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The Unauthorized Biography of Michele Bachmann
A white man lost in Darfur. Phone hackers. Honey thieves. An Iraq War veteran searching for his missing leg in the dead of night. These are just a few of the characters inhabiting Ken Brosky’s first short story collection, which features short stories that have been published in magazines including Gargoyle, Cream City Review, Barcelona Review, Pif, and more. If there's one theme running through all of the stories, it's survival. Every character approaches this theme in a different way. For the couple stuck inside a coffee shop during the Apocalypse, "survival" means getting through the next hour. For the middle-aged man who fears he might be downsized, it means going out on your own terms. How do you survive? Will you?
From phone hackers to an Iraqi searching for his missing leg, these are thought-provoking accounts packed with powerful images. They don't include Brosky's earlier horror writing, but they do provide a virtual feast of emotions that do include horror, humor and observations of the human condition. 'Amazon.com' is the only essay included in this collection of fiction, and provides a fine and unexpected survey of the internet giant. Brosky's short stories always open with a "I knew this guy, babe, he could do things with his mouth you ain't never seen. And I ain't talking about sex here, all right? All right? Get your head out of the gutter and listen to me, because this is a story that's gonna blow your mind." That's part of his special imparting scenarios and openings that keep you reading. But the tension and unexpected twists don't end with the opening it is evident throughout the chatty, involving story "It all started in the 1960s, when Cap'n Crunch cereal included a free toy whistle in every box. The whistle just so happened to produce a 2600hz tone, which is the exact same tone that AT&T used as a steady signal for unused long-distance lines."
--Diane Donovan, Midwest Book Review
From phone hackers to an Iraqi searching for his missing leg, these are thought-provoking accounts packed with powerful images. They don't include Brosky's earlier horror writing, but they do provide a virtual feast of emotions that do include horror, humor and observations of the human condition. 'Amazon.com' is the only essay included in this collection of fiction, and provides a fine and unexpected survey of the internet giant. Brosky's short stories always open with a "I knew this guy, babe, he could do things with his mouth you ain't never seen. And I ain't talking about sex here, all right? All right? Get your head out of the gutter and listen to me, because this is a story that's gonna blow your mind." That's part of his special imparting scenarios and openings that keep you reading. But the tension and unexpected twists don't end with the opening it is evident throughout the chatty, involving story "It all started in the 1960s, when Cap'n Crunch cereal included a free toy whistle in every box. The whistle just so happened to produce a 2600hz tone, which is the exact same tone that AT&T used as a steady signal for unused long-distance lines."
--Diane Donovan, Midwest Book Review
142 pages, Paperback
First published October 15, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 21, 2012
The Unauthorized Biography of Michele Bachmann (and other stories) is an excellent example of the power of the short story form, and I challenge anyone who thinks that short stories aren’t as involving as a novel to read these. The stories are gutsy. The writing is brilliant and the similar themes and characters give unity to the collection. This is why I prefer collections to anthologies. No matter how vasty different each story may be, the author’s style pervades the work and their voice shines through each story. By the end of the book, the author’s perspective has made its mark on you.
I usually read fantasy, but these stories were starkly real. Brosky takes powerful subject matter and treats it with skill and honesty. The stories are more character orientated than action focused, and the internal monologues allow us to go deeply into the characters. Although there are ten different stories, the characters (all men) were very similar in each story. Some might consider this a negative, but I liked it, because it gave me the chance to delve deeply into that kind of headspace.
"The Phreaks" – A fairly light starter to the collection, this is an enjoyable story about phone hackers with different perspectives on what they do. One has an innocent view; the systems are there, let’s see if we can play with it. The other’s attitude is more spiteful. He wants to bring down the phone company. If you broke it down, you could say it was a kind of good versus evil story. The detail in the information was astounding and I suspect that hours of research must have gone into this story.
"On The Tenth Day, I Kept It Down" – The second story throws us in the deep end with a challenging story about a white man lost in Darfur. He searches refugee camps for a little boy, and all around him are the results of tribal warfare, a high proportion of people living with severed limbs and the smell of burning bodies as yet another village falls to murder, rape, pillaging and burning. The circumstances are shocking and though it’s a downer, for me this is the best story, because it throws us into the middle of the moral and emotional dilemmas inherent in the situation, and the author’s compassion shines through.
