Part of Sandra Bordigoni’s TEN SHORT STORIES: (FOR THOSE WHO NEVER HAVE TIME TO READ)
Disclosure: If you buy the books on this page through the links on this page, I may earn a commission through the Amazon Affiliates program.
Trains, Tottenham Road and the Sea.
Those are the words that come to mind when I think of Ten Short Stories (For Those Who Never Have Time To Read. They are helped contribute to me reading this book front to back in one sitting. As the title admits, this is no great feat given its brevity, but doing so is still revealing. A page turner is a page turner, whether there is three pages or three hundred.
Let’s get into the individual stories. I enjoyed “By Tube” because of its emotional honesty. In the story, a woman on a train sees a passenger that reminds her of their younger self. Despite the woman being a middle-aged well-dressed beauty, the younger passenger finds her quite off-putting, likely for those very reasons. The woman knows that her younger equally counter-cultural self would have felt equal aversion at her style, opulence and conformism.
Yet rather than revert back to certain idealistic aspects of that younger self based on this reminder, the opposite occurs. The woman curls up in her comfortable clothes, smiles, and nods off. While she acknowledges aspects of her sellout nature, it doesn’t much matter to her anymore. Embracing counterculture was an obsession of yesteryear. Now she cared more for the likes of name brands, pearls expensive shopping bags, and other ‘comfortable lures of materialism.’
The theme of acceptance also plays a vital role in the story “Waves”. In “Waves” the main character, a writer, never gets to doing what she intends to do on vacation. That fact is exactly what makes the trip worthwhile. While the writing is strong throughout, ‘Waves’ contains the most moving passages in the book. While description is the key rhetorical device used to achieve this in ‘Waves”, anamnesis and ‘antistrophe’ make for a strong supporting cast.
Antistrophe, or the repetition of phrases at the end of several clauses, constrains the composition of ‘Waves’ as if it were a painting of their namesake. Like in “By Tube”, anamnesis, or the recollection of past events, is juxtaposed onto the present to shape character viewpoints. While the conclusions the characters make in each story differ, I think their reasoning is supported by this maxim: life is best lived not in the weeds, but in the waves.
Author’s own Book synopsis of TEN SHORT STORIES: (FOR THOSE WHO NEVER HAVE TIME TO READ)
“I tried to say many things using very few words, in an age where many words are used to say very little.”
-Sandra Bordigoni
Recommended Transient Visitors Stories by Dave if you liked this self-published book:
The Skater and The Arro
David O’Boyle is an
Self-published Author
Lawyer
Mooncalf
Finboy
Friend from Other Flower Pot
Transient Visitor
Earthling
Pro-Pluto
Maybe someday a Martian
Lover of Giants and Leprechauns and elves
ambassador to mummies and vampires.
David’s works are available in the shop!
Leave a Reply