What do you think?
Rate this book
Cienfuegos
‘Prose haikus, fiction bullets, one-sentences novels, two fingers of story neat, no chaser . . . I don’t know what to call these, really. But I want more.’ Stephen Graham Jones, author of Demon Theory and Ledfeather
‘These stories render emotion in shades of stark gray. Like sculptures, Deal subtracts from his Cienfuegos superfluous elements, leaving a base from which the reader is allowed to interpret, perhaps participate in, his characters’ disjointed lives. Each word hints at two others; each line implies a life; each brief fiction describes a world.’ Caleb J. Ross, author of Charactered Pieces
‘These stories render emotion in shades of stark gray. Like sculptures, Deal subtracts from his Cienfuegos superfluous elements, leaving a base from which the reader is allowed to interpret, perhaps participate in, his characters’ disjointed lives. Each word hints at two others; each line implies a life; each brief fiction describes a world.’ Caleb J. Ross, author of Charactered Pieces
46 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2010
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
June 9, 2010
This collection of flash is hard to categorize. I've never seen anything like it. Almost poetry, but more than that. Reading these stories reminds me of when I was a child on vacation at Lake Chiemsee and I was peering down into the clear water from an old stone wall, there was a set of dishes, almost like a sunken tea party. It felt like they were just under the water and I could almost reach them. But it turned out the water was much deeper than it looked.
These stories are much deeper than they appear to be. That is the closest I can come to defining them. I was honestly blown away.
These stories are much deeper than they appear to be. That is the closest I can come to defining them. I was honestly blown away.
December 17, 2010
These stories touch many emotions. the reader is allowed to interpret, perhaps participate in, his characters' disjointed lives.
I'm glad to have received a copy
I'm glad to have received a copy
July 15, 2014
I don't remember how I found this press, maybe somewhere, somehow on Twitter? There were a few small press authors I knew the name of, but couldn't remember where I had discovered them. Anyway, this is the second KUBOA book that will appear on this blog, the first one was It Smells Like Plastic and Hurt Feelings by J. Bradley . The last time I had read something similar to this, flash fiction or micro fiction wise, it was I'm Not Saying, I'm Just Saying by Matthew Salesses , or maybe Blurb by Ravi Mangla. I really messed up those links, if I try to fix it, something terrible will happen.
There won't be much for me to say, since these are all short fictions, small little sentences, short films, packed with a story or a vision. I always found this type of fiction to be something brilliant and fascinating, how could a person cultivate a story in one sentence or paragraph? How is it possible to draw up the scene and bring it down to an ending without wasting time and words, without struggling to make logical sense out of it. Then I think that sometimes stories don't have to have conventional logic, it's up to the writer or the reader. This type of fiction seems to focus more on the feeling, the adrenaline, the fear, and the unknown.; With small, words and sentences with a punch, struggling to get everything down in a limited space. Am I exaggerating this? Probably. It's a claustrophobic type of work where you write poetry and prose all at the same time, just to paint the perfect picture. Just to get down the right words without the filler and the superfluous.This is the type of writing that lonely bookworms write during phases of boredom in the back of a notebook. This is the type of writing that you struggle to leak out of your mind, as you write on paper, squeezing it out into something tangible. Even if it doesn't make any sense, because most things don't make sense anyway.
Rating: 4/5
There won't be much for me to say, since these are all short fictions, small little sentences, short films, packed with a story or a vision. I always found this type of fiction to be something brilliant and fascinating, how could a person cultivate a story in one sentence or paragraph? How is it possible to draw up the scene and bring it down to an ending without wasting time and words, without struggling to make logical sense out of it. Then I think that sometimes stories don't have to have conventional logic, it's up to the writer or the reader. This type of fiction seems to focus more on the feeling, the adrenaline, the fear, and the unknown.; With small, words and sentences with a punch, struggling to get everything down in a limited space. Am I exaggerating this? Probably. It's a claustrophobic type of work where you write poetry and prose all at the same time, just to paint the perfect picture. Just to get down the right words without the filler and the superfluous.This is the type of writing that lonely bookworms write during phases of boredom in the back of a notebook. This is the type of writing that you struggle to leak out of your mind, as you write on paper, squeezing it out into something tangible. Even if it doesn't make any sense, because most things don't make sense anyway.
Rating: 4/5
November 1, 2010
This part is golden:
round about three
The dry heaves came early, round about three, and they left me curled over the toilet, coughing up bile and spittle and blood, a psychedelic lightshow going off behind my eyes, the red of a freshly killed cardinal and yellow of the dying moon mixing against the holy white shit collector. Stomach was clawing at me like a foul and pissed-off beast. Went back to bed without flushing. Let’s call it modernist art, the soon-to-be father said when he woke. We’ll frame it and get millions. Fucker can still get a laugh out of me.
round about three
The dry heaves came early, round about three, and they left me curled over the toilet, coughing up bile and spittle and blood, a psychedelic lightshow going off behind my eyes, the red of a freshly killed cardinal and yellow of the dying moon mixing against the holy white shit collector. Stomach was clawing at me like a foul and pissed-off beast. Went back to bed without flushing. Let’s call it modernist art, the soon-to-be father said when he woke. We’ll frame it and get millions. Fucker can still get a laugh out of me.
