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Death-in-a-Box
by
Alta Ifland (Goodreads Author)
Blending the fabulous with the macabre, the lyrical with the grotesque, the atemporal with the present, and melancholy with dark humor, these stories will take you from the ambiguous world of modern folktales where a man tries to catch Death in a box, to communist Eastern Europe where a man eats his own brains, to contemporary women who like garbage, or who prefer to keep...more
Paperback, first, 97 pages
Published
January 7th 2011
by Subito Press
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I was just notified that I am a goodreads first read program winner of this book. I cannot wait to get this book! Thank you goodreads!!!
my apologies for taking so long to read this book. I had sinus surgery the end of December & severe migraines ever since. Reading has been difficult.
I finished "Death-in-a-Box" tonight. I think that the cover & the title are very misleading and do the book NO JUSTICE at all. This was a great book. The cover makes it seems like it will be some cheesy horr...more
my apologies for taking so long to read this book. I had sinus surgery the end of December & severe migraines ever since. Reading has been difficult.
I finished "Death-in-a-Box" tonight. I think that the cover & the title are very misleading and do the book NO JUSTICE at all. This was a great book. The cover makes it seems like it will be some cheesy horr...more
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I seem to be reading and enjoying more and more short fiction - a short story gives you just enough to make you think, but not too much. Where a short story shines a narrow torch beam on a mysterious, shadowy object, a novel-length tale can often show you too clearly just how mundane an item it really is.
This collection has a wide variety: memories of the past and dreams of the future, melancholy and humour, subverted expectations, warped reality. These are the sort of stories that I *don't* wan...more
This collection has a wide variety: memories of the past and dreams of the future, melancholy and humour, subverted expectations, warped reality. These are the sort of stories that I *don't* wan...more
It isn't often that I get to read something that feels this different from what I'm used to reading. It isn't necessarily strangeness of ideas. This has that, but I gravitate toward that sort of thing normally. There is just something about the writing in these stories that has a very different voice from what I'm used to getting. It sounds a unique cord. I liked it a great deal and think these stories are well worth the time to read.
Short little unsettling stories, impressions really. The plots are surreal, but the point of view is as clear as a bell. A quiet rage at petty despotism, and material, intellectual and moral deprivations, but perhaps an even sharper rage at soft bubble headed Americans. If a society (or a family maybe) is built on lying, then what is the best way to tell the truth?
My favorite was Uncle Otto Plays Chess.
My favorite was Uncle Otto Plays Chess.
From Rain Taxi (via Powell's): Fernando Pessoa's complicating of identity clearly influences Ifland's work, as do the labyrinthine realities of Borges, Cortazar, and Kafka. However, Ifland follows her own path through the maze of artistic influence, keeping always an ironic awareness of the fictions within fictions she creates. Yes please!
A breath of fresh air in an often stale literary world.
Small and unserious book. Not worth the time or effort for reading it. Even if it was a prize from somewhere..
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Born in Transylvania, Romania; grew up under communism; emigrated to the United States in 1991. Studied French literature and philosophy in France. Writes (and translates) in French (second language) and English (third language).
Books:
Voix de Glace/Voice of Ice (prose poems; French/English; Les Figues Press, 2007). 2008 Louis Guillaume Prize.
Elegy for a Fabulous World (short stories; Ninebark Pre...more
More about Alta Ifland...
Books:
Voix de Glace/Voice of Ice (prose poems; French/English; Les Figues Press, 2007). 2008 Louis Guillaume Prize.
Elegy for a Fabulous World (short stories; Ninebark Pre...more
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