Even though they are likely to be raped by the same men that burned their homes and murdered or mutilated their neighbours, the women in the camps are the ones who go out to collect firewood. Why? Because if the men go, they're likely to be murdered. This is the reality for these people. It engages your heart and provokes you to think deeply. I loved the story as much as I hated that it was true.
"Apocalypse Wow!" – This is a delightful, satirical look at the idea of the Apocalypse and God’s relationship to man. It could also have been called the takeaway at the end of the world. Famine rides up on his horse to the drive through for a coffee and tells the workers to stay there because he’s coming back for more. So long as they stay indoors they are safe from the horsemen that are destroying the world. The story follows the reactions of the staff to the ending of their world and their conversations with Famine while he’s drinking his coffee – he’s just doing what God told him to do and doesn’t know much about what’s going on.
"The Third Pile" + "Deer Tales" + "One in Six" -These three are told by the same narrator, a young man who is trying to work out what to do with his life. There’s a bit of fun in these but the undertone is always serious.
"Intermission" – The idea of an intermission was a lot of fun. I really liked just the fact that it was there.
"Amazon.com" – This was different and a lot of fun, a look at how something crazy that may or may not exist can make it big on Amazon’s rating system.
"Altered Beast" – I don’t remember this one. I’m not sure why. I guess it was the one that interested me the least.
"I Can't Just Turn it Off" – This one is about a veteran who had returned from Iraq without a leg and searches for it in the dead of night.. A wonderfully sensitive and powerful story about how ingrained the experiences of war are in the veterans psyche. Apparently it’s based on a true story too, which makes it even more amazing. This, like the second story, is a one that everyone should read, just so you understand what it’s like.
"The Unauthorized Biography of Michele Bachmann" – An enjoyable story about an interesting character. I would have liked a little more romance between the main characters and it should probably have a warning sticker for hardline Christians.
"Positivity Squares" –I loved this story about workers at a company who was big on training it’s workers to be positive at the same time as they were laying off workers. It was funny and poignant at the same time, the best kind of humour.
I’ll end this review with an excerpt from the blurb because it summarises the collection very well.
If there's one theme running through all of the stories, it's survival. Every character approaches this theme in a different way. For the couple stuck inside a coffee shop during the Apocalypse, "survival" means getting through the next hour. For the middle-aged man who fears he might be downsized, it means going out on your own terms.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who appreciates good writing. I give it 5 stars.
I usually read fantasy, but these stories were starkly real. Brosky takes powerful subject matter and treats it with skill and honesty. The stories are more character orientated than action focused, and the internal monologues allow us to go deeply into the characters. Although there are ten different stories, the characters (all men) were very similar in each story. Some might consider this a negative, but I liked it, because it gave me the chance to delve deeply into that kind of headspace.
"The Phreaks" – A fairly light starter to the collection, this is an enjoyable story about phone hackers with different perspectives on what they do. One has an innocent view; the systems are there, let’s see if we can play with it. The other’s attitude is more spiteful. He wants to bring down the phone company. If you broke it down, you could say it was a kind of good versus evil story. The detail in the information was astounding and I suspect that hours of research must have gone into this story.
"On The Tenth Day, I Kept It Down" – The second story throws us in the deep end with a challenging story about a white man lost in Darfur. He searches refugee camps for a little boy, and all around him are the results of tribal warfare, a high proportion of people living with severed limbs and the smell of burning bodies as yet another village falls to murder, rape, pillaging and burning. The circumstances are shocking and though it’s a downer, for me this is the best story, because it throws us into the middle of the moral and emotional dilemmas inherent in the situation, and the author’s compassion shines through.
Even though they are likely to be raped by the same men that burned their homes and murdered or mutilated their neighbours, the women in the camps are the ones who go out to collect firewood. Why? Because if the men go, they're likely to be murdered. This is the reality for these people. It engages your heart and provokes you to think deeply. I loved the story as much as I hated that it was true.
