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Interrogations: Stories
The stories of men, women and children are put under the spotlight as the difficult questions are asked and answered in Interrogations. The characters face themselves and their shadows in a series of intense stories published in top literary magazines such as Cimarron Review, The Literary Review, The Los Angeles Review, Nimrod, Sou'wester, and Zone 3.
271 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 30, 2016
153 people want to read
About the author
Martin Ott
14 books128 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Born in Alaska and raised in Michigan, Martin Ott served as an interrogator in U.S. Army military intelligence.
He moved to Los Angeles to attend the Masters of Professional Writing Program at USC, and often writes about his adopted city, including in the novel The Interrogator's Notebook (currently being pitched by Paradigm as a TV pilot) and poetry books Captive, De Novo Prize Winner, C&R Press and Underdays, Sandeen Prize Winner, University of Notre Dame Press (Fall 2015).
Social and political themes are prevalent in all of his books, particularly Poets' Guide to America and Yankee Broadcast Network, coauthored with John F. Buckley, Brooklyn Arts Press and his short story collection, Interrogations, Fomite Press (Spring 2016). His novel Spectrum, C&R Press, (Fall 2016), asks what if a wall is built in a post-apocalyptic America, fueled by bigotry and the unintended consequences of technology.
His most recent poetry book, LESSONS IN CAMOUFLAGE, C&R Press, 2018, explores the hidden reservoirs of his life as an interrogator, divorced father, and estranged son to a dying mother, all with an eye on truths easy to conceal and sometimes painful to reveal.
His Writeliving blog - http://writeliving.wordpress.com/ - has been read by more than 30,000 people in 100+ countries. More at www.martinottwriter.com.
Born in Alaska and raised in Michigan, Martin Ott served as an interrogator in U.S. Army military intelligence.
He moved to Los Angeles to attend the Masters of Professional Writing Program at USC, and often writes about his adopted city, including in the novel The Interrogator's Notebook (currently being pitched by Paradigm as a TV pilot) and poetry books Captive, De Novo Prize Winner, C&R Press and Underdays, Sandeen Prize Winner, University of Notre Dame Press (Fall 2015).
Social and political themes are prevalent in all of his books, particularly Poets' Guide to America and Yankee Broadcast Network, coauthored with John F. Buckley, Brooklyn Arts Press and his short story collection, Interrogations, Fomite Press (Spring 2016). His novel Spectrum, C&R Press, (Fall 2016), asks what if a wall is built in a post-apocalyptic America, fueled by bigotry and the unintended consequences of technology.
His most recent poetry book, LESSONS IN CAMOUFLAGE, C&R Press, 2018, explores the hidden reservoirs of his life as an interrogator, divorced father, and estranged son to a dying mother, all with an eye on truths easy to conceal and sometimes painful to reveal.
His Writeliving blog - http://writeliving.wordpress.com/ - has been read by more than 30,000 people in 100+ countries. More at www.martinottwriter.com.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 14, 2016
This is a short story novel about the interrogation of people and how they face their intense secrets. The setting is Los Angeles, CA where women, men, and children face some hard questions that are asked and answered during interrogations. The characters come to the reality that they have to face some deep, dark secrets that have been lurking in their past. Their stories were published in several well known literary magazines. Facing your life, really facing it, all the lies and secrets that you have carried for so long and all of it has affected your family can be devastating and un-nerving. Many times the characters keep to their denial. But Ott, smiles and goes around all the lies and deceit. He doesn't use brute force but uses the heart as a probe to go past the deceit and get to the truth.Grab a copy of INTERROGATIONS: Stories by Martin Ott and go past the lies and deceit of people as Mr, Ott interrogates them to get to the truth and the answers he needs.
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased review. No other compensation took place.
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased review. No other compensation took place.
February 8, 2016
The author blurb states that Ott is a former U. S. Army interrogator, so my first and logical thought about the book was that it was a collection of stories about actual interrogations. That is not the case at all, most of the stories are about people involved in dysfunctional relationships, whether they are personal or familial. Drug and alcohol use are an inherent part of many of the stories, there is very little in the way of violence. Although some people do get punched.
The stories move very quickly, Ott is very good at moving the action along while being fairly thorough in describing what is happening. My favorite was “Stone Feathers,” where the featured character was former U. S. President Richard Nixon. He is about to attend a state funeral with a 21-gun salute and the other circumstances are kept rather vague. Money is a female aid that stays the course in aiding Nixon. There is an amusing section
“ ... she did not like his penchant for walking around without clothes. Like he was now. She thought he was keen and wise, but he wasn’t the cutest guy who ever lived.”
People that followed the demise of Nixon in his last months as president will recognize this story about Nixon.
Ott is a talented writer of short stories about the harshness of life. These are not uplifting stories, in most cases the characters are doing what they can to cope and survive. In some cases they are older and attempting to somehow make peace with events that occurred earlier in their lives. In these stories, the success bar is generally set rather low.
