ISBN: 9781599268514

In Not Exactly Bedtime Stories, Crystal Norris offers us glimpses into the heart of many of the experiences that define what it is to be human. Whether she''s telling the tale i… mais…

In Not Exactly Bedtime Stories, Crystal Norris offers us glimpses into the heart of many of the experiences that define what it is to be human. Whether she''s telling the tale in the form of a letter exchanged by intimates or engaging in the strict emotional reportage of what happens when a relationship crumbles, she tells the truth, sometimes in very stark terms. Thematically and stylistically, the stories are diverse, but together they provide a roadmap to the author''s central preoccupation with the myriad ways in which we fail to communicate our essential truths. By the end of this collection, even the simplest acts of interpersonal communication have morphed into grossly distorted acts of bureaucracy-supported misdirection. The stories in the first three sections take place in the real world, in all its ragged unpredictability. In these stories, it is the characters themselves who are the architects of their own misdirected or incomplete communications. This contrasts with what we find in ''Tales with a Twist and ''Lucien Wilde: The Character Who Refused to Die. In these stories, the characters are-by and large-much more articulate and willing to take responsibility for putting their truths into intelligible language. However, they operate in a world where the management of truth is complicated by the demands of the altered reality in which the characters find themselves. For them, speaking truthfully is a matter of life and death that very often involves subverting impenetrable protocol to achieve. If there is an underlying, unstated plea inherent in these stories it''s that each of us must learn immediately to speak to the specificity of our own truths to everyone in our lives whomatter. And we need to do it before time runs out. Crystal G. Norris, Books, Fiction and Literature, Not Exactly Bedtime Stories Books>Fiction and Literature <