July 6, 2010
Cienfuegos is a collection of flash fiction, including stories so rich and visceral they act like cattle prods to the soul, some of the stories play out like sonnets, and some, holy rites to exorcise the demons that lie within us all. There are stories that will bring you closer to the Everlasting Light, and others that will drag you back down to Hell. Be sure of this, for all those who turn its first page, life will never be the same.
November 23, 2010
This review will be longer than the stories in Chris Deal’s Cienfuegos:
Chris Deal is one of those indie rag darlings. If there’s a popular online zine, I’m not surprised to find him in it, and after enjoying enough of his short works, I was intrigued by this collection of micro fiction pieces, all of them coming in around 100 words. For me, micro fiction is not unlike prose poetry: At its best, it’s finely-tuned minimalism, but most of the time, it doesn’t go deep enough for me to have an opinion one way or the other. In Cienfuegos, however, Deal tackles vast subjects like heaven and hell, dreams, and the universe. Most of the time, writers tackling those subjects try too hard to be deep, leaving me rolling my eyes, but with the word limit in play, Deal actually pulls a couple of them off (namely “Night” [even with its typo] and “Concerning a Dream”). Unfortunately, since I knew he could actually pull it off, I was frustrated by the pieces that blew those same topics (“And You’ll Never See Heaven and Hell” and “Name”).
Additionally, with only a hundred words to play with, it didn’t take much to spoil a piece—some from being too heavy-handed, others from taking sudden turns off what was an established, albeit short, plot—and the last quarter of the book spends too much time rebelling against the well-crafted formula that came before. Granted that’s where these tactics—playing with alliteration, grammar, the beginning and end of a piece—should go, after a standard has been established, but there’s more gimmick than enjoyment at the close. With that said, Cienfuegos is still an amusing little read with little commitment on the part of the reader. Deal covers an impressive amount of topics, many of them leaning darker on the scale. My favorite piece, “Across the River,” says much about the brutality of the Civil War with so little, and the pieces in that vein are what makes Cienfuegos (even with its misses) so good. Three stars.
Chris Deal is one of those indie rag darlings. If there’s a popular online zine, I’m not surprised to find him in it, and after enjoying enough of his short works, I was intrigued by this collection of micro fiction pieces, all of them coming in around 100 words. For me, micro fiction is not unlike prose poetry: At its best, it’s finely-tuned minimalism, but most of the time, it doesn’t go deep enough for me to have an opinion one way or the other. In Cienfuegos, however, Deal tackles vast subjects like heaven and hell, dreams, and the universe. Most of the time, writers tackling those subjects try too hard to be deep, leaving me rolling my eyes, but with the word limit in play, Deal actually pulls a couple of them off (namely “Night” [even with its typo] and “Concerning a Dream”). Unfortunately, since I knew he could actually pull it off, I was frustrated by the pieces that blew those same topics (“And You’ll Never See Heaven and Hell” and “Name”).
Additionally, with only a hundred words to play with, it didn’t take much to spoil a piece—some from being too heavy-handed, others from taking sudden turns off what was an established, albeit short, plot—and the last quarter of the book spends too much time rebelling against the well-crafted formula that came before. Granted that’s where these tactics—playing with alliteration, grammar, the beginning and end of a piece—should go, after a standard has been established, but there’s more gimmick than enjoyment at the close. With that said, Cienfuegos is still an amusing little read with little commitment on the part of the reader. Deal covers an impressive amount of topics, many of them leaning darker on the scale. My favorite piece, “Across the River,” says much about the brutality of the Civil War with so little, and the pieces in that vein are what makes Cienfuegos (even with its misses) so good. Three stars.
November 14, 2010
This book is a tease. A delightful tease, but a tease nonetheless.
It's a short book filled with extremely short stories. As in none of them are longer than a page. Apparently it started its life as some sort of 100 word contest.
This just reminds me of the issue I often have with short story collections and short stories as a whole. I tend to like engaging in a story for the long term. I watch more shows with long term continuity, I like long books, I want to spend a good amount of time with a group of characters. Short subjects give me just enough time to get attached before they cut me off.
Cienfuegos is a long series of story starts that get me all ramped up before shutting me the hell down. It's a lot like Italo Calvino's "If On a Winter's Night a Traveler" because it's constantly introducing really interesting concepts and teasing me by constantly moving on. It's like looking through a thousand interesting windows, but not getting to look longer than ten seconds.
Deal is currently working on a novel. On the basis of this collection, I will most certainly read it. He's got a large store of imagination and skill. I feel like I've been given the sampler platter, so he'd best provide the meal post-haste!
