Literary reviews by Tim Love.
Warning: Rather than reviews, these are often notes in preparation for reviews that were never finished, or pleas for help with understanding pieces. See Litref Reviews - a rationale for details.

Saturday, 6 May 2017

"Unthology 8", Ashley Stokes and Robin Jones (eds) (Unthank Books, 2016)

The introduction by Ashley Stokes is an edited version of a talk given at the London Short Story Festival. It charts the history of selection procedures from Unthology 1 (30 subs) to Unthology 9 (170+ subs). They decided against advertizing themes for issues beforehand.

  • David Frankel - "Beneath the melting snow". About Edvard Munch (in an afterword the author writes "I have attempted to remain as true to the real events as possible"). 9 pages set in 1932, with backstory flashbacks, then 3 pages set in 1943, then a page set in 1944.
  • Rodge Glass - "Bye bye Ben Ali". The father of the nation flees.
  • Martin Monahan - "The toasted cheese sandwich of Babel". Fast-food meets The Standard Model.
  • Judy Darley - "The Sculptor". An ice-sculptor whose father's mind is going meets a boy who's a glass-blower
  • Dan Malakin - "I, Crasbo". A first-person robot butler.
  • Damon King - "Cuts". A fight in a prison cell, coldly observed.
  • Clare Fisher - "How to get back your guts". A 21 year-old girl who works at Tasty's Chicken hopes to find love.
  • Amanda Mason - "The best part of the day". Meg, having taken a summer job at a seaside to get over a break-up, gets a bit strange over a young man without ever talking to him.
  • AndrĂ© Van Loon - "The Little World". A young couple seem happy together just talking. Then through work she meets an entertaining author. He's insecure.
  • Laura Darling - "10,000 Tiny Pieces". The heroine seems to get over an obsession with jigsaws
  • Sarah Dobbs - "The imaginary wife". A seemingly happy relationship is unsettled by e-mail from one of their ex's.
  • Armel Dagorn - "Nora and Anthony". Life in a theatre.
  • Kit Caless - "Not drowning but saving". A support group for disaster workers who need to keep helping.
  • FC Malby - "Lines in the sand". Around a fire in Africa, a tour-group start talking about God.
  • Lara Williams - "As Understood by the women". On his wedding day a groom feels out of his depth.
  • Victoria Briggs - "A beautiful noise" - Set in Nice during a festival.

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