Saturday, August 7, 2010

Excellent debut by two indie authors, Jamie Hershing & James Stanson

Marouflage Minifiction Volume One:Marouflage is a first-rate collection of ultra-short fiction stories spanning a broad range of topics, including love, law, religion, truth. Many of them are are whimsical, funny, over-analytical or simply quirky takes on anything from mythological characters (The True story of King Midas) to something as trivial as computer code (Basic Insecurity).

Some stories (example: Qualities) have the tender substance of poetry.

Many stories are Aesopian in scope and sound (The Lion's Share, The Scorpion and the Frog) and might as well qualify as modern day fables. Yet others, such as Black and White Man, with their fractured beautiful prose, made me think of  Daniil Kharms.


Among the stories that I would like to mention as outstanding are Dead Sea Apes, Flypaper, The Prodigal's Son Son, Make Believe, Bedtime. Some of the one-sentence stories have the brutality of a thought, yet leave you smiling, pondering over possible meanings.


In all, an excellent debut of two talented writers. Highly recommended.

A recent interview with James Stanson  appeared on Kindle Author.

Chicago flight

In haibun (a literary form originating in Japan), prose and verse (mostly haiku) coexist; the transition between them  brings on a “shift” t...