"Apocalypse Wow!" – This is a delightful, satirical look at the idea of the Apocalypse and God’s relationship to man. It could also have been called the takeaway at the end of the world. Famine rides up on his horse to the drive through for a coffee and tells the workers to stay there because he’s coming back for more. So long as they stay indoors they are safe from the horsemen that are destroying the world. The story follows the reactions of the staff to the ending of their world and their conversations with Famine while he’s drinking his coffee – he’s just doing what God told him to do and doesn’t know much about what’s going on.
"The Third Pile" + "Deer Tales" + "One in Six" -These three are told by the same narrator, a young man who is trying to work out what to do with his life. There’s a bit of fun in these but the undertone is always serious.
"Intermission" – The idea of an intermission was a lot of fun. I really liked just the fact that it was there.
"Amazon.com" – This was different and a lot of fun, a look at how something crazy that may or may not exist can make it big on Amazon’s rating system.
"Altered Beast" – I don’t remember this one. I’m not sure why. I guess it was the one that interested me the least.
"I Can't Just Turn it Off" – This one is about a veteran who had returned from Iraq without a leg and searches for it in the dead of night.. A wonderfully sensitive and powerful story about how ingrained the experiences of war are in the veterans psyche. Apparently it’s based on a true story too, which makes it even more amazing. This, like the second story, is a one that everyone should read, just so you understand what it’s like.
"The Unauthorized Biography of Michele Bachmann" – An enjoyable story about an interesting character. I would have liked a little more romance between the main characters and it should probably have a warning sticker for hardline Christians.
"Positivity Squares" –I loved this story about workers at a company who was big on training it’s workers to be positive at the same time as they were laying off workers. It was funny and poignant at the same time, the best kind of humour.
I’ll end this review with an excerpt from the blurb because it summarises the collection very well.
If there's one theme running through all of the stories, it's survival. Every character approaches this theme in a different way. For the couple stuck inside a coffee shop during the Apocalypse, "survival" means getting through the next hour. For the middle-aged man who fears he might be downsized, it means going out on your own terms.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who appreciates good writing. I give it 5 stars.
February 5, 2012
Ah, there's nothing quite like settling down with a good collection of short stories. Especially a collection that's affordable thanks to the magic of the digital age! I'm going to try and put on my reviewer's cap and see just how honest I can be about this collection:
"The Phreaks" - At its core, a simple story about good vs. evil, only with a twist: both of the main characters are phone hackers. The story is well-researched and the narrator is especially fun. It's hard to dislike this story knowing how many hours of research was dedicated to learning about phone hacking. You may disagree. You may not care how many hours of work went into this, but you'll still probably enjoy the story.
"On The Tenth Day, I Kept It Down" - A white man lost in Darfur, searching for a little boy. Probably the biggest downer story in the book, and definitely one of the weakest stories. Some of the characters are a little too exaggerated, but for the most part the events in the story line up well with what actually happened. Another mistake, I think, was assuming the reader would know certain things about the region and its inhabitants. Why do the women go out to collect firewood knowing full well they'll probably be raped? Because if the men go, they'll probably be murdered. It's the most horrible kind of choice, definitely something that could have been fleshed out a little more and explained. A story like this demands perfection, if only because it's such an important subject.
"Apocalypse Wow!" - One of the most frustrating things about this short story is that every time I read it, I have more ideas I want to add. The Apocalypse is a terrifying, big-budget affair and if it ever happens, it will be proof that God is Michael Bay. Famine, the horseman in question (and main character), is clearly the star of the piece and rightfully so: out of everyone, he most embodies the satirical nature of the Apocalypse and deserves every line of dialogue he gets. If anything, I wish I'd have let him talk a little bit more.
