Aimee Bender's stories are strange and funny, with surreal setups treated plainly: people with unusual bodies, odd obsessions and impossible circumstances, all handled with emotional precision. Her narrators describe desire, loneliness and the longing for connection through fables in which the fantastic is simply a given. The stories are short and often end in unexpected places.
It suits readers who like short fiction with a fairy-tale or magical-realist quality, in the vein of Kelly Link or Karen Russell. You get a collection of oddities that tend to be quietly moving.
Open-ended and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Story Seeker. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 2005
- Language
- EN
