Very Personal Stories

by Jeffrey Ellinger

Very Personal Stories contains glimpses into the lives of malcontents and dreamers, bros and apostates, lovers and yearners. Though disparate in background and geography---from Milwaukee to Minneapolis to Seattle---the characters within are connected by how disconnected they are from what they want. "If self-published autobiographical fiction had a pioneer, it'd be Ellinger," says someone someday, Ellinger hopes.

188 pages, Paperback

Published July 24, 2017

Reviews

[Tina]

This book was outside of my normal reading genre. Ellinger writes about situations that many of us have found ourselves in during our lifetimes. The book is honest about the emotions we feel during the given story. Some stories take minutes to read, while others are longer. I don't want to say this is a great read but I most certainly do not want to discourage others from reading it. If you are looking for a book that is outside of your comfort zone, while easy to read and relatable, this is a good book.

I struggled with rating the book. I cannot say it deserves five stars as I have not read many books like this one, it doesn't deserve a one star rating either. I settled on a three star rating since it was a middle of the road rating and I felt indicated the book was neither poor nor great. Do not let my rating or review discourage you from reading this book. Read it and decide for yourself.

[Babajaga]

I won a copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway. I knew this wouldn't be a book I would normally pick, but like Tina, one of the other reviewers, I wanted to try something different. I am sorry to say that for the most part, it didn't work for me. I hate giving the book only two stars because I genuinely liked some of the stories, above all Affirmations. But the longest story, The Bro Novelist, was a real struggle for me. Was all that sex really necessary? I found all those descriptions of sex scenes too boring. In my opinion, the story could have worked, had these been reduced way down.

[Jeffrey Ellinger]

Susan Sontag said good writers are roaring egotists, even to the point of fatuity. Trying to work on that, on being narcissistic to the point of absurdity, so here we are...