"The Third Pile" + "Deer Tales" + "One in Six" - I'm starting to realize just how many of my titles are god-awful. I bunched these three together because they're told by the same narrator, a young man who attempts to escape his old life and start new. Out of the three, I think "The Third Pile" is the best solely because it has special meaning to me. It was nearly non-fiction. "On in Six" is second-best because the story is fun, sometimes serious and sometimes silly, with a great supporting character. Also, there are bees. "Deer Tales," I think, is the weakest of the three (but maybe the funniest), mainly because it's such an enclosed story. There's nothing particularly literary about it, and if you've never played a hunting game drunk in a bar you might not get the full effect. Heck, I've played tons of those games and I still don't get the full effect.
"Intermission" - Ha! Brilliant! Four stars. No, five stars.
"Amazon.com" - An essay, not a short story. I feel cheated. I have no idea what makes a good essay, so I'll play it safe and give it four stars.
"Altered Beast" - Uh-oh, now we're getting into the stories that are a little touchier. Once you start criticizing capitalism, you're in for a world of misconceptions no matter how satirical the story is. I like this story much better than the previous draft, which didn't spend nearly as much time on the narrator. But the narrator is important in a story like this because the mysterious stranger just so happens to be living in the narrator's storage room. The bond they share over an old Sega Genesis game may be lost on readers who never played it, hurting the potential for satire.
(At about this point, I imagine some readers, having realized there won't be any stories about topless vampire teens, will just stop reading)
"I Can't Just Turn it Off" - One of my favorites in the collection. Inspired by a true story, short on politics and heavy on personality, everything about this story feels good. Those first few years when veterans were returning from Iraq with serious injuries were tough times. We've forgotten a lot of that now, especially in the mainstream media. I hope this story endures somewhere for someone.
"The Unauthorized Biography of Michele Bachmann" - I think if you're big on god, you're going to be turned off by this one. Or maybe you'll misinterpret the ending and assume that you share my values and everything is hunky-dory. Regardless, the story itself moves well but if I could do it again, I'd try to spend a little more time developing the stilted romance between the main characters. There's a little more to this story, but in the end it's enjoyable to read because the main character is interesting.
"Positivity Squares" - My personal favorite. I read this story and, having experienced so much of it in the corporate world, can't stop smiling. I don't know if the story has the same effect on readers who haven't experienced some of these things. The story is modeled after "Bartleby the Scrivener" by Herman Melville, only not quite as much as a previous draft. I like this. I like that the final draft of this story ended up with its own unique plot and its own characters while still retaining Melville's satirical flavor. I can't be quite as non-partisan about this story, either, and so I confess maybe it's not quite as good as I'm making it out to be. I'm biased because I modeled the main character, Mike, after a friend who died of a brain tumor. He embodied all of the great things about his fictional doppelganger. I see his strength in the character every time I read it.
Better give this last story four stars just to be safe.
"The Phreaks" - At its core, a simple story about good vs. evil, only with a twist: both of the main characters are phone hackers. The story is well-researched and the narrator is especially fun. It's hard to dislike this story knowing how many hours of research was dedicated to learning about phone hacking. You may disagree. You may not care how many hours of work went into this, but you'll still probably enjoy the story.
"On The Tenth Day, I Kept It Down" - A white man lost in Darfur, searching for a little boy. Probably the biggest downer story in the book, and definitely one of the weakest stories. Some of the characters are a little too exaggerated, but for the most part the events in the story line up well with what actually happened. Another mistake, I think, was assuming the reader would know certain things about the region and its inhabitants. Why do the women go out to collect firewood knowing full well they'll probably be raped? Because if the men go, they'll probably be murdered. It's the most horrible kind of choice, definitely something that could have been fleshed out a little more and explained. A story like this demands perfection, if only because it's such an important subject.
"Apocalypse Wow!" - One of the most frustrating things about this short story is that every time I read it, I have more ideas I want to add. The Apocalypse is a terrifying, big-budget affair and if it ever happens, it will be proof that God is Michael Bay. Famine, the horseman in question (and main character), is clearly the star of the piece and rightfully so: out of everyone, he most embodies the satirical nature of the Apocalypse and deserves every line of dialogue he gets. If anything, I wish I'd have let him talk a little bit more.