It's a short book filled with extremely short stories. As in none of them are longer than a page. Apparently it started its life as some sort of 100 word contest.
This just reminds me of the issue I often have with short story collections and short stories as a whole. I tend to like engaging in a story for the long term. I watch more shows with long term continuity, I like long books, I want to spend a good amount of time with a group of characters. Short subjects give me just enough time to get attached before they cut me off.
Cienfuegos is a long series of story starts that get me all ramped up before shutting me the hell down. It's a lot like Italo Calvino's "If On a Winter's Night a Traveler" because it's constantly introducing really interesting concepts and teasing me by constantly moving on. It's like looking through a thousand interesting windows, but not getting to look longer than ten seconds.
Deal is currently working on a novel. On the basis of this collection, I will most certainly read it. He's got a large store of imagination and skill. I feel like I've been given the sampler platter, so he'd best provide the meal post-haste!
March 24, 2010
In Cienfugeos, Chris Deal writes about solitude, loss, and the cold certainty of death, a chill running over you as the stories unfold, and then, he drops you into a furnace of hate and mysticism, the short, fractured stories abruptly over with nothing left but an echo. These are all in the same world, in different worlds, in the mirrored reflection of places that seem familiar, and yet, are not at all what you thought you knew, unexpected and piercing. You could call this a collection of flash fiction, and that would be correct if you meant blinding white light, a crack of violent thunder, and the distant shrieks of babies crying, mothers unsettled and father frowning, arms crossed in defiance. These are moments in time, a snatch of conversation, the last visions of dented souls bound for other places. His work is visceral, haunting and always steeped in history, ancient tales made new. This is the tip of the iceberg in so many ways.
July 27, 2014
My favorite was Ex Nihilo Nihil Fit:
"The magician snapped his fingers and a bunny appeared from nowhere. This is of interest, of course, because the bunny had to come from somewhere. Bunnies don't appear from the ether, they would have discussed that in school at some point, most likely physics. Of course, it could be the bunny was always there, and we just didn't see it until the magician's fingers snapped. Smoke and mirrors, that sort. Still, the possibility was there that the bunny did appear from nowhere at the snapping of the magician's fingers. Were that the case, he's a hell of a sorcerer."
"The magician snapped his fingers and a bunny appeared from nowhere. This is of interest, of course, because the bunny had to come from somewhere. Bunnies don't appear from the ether, they would have discussed that in school at some point, most likely physics. Of course, it could be the bunny was always there, and we just didn't see it until the magician's fingers snapped. Smoke and mirrors, that sort. Still, the possibility was there that the bunny did appear from nowhere at the snapping of the magician's fingers. Were that the case, he's a hell of a sorcerer."
May 25, 2010
I got this book for free through Goodreads First Reads giveaway.
I liked about 20% of the short stories, most were a bit too dark for me, the author talks a lot about death/suicide/going to hell... not my style.. lol. Also there were couple of stories with spanish words in them that i obviously didn't understand.. i wish there was at least translation... my favorite short story was 'Ex Nihilo Nihil Fit' i thought it was funny.. that was the way i thought of magicians before i learned their tricks :)
I liked about 20% of the short stories, most were a bit too dark for me, the author talks a lot about death/suicide/going to hell... not my style.. lol. Also there were couple of stories with spanish words in them that i obviously didn't understand.. i wish there was at least translation... my favorite short story was 'Ex Nihilo Nihil Fit' i thought it was funny.. that was the way i thought of magicians before i learned their tricks :)
March 24, 2010
These stories render emotion in shades of stark gray. Like sculptures, Deal subtracts from his Cienfuegos superfluous elements, leaving a base from which the reader is allowed to interpret, perhaps participate in, his characters’ disjointed lives. Each word hints at two others; each line implies a life; each brief fiction describes a world.
October 27, 2010
This deserves a longer review than I can give at the moment. short quick review: Cienfuegos is uniqe and fast. It's something that most books fail to do: it'll make you feel emotion. And, reading it, you can almost picture the man writing it: and he would most certainly have a huge cigar and fancy hat.
August 13, 2011
This was a very quick read...too quick. I immensely enjoyed these apocalyptic, slightly nightmarish, slightly noirish slices of some kind of "other life" and look forward to reading more of this author's work.
November 28, 2011
Angels is the only micro fiction piece that seems entire, the rest are all wanting as a whole either through being overly ornamental or from lacking a clear sense of direction. The pieces do however represent a wide range of experimentation.
March 24, 2010
In the border wars between hell and heaven, Deal's earth-bound desperados must endure their paths to salvation or damnation with every paragraph. I pray for their souls either way.
June 27, 2010
A series of quick bites. Every nibble is a delight, teasing you with enough flavour to keep you pondering.
September 12, 2010
A collection of moody flash fiction pieces, the best of which evoke the mood and characterization of much longer stories. I dug.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews