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3rd out of 13 books
—
7 voters
Cienfuegos
by
Chris Deal (Goodreads Author)
‘Prose haikus, fiction bullets, one-sentences novels, two fingers of story neat, no chaser . . . I don’t know what to call these, really. But I want more.’
Stephen Graham Jones, author of Demon Theory and Ledfeather
‘These stories render emotion in shades of stark gray. Like sculptures, Deal subtracts from his Cienfuegos superfluous elements, leaving a base from which the r...more
Stephen Graham Jones, author of Demon Theory and Ledfeather
‘These stories render emotion in shades of stark gray. Like sculptures, Deal subtracts from his Cienfuegos superfluous elements, leaving a base from which the r...more
Paperback, 46 pages
Published
March 2010
by Brown Paper Publishing
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These stories touch many emotions. the reader is allowed to interpret, perhaps participate in, his characters' disjointed lives.
I'm glad to have received a copy
I'm glad to have received a copy
This review will be longer than the stories in Chris Deal’s Cienfuegos:
Chris Deal is one of those indie rag darlings. If there’s a popular online zine, I’m not surprised to find him in it, and after enjoying enough of his short works, I was intrigued by this collection of micro fiction pieces, all of them coming in around 100 words. For me, micro fiction is not unlike prose poetry: At its best, it’s finely-tuned minimalism, but most of the time, it doesn’t go deep enough for me to have an opini...more
Chris Deal is one of those indie rag darlings. If there’s a popular online zine, I’m not surprised to find him in it, and after enjoying enough of his short works, I was intrigued by this collection of micro fiction pieces, all of them coming in around 100 words. For me, micro fiction is not unlike prose poetry: At its best, it’s finely-tuned minimalism, but most of the time, it doesn’t go deep enough for me to have an opini...more
In Cienfugeos, Chris Deal writes about solitude, loss, and the cold certainty of death, a chill running over you as the stories unfold, and then, he drops you into a furnace of hate and mysticism, the short, fractured stories abruptly over with nothing left but an echo. These are all in the same world, in different worlds, in the mirrored reflection of places that seem familiar, and yet, are not at all what you thought you knew, unexpected and piercing. You could call this a collection of flash...more
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This book is a tease. A delightful tease, but a tease nonetheless.
It's a short book filled with extremely short stories. As in none of them are longer than a page. Apparently it started its life as some sort of 100 word contest.
This just reminds me of the issue I often have with short story collections and short stories as a whole. I tend to like engaging in a story for the long term. I watch more shows with long term continuity, I like long books, I want to spend a good amount of time with a g...more
It's a short book filled with extremely short stories. As in none of them are longer than a page. Apparently it started its life as some sort of 100 word contest.
This just reminds me of the issue I often have with short story collections and short stories as a whole. I tend to like engaging in a story for the long term. I watch more shows with long term continuity, I like long books, I want to spend a good amount of time with a g...more
This part is golden:
round about three
The dry heaves came early, round about three, and they left me curled over the toilet, coughing up bile and spittle and blood, a psychedelic lightshow going off behind my eyes, the red of a freshly killed cardinal and yellow of the dying moon mixing against the holy white shit collector. Stomach was clawing at me like a foul and pissed-off beast. Went back to bed without flushing. Let’s call it modernist art, the soon-to-be father said when he woke. We’ll fra...more
round about three
The dry heaves came early, round about three, and they left me curled over the toilet, coughing up bile and spittle and blood, a psychedelic lightshow going off behind my eyes, the red of a freshly killed cardinal and yellow of the dying moon mixing against the holy white shit collector. Stomach was clawing at me like a foul and pissed-off beast. Went back to bed without flushing. Let’s call it modernist art, the soon-to-be father said when he woke. We’ll fra...more
Cienfuegos is a collection of flash fiction, including stories so rich and visceral they act like cattle prods to the soul, some of the stories play out like sonnets, and some, holy rites to exorcise the demons that lie within us all. There are stories that will bring you closer to the Everlasting Light, and others that will drag you back down to Hell. Be sure of this, for all those who turn its first page, life will never be the same.
This collection of flash is hard to categorize. I've never seen anything like it. Almost poetry, but more than that. Reading these stories reminds me of when I was a child on vacation at Lake Chiemsee and I was peering down into the clear water from an old stone wall, there was a set of dishes, almost like a sunken tea party. It felt like they were just under the water and I could almost reach them. But it turned out the water was much deeper than it looked.
These stories are much deeper than th...more
These stories are much deeper than th...more
2 likes · like · see review
Angels is the only micro fiction piece that seems entire, the rest are all wanting as a whole either through being overly ornamental or from lacking a clear sense of direction. The pieces do however represent a wide range of experimentation.
This was a very quick read...too quick. I immensely enjoyed these apocalyptic, slightly nightmarish, slightly noirish slices of some kind of "other life" and look forward to reading more of this author's work.
In the border wars between hell and heaven, Deal's earth-bound desperados must endure their paths to salvation or damnation with every paragraph. I pray for their souls either way.
A collection of moody flash fiction pieces, the best of which evoke the mood and characterization of much longer stories. I dug.
A series of quick bites. Every nibble is a delight, teasing you with enough flavour to keep you pondering.
Looks good, can't wait to get it!
I got this book for free through Goodreads First Reads giveaway.
I liked about 20% of the short stories, most were a bit too dark for me, the author talks a lot about death/suicide/going to hell... not my style.. lol. Also there were couple of stories with spanish words in them that i obviously didn't understand.. i wish there was at least translation... my favorite short story was 'Ex Nihilo Nihil Fit' i thought it was funny.. that was the way i thought of magicians before i learned their tricks...more
I liked about 20% of the short stories, most were a bit too dark for me, the author talks a lot about death/suicide/going to hell... not my style.. lol. Also there were couple of stories with spanish words in them that i obviously didn't understand.. i wish there was at least translation... my favorite short story was 'Ex Nihilo Nihil Fit' i thought it was funny.. that was the way i thought of magicians before i learned their tricks...more
These stories render emotion in shades of stark gray. Like sculptures, Deal subtracts from his Cienfuegos superfluous elements, leaving a base from which the reader is allowed to interpret, perhaps participate in, his characters’ disjointed lives. Each word hints at two others; each line implies a life; each brief fiction describes a world.
This deserves a longer review than I can give at the moment. short quick review: Cienfuegos is uniqe and fast. It's something that most books fail to do: it'll make you feel emotion. And, reading it, you can almost picture the man writing it: and he would most certainly have a huge cigar and fancy hat.
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