"The Third Pile" + "Deer Tales" + "One in Six" - I'm starting to realize just how many of my titles are god-awful. I bunched these three together because they're told by the same narrator, a young man who attempts to escape his old life and start new. Out of the three, I think "The Third Pile" is the best solely because it has special meaning to me. It was nearly non-fiction. "On in Six" is second-best because the story is fun, sometimes serious and sometimes silly, with a great supporting character. Also, there are bees. "Deer Tales," I think, is the weakest of the three (but maybe the funniest), mainly because it's such an enclosed story. There's nothing particularly literary about it, and if you've never played a hunting game drunk in a bar you might not get the full effect. Heck, I've played tons of those games and I still don't get the full effect.
"Intermission" - Ha! Brilliant! Four stars. No, five stars.
"Amazon.com" - An essay, not a short story. I feel cheated. I have no idea what makes a good essay, so I'll play it safe and give it four stars.
"Altered Beast" - Uh-oh, now we're getting into the stories that are a little touchier. Once you start criticizing capitalism, you're in for a world of misconceptions no matter how satirical the story is. I like this story much better than the previous draft, which didn't spend nearly as much time on the narrator. But the narrator is important in a story like this because the mysterious stranger just so happens to be living in the narrator's storage room. The bond they share over an old Sega Genesis game may be lost on readers who never played it, hurting the potential for satire.
(At about this point, I imagine some readers, having realized there won't be any stories about topless vampire teens, will just stop reading)
"I Can't Just Turn it Off" - One of my favorites in the collection. Inspired by a true story, short on politics and heavy on personality, everything about this story feels good. Those first few years when veterans were returning from Iraq with serious injuries were tough times. We've forgotten a lot of that now, especially in the mainstream media. I hope this story endures somewhere for someone.
"The Unauthorized Biography of Michele Bachmann" - I think if you're big on god, you're going to be turned off by this one. Or maybe you'll misinterpret the ending and assume that you share my values and everything is hunky-dory. Regardless, the story itself moves well but if I could do it again, I'd try to spend a little more time developing the stilted romance between the main characters. There's a little more to this story, but in the end it's enjoyable to read because the main character is interesting.
"Positivity Squares" - My personal favorite. I read this story and, having experienced so much of it in the corporate world, can't stop smiling. I don't know if the story has the same effect on readers who haven't experienced some of these things. The story is modeled after "Bartleby the Scrivener" by Herman Melville, only not quite as much as a previous draft. I like this. I like that the final draft of this story ended up with its own unique plot and its own characters while still retaining Melville's satirical flavor. I can't be quite as non-partisan about this story, either, and so I confess maybe it's not quite as good as I'm making it out to be. I'm biased because I modeled the main character, Mike, after a friend who died of a brain tumor. He embodied all of the great things about his fictional doppelganger. I see his strength in the character every time I read it.
Better give this last story four stars just to be safe.
February 9, 2012
A Five Star Collection of Short Stories by Ken Brosky
I loved reading this important collection of short stories,The Unauthorized Biography of Michele Bachmann by Ken Brosky. I loved them because of their imagery, their breathtaking but unconventional beauty. I’m hard put to call my favorites, but I’m going to try. Each story is its own literary gem. There are ten of them and one essay. In all of them, the writing is true, the voice strong, the main characters stroked in with a few phrases.
Except for the title story, all works have been previously published, and the list of their publications is impressive—The Barcelona Review, Santa Fe Writers Project, Gargoyle Magazine, Pif, Cream City Review, to name a few.
Reading Ken Brosky’s work gave me my own journey. After looking at the cover (unimpressive) and reading the author’s foreword and directorial previews, I told myself I’d reached into the bag and dredged up the writing of yet another tongue-in-cheek turk.
Then I began to read the stories, once straight through, and, afterward, touching back and forth through my Kindle to highlighted locations. It took me an afternoon; I couldn’t put the book down. The words and the stories quickly burned away my initial misgivings. This collection is a tour de force by an author with a powerful, unique style.
I’ll not go through each story’s plot. You can read the summaries for free if you have a Kindle or a Mac or PC by downloading a sample.
Suffice it to say the stories and essay in UNAUTHORIZED are knit together by recurring themes, by the same syntax, similar imagery, and, most of them, by the same character—the narrator—who, in many of the stories, functions as the main character.
Instead of summarizing the plot of each story, I’d like to touch on some of the elements in four of them:
• The title story, “The Unauthorized Biography of Michele Bachmann,” especially the end, because it is an index into the mind of the author and what the stories give to me as a reader.
• “On the Tenth Day, I Kept It Down,” because of the story’s gravitas and how the experience of genocide is given to the reader through sense of place.
• “I Can’t Just Turn It Off,” because of choice and endings.
• “The Third Pile,”—my favorite—because of the possum.
In the title story, the main character, Tyler, falls in love with a fellow worker. Well, at least in his mind, he does. Tyler who works with a married woman, Stacey, meets her husband, Vince, whom he thinks is a turd. Later Tyler comes on (sort of) to Stacey, and Vince beats up Tyler. The narration is told in the third person, but the reader knows it’s Tyler’s point of view. All the fat has been squeezed from this story. It ends the way life does, not with a bang:
Tyler lay in the empty flower bed, listening to the sound of a car engine, listening to the sound of tires treading over hard snow. He put on his gloves and stared up at the dark clouds overhead, aware that he was here in the flesh and yet not here in the flesh at all but rather simply a mind that consumed the world. He opened his mouth and let snowflakes fall on his tongue.
“On the Tenth Day, I Kept It Down” is about survival after witnessing the genocide in Darfur. The sense of place is graphic, the smell of burning meat, cloying, the buildings, the cafes, the people …
… all faded into the horizon quickly now as the sun cast a haze over the desert, obscuring time and distance into one blurred, soupy discharge of brown-and yellow.
In the preliminary notes, Ken Brosky tells us that Gargoyle editors liked the story, “I Can’t Just Turn It Off,” but not the ending. In this collection, the author gives us the story and all three endings. You, the reader, get to pick. I won’t tell you my favorite. The story is about a wounded soldier returning from Iraq who begins working for his patriot uncle, searches for his missing leg, has an accident and altercations. The title has multiple meanings, some apparent, others, not so.
Themes of the “The Third Pile” include love and friendship, loss, and, especially, its survival. I thought I’d read it all when it comes to grief, but I hadn’t met Brosky’s storytelling, his way with words and imagery—his understated prose, the significant but seemingly minor detail in the lives of his characters held up to the light for slow examination. Most of all, I hadn’t met the possum in “The Third Pile.” I’m not going to give away the scene. You’ll have to read it for yourself, and I urge you to do so. In the opinion of this reviewer, the story is a masterpiece.
THE UNAUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY OF MICHELE BACHMANN (AND OTHER STORIES)
Brew City Press
ISBN-13: 978-1467974370
ISBN-10: 1467974374
About the author. Currently averaging three short story publications per year, the author has an MFA in writing from the University of Nebraska-Omaha.
I loved reading this important collection of short stories,The Unauthorized Biography of Michele Bachmann by Ken Brosky. I loved them because of their imagery, their breathtaking but unconventional beauty. I’m hard put to call my favorites, but I’m going to try. Each story is its own literary gem. There are ten of them and one essay. In all of them, the writing is true, the voice strong, the main characters stroked in with a few phrases.
Except for the title story, all works have been previously published, and the list of their publications is impressive—The Barcelona Review, Santa Fe Writers Project, Gargoyle Magazine, Pif, Cream City Review, to name a few.
Reading Ken Brosky’s work gave me my own journey. After looking at the cover (unimpressive) and reading the author’s foreword and directorial previews, I told myself I’d reached into the bag and dredged up the writing of yet another tongue-in-cheek turk.
Then I began to read the stories, once straight through, and, afterward, touching back and forth through my Kindle to highlighted locations. It took me an afternoon; I couldn’t put the book down. The words and the stories quickly burned away my initial misgivings. This collection is a tour de force by an author with a powerful, unique style.
I’ll not go through each story’s plot. You can read the summaries for free if you have a Kindle or a Mac or PC by downloading a sample.