This book was made available for free for review purposes
The stories move very quickly, Ott is very good at moving the action along while being fairly thorough in describing what is happening. My favorite was “Stone Feathers,” where the featured character was former U. S. President Richard Nixon. He is about to attend a state funeral with a 21-gun salute and the other circumstances are kept rather vague. Money is a female aid that stays the course in aiding Nixon. There is an amusing section
“ ... she did not like his penchant for walking around without clothes. Like he was now. She thought he was keen and wise, but he wasn’t the cutest guy who ever lived.”
People that followed the demise of Nixon in his last months as president will recognize this story about Nixon.
Ott is a talented writer of short stories about the harshness of life. These are not uplifting stories, in most cases the characters are doing what they can to cope and survive. In some cases they are older and attempting to somehow make peace with events that occurred earlier in their lives. In these stories, the success bar is generally set rather low.
This book was made available for free for review purposes
March 28, 2016
I won my copy from a Goodreads giveaway. Here is my honest review:
The summary on the back sounded super interesting so I was very excited to read this. From the synopsis, I really thought this book was going to be a non-fiction anthology of the author's own experiences as an army interrogator. Not only was it completely fiction, most of the stories were so short (sometimes 1 page!) that it left me feeling very disconnected and apathetic by the end. None of the stories stuck out to me and the overall theme of interrogations was not strong or clear at all.
Surprisingly, not one of the characters actually got interrogated! What a let down for a book named Interrogations! They might have thought about tough questions in their heads but nothing was ever answered or resolved. There were also a few typos and duplicate words in my copy. I do want to say that the short stories themselves were not badly written or anything, but all in all, this work as a whole was quite meaningless. There'a a similar work like this called From Here and that was a much better executed example of a string of short stories with a resonating theme.
I still give this book 3 stars for its beautiful and attention-grabbing cover, interesting idea and relatively solid quality short stories by themselves.
The summary on the back sounded super interesting so I was very excited to read this. From the synopsis, I really thought this book was going to be a non-fiction anthology of the author's own experiences as an army interrogator. Not only was it completely fiction, most of the stories were so short (sometimes 1 page!) that it left me feeling very disconnected and apathetic by the end. None of the stories stuck out to me and the overall theme of interrogations was not strong or clear at all.
Surprisingly, not one of the characters actually got interrogated! What a let down for a book named Interrogations! They might have thought about tough questions in their heads but nothing was ever answered or resolved. There were also a few typos and duplicate words in my copy. I do want to say that the short stories themselves were not badly written or anything, but all in all, this work as a whole was quite meaningless. There'a a similar work like this called From Here and that was a much better executed example of a string of short stories with a resonating theme.
I still give this book 3 stars for its beautiful and attention-grabbing cover, interesting idea and relatively solid quality short stories by themselves.
dnf
April 13, 2016I was excited to have been asked to review this book. Interrogations sounded like a book that would be right up my alley. I fantasized about what this short story collection would be like and I was so disappointed. This really does not live up to the title. Nowhere in here are stories about interrogations. The cover is eye catching.
May 11, 2016
I was given this book by the author in exchange for an honest review.
This book is a compilation of many interesting stories about different struggles of people (these stories are not true). I’m not sure what I was expecting when I picked up this book. I thought that it was a handful of long stories but there are several stories, some are longer than others.
These stories are not suitable for children; they are mainly for adults. They involve some disturbing cycling habits of people trying to deal with their situations in life and their ever-changing emotions. I thought it was interesting because the roller coaster of emotions in various situations in life were very real. I’m not sure if many readers would agree but I thought they were what many humans could have gone through. I’ve known many people that have felt these hard, confusing and conflicting feelings in similar situations of the characters. This, was the most intriguing part of the whole book; the characters handling challenging life circumstances that will either make a character confront or ignore the tough problems in their own way.
Mr. Ott’s writing was very descriptive. His descriptions of the thoughts of his characters flowed well and helped me understand the driving force in the characters. It was easy getting to know him or her and each individual was complex in his/her own way. I felt like I knew them. Not that I liked all of the characters and their choices in life but I couldn’t help but be intrigued by them.
I would like to thank Mr. Ott for sharing his work with me.
This book is a compilation of many interesting stories about different struggles of people (these stories are not true). I’m not sure what I was expecting when I picked up this book. I thought that it was a handful of long stories but there are several stories, some are longer than others.
These stories are not suitable for children; they are mainly for adults. They involve some disturbing cycling habits of people trying to deal with their situations in life and their ever-changing emotions. I thought it was interesting because the roller coaster of emotions in various situations in life were very real. I’m not sure if many readers would agree but I thought they were what many humans could have gone through. I’ve known many people that have felt these hard, confusing and conflicting feelings in similar situations of the characters. This, was the most intriguing part of the whole book; the characters handling challenging life circumstances that will either make a character confront or ignore the tough problems in their own way.
Mr. Ott’s writing was very descriptive. His descriptions of the thoughts of his characters flowed well and helped me understand the driving force in the characters. It was easy getting to know him or her and each individual was complex in his/her own way. I felt like I knew them. Not that I liked all of the characters and their choices in life but I couldn’t help but be intrigued by them.
I would like to thank Mr. Ott for sharing his work with me.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews