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Not So Perfect: Stories
22 short short stories; 22 not so perfect lives, where bird watchers come out at night, couples perform love surgery, and a woman is throwing up animals.
The extraordinary is everywhere, but an unsettling familiarity pervades.
Nik Perring’s brilliant debut collection demonstrates the underestimated powers of brevity. Intricately crafted and filled with dark humour, his 22 stories examine the conundrums and contradictions of human relationships, and ask us what it is to be human at all.
The extraordinary is everywhere, but an unsettling familiarity pervades.
Nik Perring’s brilliant debut collection demonstrates the underestimated powers of brevity. Intricately crafted and filled with dark humour, his 22 stories examine the conundrums and contradictions of human relationships, and ask us what it is to be human at all.
- GenresShort Stories
140 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
About the author
Nik Perring
13 books36 followersNik Perring is a short story writer from the UK. He's the author of the collection NOT SO PERFECT (Roast Books, 2010) and the co-author of the super hero inspired collection, FREAKS (TFP/HarperCollins 2012). He also wrote A Book of Beautiful Words, Some Meanings, and Some Fictions too (RoastBooks, 2014) and Beautiful Trees is out now.
He lives in England and would like a cat one day.
He lives in England and would like a cat one day.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
August 3, 2011
These short short stories are glorious ammunition to fire at those who link brevity with insubstantiality. Nik Perring's pitch-perfect miniatures deal with such topics as death, love, loneliness and relationships with poetic cadences and dark humour. Although amongst these stories you will find boys who are sharks, girlfriends who perform magical heart surgery and mechanical women, these are no fairy tales but true fictions. Perring has the uncanny ability to raise up the everyday and the mundane. Nothing, thankfully, is black or white; the grey area is where the beauty lies.
December 29, 2011
What can I say, other than... LOVE!
August 12, 2011
Read. This. Book.
February 3, 2012
Fantastic collection of stories. I read the whole book in a day as I couldn't wait to read them all. One for my 'read again' pile.
May 2, 2011
I just loved this book. This book of shorts was recommended to me by Talli Roland.
Nik's stories touch on all types of people and yet, he adds such insight into human nature and feelings; his writing is matter-of-fact.
This man actually wrote a story in second person and it was one of my favorites. Here's an excerpt about a grenade:
"You're off the school bus, that pulled away five minutes ago, and you're ten minutes walk from home. There are fields on either side of the road. You can't just toss it and run, can you?
Actually, you can. You have to. You've pulled the pin out!"
I have to warn you though, the subject matter some may find offensive or on-the-edge. But, if that doesn't bother you, pick this book up, it's worth the money.
Nik's stories touch on all types of people and yet, he adds such insight into human nature and feelings; his writing is matter-of-fact.
This man actually wrote a story in second person and it was one of my favorites. Here's an excerpt about a grenade:
"You're off the school bus, that pulled away five minutes ago, and you're ten minutes walk from home. There are fields on either side of the road. You can't just toss it and run, can you?
Actually, you can. You have to. You've pulled the pin out!"
I have to warn you though, the subject matter some may find offensive or on-the-edge. But, if that doesn't bother you, pick this book up, it's worth the money.
August 6, 2010
I loved this collection of stories, and would have devoured it in one sitting, had I not forced myself to take a few pauses in which to savour each gem.
March 4, 2013
Nik Perring's collection of short stories has popped up on my blog (http://lies-ink.blogspot.com/) a couple of times, but after a recent conversation with a friend I realised I'd never actually reviewed it. So, I re-read it a couple of days ago and here's what I think:
Not So Perfect is a collection of 22 short stories. They're very short - the shortest stories don't cover a page and the longest is maybe four or five sides long (and the book's only about the size of a CD case, so the pages aren't all that big). Most of them therefore fit very comfortably into the 'flash' bracket.