Suffice it to say the stories and essay in UNAUTHORIZED are knit together by recurring themes, by the same syntax, similar imagery, and, most of them, by the same character—the narrator—who, in many of the stories, functions as the main character.
Instead of summarizing the plot of each story, I’d like to touch on some of the elements in four of them:
• The title story, “The Unauthorized Biography of Michele Bachmann,” especially the end, because it is an index into the mind of the author and what the stories give to me as a reader.
• “On the Tenth Day, I Kept It Down,” because of the story’s gravitas and how the experience of genocide is given to the reader through sense of place.
• “I Can’t Just Turn It Off,” because of choice and endings.
• “The Third Pile,”—my favorite—because of the possum.
In the title story, the main character, Tyler, falls in love with a fellow worker. Well, at least in his mind, he does. Tyler who works with a married woman, Stacey, meets her husband, Vince, whom he thinks is a turd. Later Tyler comes on (sort of) to Stacey, and Vince beats up Tyler. The narration is told in the third person, but the reader knows it’s Tyler’s point of view. All the fat has been squeezed from this story. It ends the way life does, not with a bang:
Tyler lay in the empty flower bed, listening to the sound of a car engine, listening to the sound of tires treading over hard snow. He put on his gloves and stared up at the dark clouds overhead, aware that he was here in the flesh and yet not here in the flesh at all but rather simply a mind that consumed the world. He opened his mouth and let snowflakes fall on his tongue.
“On the Tenth Day, I Kept It Down” is about survival after witnessing the genocide in Darfur. The sense of place is graphic, the smell of burning meat, cloying, the buildings, the cafes, the people …
… all faded into the horizon quickly now as the sun cast a haze over the desert, obscuring time and distance into one blurred, soupy discharge of brown-and yellow.
In the preliminary notes, Ken Brosky tells us that Gargoyle editors liked the story, “I Can’t Just Turn It Off,” but not the ending. In this collection, the author gives us the story and all three endings. You, the reader, get to pick. I won’t tell you my favorite. The story is about a wounded soldier returning from Iraq who begins working for his patriot uncle, searches for his missing leg, has an accident and altercations. The title has multiple meanings, some apparent, others, not so.
Themes of the “The Third Pile” include love and friendship, loss, and, especially, its survival. I thought I’d read it all when it comes to grief, but I hadn’t met Brosky’s storytelling, his way with words and imagery—his understated prose, the significant but seemingly minor detail in the lives of his characters held up to the light for slow examination. Most of all, I hadn’t met the possum in “The Third Pile.” I’m not going to give away the scene. You’ll have to read it for yourself, and I urge you to do so. In the opinion of this reviewer, the story is a masterpiece.
THE UNAUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY OF MICHELE BACHMANN (AND OTHER STORIES)
Brew City Press
ISBN-13: 978-1467974370
ISBN-10: 1467974374
About the author. Currently averaging three short story publications per year, the author has an MFA in writing from the University of Nebraska-Omaha.
April 3, 2012
I'm not usually much into short stories. I think it can be really difficult to tell a great story in a small amount of space and time. I sometimes find myself dissatisfied about what is able told under such constraint. I definitely did not have a problem with that in Brosky's book. He tells good stories quickly.
This book covers a variety of topics and has tons of different characters in each of short stories within this book. The various characters of the book are what really stood out for me. Brosky does a great job of using the limited amount of space that you have in a short story to really draw a good picture for the reader of who the character is and what they are like. This can be incredibly difficult to do in a very small amount of space.
One of the stories that I enjoyed most in this book is Apocalypse Wow. It's literally about the Apocalypse happening and one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse stopping by an indie coffee shop for a bit of coffee (hey, apparently even demons need a cup to get going when they're faced with tough work like ending the world. It's a hard job but someone has to do it).
There's also a hilarious essay about Amazon, the crazy products you can find on it, and the crazy (crazier?) user reviews that struck me as very funny. Have you ever read any of the user reviews for some of the more... uh... off the beaten path products? Pure humor.
Just a warning: if you don't like rough language, this book may not be for you. While the language (in my opinion) is not excessive, it's there and may not be for some readers.
