks teach lessons and the normal rules simply don't apply.
If you like the sound of this sort of tale of the unexpected, then I would recommend this book and other work by Andrew Kaufman. I do have one caveat, however. This isn't really a book. It's a short story. In fact, it's not even really a short story. It's a 88 pages of short story, with illustrations, and 24 pages of 'Born Weird', written by the same author, so it's more like a promo for another book. I didn't realise this when I picked it up, so would've felt a cheated if I'd paid the full price for it. No short story is worth £6.99. A few pounds, definitely, but not the same as a full length novel. Also, I don't like paying to be advertised to. Fortunately (or unfortunately for the publishers) and perhaps proving theories suggested in my post about 'All My Friends are Superheroes' right, I found this book for £1 in a discount shop. While that was too far to the other extreme, it's hard not to wonder whether it wouldn't have ended up there if priced more reasonably in the first place.
All I can say is this; Mr Kaufman, please stop teasing us and publish a book of short stories. I'd be more than happy to pay full price for that.
Related Posts
'All My Friends Are Superheroes' by Andrew Kaufman
'Fragile Things' by Neil Gaiman
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| 'The Tiny Wife' by Andrew Kaufman (The Friday Project, 2013) |
Andrew Kaufman's work is certainly an acquired taste. It's magical, surreal, off-the-wall, creative, fantastical, hypnotic, peculiar and, on the face of it, rather random. But this writer knows exactly what he's doing. Even a story as short as this makes you think and look at things a little bit sideways for a while. The best comparison I can think of is a fairy tale, in which tricks teach lessons and the normal rules simply don't apply.
If you like the sound of this sort of tale of the unexpected, then I would recommend this book and other work by Andrew Kaufman. I do have one caveat, however. This isn't really a book. It's a short story. In fact, it's not even really a short story. It's a 88 pages of short story, with illustrations, and 24 pages of 'Born Weird', written by the same author, so it's more like a promo for another book. I didn't realise this when I picked it up, so would've felt a cheated if I'd paid the full price for it. No short story is worth £6.99. A few pounds, definitely, but not the same as a full length novel. Also, I don't like paying to be advertised to. Fortunately (or unfortunately for the publishers) and perhaps proving theories suggested in my post about 'All My Friends are Superheroes' right, I found this book for £1 in a discount shop. While that was too far to the other extreme, it's hard not to wonder whether it wouldn't have ended up there if priced more reasonably in the first place.
All I can say is this; Mr Kaufman, please stop teasing us and publish a book of short stories. I'd be more than happy to pay full price for that.
Related Posts
'All My Friends Are Superheroes' by Andrew Kaufman
'Fragile Things' by Neil Gaiman
05 July 2014
Everyday Heroes
Decided I'd been such a good little reader last month that I could treat myself with a trip to the bookshop. Couldn't decide what I fancied, so asked the Twittersphere and it certainly came up trumps!
I've just finished 'All My Friends are Superheroes' by Andrew Kaufman. This short novella (just over 100 pages in my edition) is the story of Tom and his superhero wife the Perfectionist. At their wedding reception, a jealous ex hypnotised the Perfectionist and he's been invisible to her ever since. It's now several months later and, thinking she's lost him forever, the Perfectionist has decided to move to a different city. But Tom is still nearby, his heart disintegrating, desperately trying to work out how to break the spell cast over his bride. As they board the plane to Vancouver, he realises this is his last chance to make her see him again. But can he do it before they land and her new life begins?
'All My Friends are Superheroes' isn't everyone's cup of tea. It thrives on metaphor and allegory, creating an almost reality in the style of Neil Gaiman. These are not the caped and spandex-swathed superheroes of comic books or movies, these are people whose key character traits define them and, even when negative, give them strength and make them special. It was interesting to see the way the author had taken mundane and everyday characteristics and turned them on their heads.
Overall, this is a book about identity and relationships. Charming and interesting though the story is, however, I can understand why some readers would feel a bit peeved by a book this short costing as much as a 300-400 page paperback. I usually try to think in terms of how much I'd pay for other things, like magazines, but perhaps the novella and short story market would be given a boost if books like this were priced differently. Otherwise there's a risk they will always miss out because people will only buy them at a discount, by which time it's too late for them to be a bestseller.
I've already decided this is going to be a Christmas present for a few people this year, however, and want to read more by this author. But if they're all this short, whether I will buy more books or borrow them from the library, only my bank balance can tell.
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| 'All My Friends of Superheroes' by Andrew Kaufman (Telegram, 2006) |
'All My Friends are Superheroes' isn't everyone's cup of tea. It thrives on metaphor and allegory, creating an almost reality in the style of Neil Gaiman. These are not the caped and spandex-swathed superheroes of comic books or movies, these are people whose key character traits define them and, even when negative, give them strength and make them special. It was interesting to see the way the author had taken mundane and everyday characteristics and turned them on their heads.
Overall, this is a book about identity and relationships. Charming and interesting though the story is, however, I can understand why some readers would feel a bit peeved by a book this short costing as much as a 300-400 page paperback. I usually try to think in terms of how much I'd pay for other things, like magazines, but perhaps the novella and short story market would be given a boost if books like this were priced differently. Otherwise there's a risk they will always miss out because people will only buy them at a discount, by which time it's too late for them to be a bestseller.
I've already decided this is going to be a Christmas present for a few people this year, however, and want to read more by this author. But if they're all this short, whether I will buy more books or borrow them from the library, only my bank balance can tell.
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