Speed Dreaming: Stories

by Nicole Haroutunian

From a captivating new author come twelve piercing stories, in which young women negotiate friendship and marriage, art and commerce, and the possibility their lives might not work out as planned. After the house of the young couple in “A Cane, an Anchor” goes up in flames, they’re unsure of what they lost in the fire and what they’d lost long before it. “The Living” asks, how would you arrange your life if you had only six months left? In “Youse,” two teenage girls are the targets of an attempted kidnapping. A trio of linked stories―including the title track―follows Meg and Dax, a curator and a butcher who married impulsively, from their eerie honeymoon in rural Wales through Meg’s identity crisis when the museum where she works is destroyed, to early parenthood, when a coyote’s spectral presence at their child’s birthday party in a Brooklyn park suggests deeper threats.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Contemporary

137 pages, Paperback

First published May 21, 2014

Reviews

[Alex Linschoten · Rating 3 out of 5]

Speed Dreaming contains stories of people unmoored by events big and small, people who try to return back to how things were before but find that they can't because they no longer fit. Most are set in and around New Jersey or Poughkeepsie, places close enough to contain hip young couples but far away enough to see their fair share of boredom, disillusionment and unemployment. Chance meetings, houses burning down, coyotes and mountain lions: there's a lot packed in this book. Only a couple of stories really stood out for me, and one was very much a dud. Haroutunian writes well, but you can still feel traces of her effort when you read.

[Sae-chan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was painting the world as beige. The worst will never happen to you. But on the flip side, nothing exceptionally good will appear either. Don't rock the boat. Any holes could be filled in, any hills could be bulldozed. Anything bad could be drowned inside martini glasses.

Some stories had the same characters, they grew over time. But they just confirmed the flatness of this world. You don't t really love the guy, stay put, you are probably pregnant. After the baby was born, you know you don't love the guy, what can you do, you lost your job. The baby was a toddler now and you knew you will never love the guy, so?? just keep going no matter what.

[Carson hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

It all started off great. I actually really loved these stories, I thought they were kind of like a slice of life, there was really no ending to them, but it spiked my imagination as to what could have happened. Then I got to THE story. It started off with severe animal abuse. I put the book down and will not finish it. It's a shame, but I will not tolerate animal abuse in any situation. Honestly, I almost didn't even read The Stand because there was a telling of animal abuse near the beginning, but because I was already familiar with the author and loved his works I read it. I gave the book three stars because it was good up to that point.

[Darcee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection is art. Every emotion was brought in to play. Simple yet beautiful. Some stories spelled out the message or character's feelings while others left you to understand. Highly recommend and will look for more collections from this author.

[shannon Stubbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad but not for me

Normally I like short stories. Especially when I'm at work. I can read them during lunch. These stories weren't ones that did anything for me. They were ok.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thought-provoking tales focusing on women and their relationships.

[Petra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful collection of short stories - small worlds full of depth and precision and invariably concluded by skillful and surprising last sentences, which reveal the author's talent for her chosen genre. Extremely well and sensitively observed, the cast of thoughtful characters and their millennial quirks pull you in almost casually, then engulf you with unexpected layers, which swirl through individual stories like the changing temperatures and pulls of currents in the sea. I loved the recurrence of small motifs and details in otherwise unrelated stories and the way in which three connected stories pulse through the carefully composed collection and bring it to a close, though not before flashing a Chekhovian gun, to disturbing and exhilarating effect. A remarkable debut and highly recommended reading!

[Leslie Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book through First Reads as a Goodreads giveaway. I really enjoyed the female voice in this collection of short stories. The voice was not overly strong or feminist, but realistic rather. There were several quirky details that made the stories feel real and relatable. The writing style is relatively simple and easy to follow. My only complaint would be that the collection is somewhat short and left me feeling unresolved with each short piece. While the cities and places are important to the stories, the characters are the best the parts of the stories -- they are average and you want to root for them in their normalcy.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it. Beautifully crafted stories with a voice that reaches the reader. The author creates these moments in each story-- the kind that make you want to highlight it and remember it for later because it works in the story and maybe it can stand on its own as well. My favorite stories are "Youse," "Meta-Wall," and "Speed Dreaming," but there wasn't one that I didn't like. I plan to read this one again, so I may add a few to that list! Looking forward to seeing what this author writes next. Read it!!!

[Caitlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Haroutonian’s debut collection of sometimes-interconnected stories takes readers from the industrial desolation of Poughkeepsie, New York, to the melancholy of rural Wales; we experience a thwarted kidnapping, a mysterious disease, a coyote-haunted kid’s birthday party. Again and again, Nicole’s characters face the large and small destructions inherent in being a human who is awake in the world with clarity, grace, and bravery. These generous, incisive, open-hearted stories create little spaces within the every day for meaning-making.

[Sylwia]

I read 3 of the short stories in this. I thought that the writing flowed well in the first 2 and they were very interesting, however they lacked theme/moral or any sort of conclusion. They were the kind of writing that tells it like it is, also, which I think would appeal to many, but they were only 4/5 stars for me. The 3rd story turned me off which is why I decided to stop reading. I think this is an interesting short story collection for folks who like to read something very true to life/candid, something so real that it might be a diary, lacking that purposeful story-telling feel.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great collection of short stories. Some stood out more than others. Some will stick with me for awhile, a quality that I always look for in short stories. Some of the stories I've already forgotten, but I feel this is mainly because I couldn't relate to them in any way. I liked the way Haroutunian managed to craft stories that focused on both small & large issues. The smaller issues often seemed to be the focus for the protagonists, rather than the larger, looming issues. Overall this was an easy read, & for me personally, something to fill in the gaps between other books.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating short collection of tales touching on such diverse topics as love, hate, loss, birth, death, sickness, hope and ranging in emotion from tears to fear to joy. The stories "Youse"," A Cane, An Anchor", "Local News" and "Poughkeepsie" are some of the stories that stayed with me long after the book was done.

[Jewelee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won this book on Goodreads. It's a great book of stories, with a great style of writing. I read it quicker than I usually do, cuz I couldn't put it down & when I did, I kept thinking about it...wondering what was going to happen next. Recommended!