This book covers a variety of topics and has tons of different characters in each of short stories within this book. The various characters of the book are what really stood out for me. Brosky does a great job of using the limited amount of space that you have in a short story to really draw a good picture for the reader of who the character is and what they are like. This can be incredibly difficult to do in a very small amount of space.
One of the stories that I enjoyed most in this book is Apocalypse Wow. It's literally about the Apocalypse happening and one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse stopping by an indie coffee shop for a bit of coffee (hey, apparently even demons need a cup to get going when they're faced with tough work like ending the world. It's a hard job but someone has to do it).
There's also a hilarious essay about Amazon, the crazy products you can find on it, and the crazy (crazier?) user reviews that struck me as very funny. Have you ever read any of the user reviews for some of the more... uh... off the beaten path products? Pure humor.
Just a warning: if you don't like rough language, this book may not be for you. While the language (in my opinion) is not excessive, it's there and may not be for some readers.
October 31, 2011
I can only say that I wished I had paid more attention to the phrase the old alchemist told me I was supposed to say when I opened this book in my Kindle list. "Clattuu beratta...cough cough cough" was apparently not enough. Bad part, I had to save the world from the armies of the undead. Good part, I at least got a boomstick out of the deal and can now save against poison on the roll of an unmodified ten or higher (twenty-sided die roll). Also, maybe someday I'll make it back to my own time.
Sorry, just wanted to do a little homage to the nonfiction essay that is included with these stories. If you want to know what the hell I'm talking about you'll just have to read. After all, these stories are Brosky at his best. Though all have great description and emotional impact, there is a great deal of variety in this collection. Brosky has a hell of an imagination and it makes for some real gripping reading. I don't think you should necessarily let him babysit your children, or your pets, but I would advise reading his stories. He's definitely not to be missed.
Sorry, just wanted to do a little homage to the nonfiction essay that is included with these stories. If you want to know what the hell I'm talking about you'll just have to read. After all, these stories are Brosky at his best. Though all have great description and emotional impact, there is a great deal of variety in this collection. Brosky has a hell of an imagination and it makes for some real gripping reading. I don't think you should necessarily let him babysit your children, or your pets, but I would advise reading his stories. He's definitely not to be missed.
February 25, 2012
The Unauthorized Biography of Michele Bachmann and Other Stories by Ken Brosky is a collection of short stories prefaced by a bit of background about each story in the collection, including his trio of "Dodge County" stories. While this kind of preface can be enlightening or amusing, this one just seems unnecessary given the powerful stories beyond this "prologue." From surviving a car accident that takes the life of your best friend to surviving the loss of a new friend in Darfur, these stories are poignant and threatening. They serve to demonstrate that loss can happen unexpectedly and can tear at you emotionally and physically.
Read the full review on 2/29: http://savvyverseandwit.com/2012/02/t...
Read the full review on 2/29: http://savvyverseandwit.com/2012/02/t...
April 22, 2015
Clever and current, in these stories Brosky introduces us to the Millennial in the basement, the returned veteran - Why? Why? 3 alternate endings I ask! the downsized and other characters of our world. There is enough humor with it's occasional sparkle to keep the whole thing above the waves. And with his kind of writing talent, I'm looking for a novel for adults that can vault beyond what looks like the success of the YA Grimm Chronicles series.
August 8, 2025
Awesome Indies Book Awards is pleased to include The Unauthorized Biography of Michele Bachmann by Ken Brosky in the library of Awesome Indies'
Badge of Approval
recipients.
January 26, 2012
The quality of the writing is excellent, the plotting, not always so much. If only they were all as good as the final story ...
March 4, 2013
Not my usual fare, but I thought the stories were original and well-written. I did enjoy this book and was pleasantly surprised.
March 14, 2013
I borrowed this from the Amazon Prime lending library and was pleasantly surprised. Overall good short stories, with a couple that I will remember for a long time.
July 10, 2013
Some of the best short fiction I have read in a long time. Well written and thought provoking. The intermissions within the book were a nice touch.
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