Nik's writing style is very clear and concise, perhaps even minimalist. He distils the events he describes to the bare essentials; there's no lingering, no flowery prose. If you're used to reading classics, or just more "traditional" writing, it can feel a little sparse at times, although there's a real warmth to it, too. In several of the stories, the characters aren't named, and only a few of them take place in a definite location. Flash fiction does put significant demands on the reader; there are a lot of blanks to fill in.
Nearly all the stories deal with relationships - whether they're just starting, stalling, or coming to an end. Some of the stories have strongly surreal or at least slightly skewed elements. There's a lot of sweetness, too - although sometimes it's concealed under a darker veneer.
I really enjoyed this collection, and having read it again, I found plenty of new aspects I'd missed the first time around. In a lot of flash fiction, I sometimes reach the end of a story and wonder if perhaps the author brought things to a close a little too soon, or left a bit too much out for me to be really sure I'd 'got' the point he was making. But perhaps that's just the way my brain works - I don't like feeling I've missed something. Part of the appeal of Nik's work though is not so much that he tells you anything in particular, but that he just offers a new way of looking at something, a different take on a familiar situation, and leaves you to make your own decisions.
I can't honestly say I liked every single one of the stories - a couple of them feel too slight, too much like a good idea with nowhere particular to go (besides, I can only think of a couple of collections where I've genuinely loved all the stories) - but overall I thought they were very good. I admire Nik's writing style, and it's interesting to see how he describes things so well with such a limited word count. My particular favourites are "The Seconds are Ticking By" (a story about a schoolboy who finds himself holding a grenade in one hand and the pin in the other), "Say My Name" (in which a lonely man fears he is fading away), and "The Mechanical Woman" (who believes she is unlovable, until a chance encounter with an engineer on a train).
Whether you enjoy this book will depend, mostly, on how you feel about flash fiction. If you love to spend time with a character and really get under their skin, you may find the brief glimpses offered by Not So Perfect a little frustrating. If, on the other hand, you're happy to be dropped in just in time to share a tiny but vital moment in the history of a relationship, and don't mind being left to imagine how things turn out afterwards, you'll probably get a lot out of this book. Interested? Seek out some of Nik's stories online and see what you think.
Not So Perfect is a collection of 22 short stories. They're very short - the shortest stories don't cover a page and the longest is maybe four or five sides long (and the book's only about the size of a CD case, so the pages aren't all that big). Most of them therefore fit very comfortably into the 'flash' bracket.
Nik's writing style is very clear and concise, perhaps even minimalist. He distils the events he describes to the bare essentials; there's no lingering, no flowery prose. If you're used to reading classics, or just more "traditional" writing, it can feel a little sparse at times, although there's a real warmth to it, too. In several of the stories, the characters aren't named, and only a few of them take place in a definite location. Flash fiction does put significant demands on the reader; there are a lot of blanks to fill in.
Nearly all the stories deal with relationships - whether they're just starting, stalling, or coming to an end. Some of the stories have strongly surreal or at least slightly skewed elements. There's a lot of sweetness, too - although sometimes it's concealed under a darker veneer.
I really enjoyed this collection, and having read it again, I found plenty of new aspects I'd missed the first time around. In a lot of flash fiction, I sometimes reach the end of a story and wonder if perhaps the author brought things to a close a little too soon, or left a bit too much out for me to be really sure I'd 'got' the point he was making. But perhaps that's just the way my brain works - I don't like feeling I've missed something. Part of the appeal of Nik's work though is not so much that he tells you anything in particular, but that he just offers a new way of looking at something, a different take on a familiar situation, and leaves you to make your own decisions.
I can't honestly say I liked every single one of the stories - a couple of them feel too slight, too much like a good idea with nowhere particular to go (besides, I can only think of a couple of collections where I've genuinely loved all the stories) - but overall I thought they were very good. I admire Nik's writing style, and it's interesting to see how he describes things so well with such a limited word count. My particular favourites are "The Seconds are Ticking By" (a story about a schoolboy who finds himself holding a grenade in one hand and the pin in the other), "Say My Name" (in which a lonely man fears he is fading away), and "The Mechanical Woman" (who believes she is unlovable, until a chance encounter with an engineer on a train).
Whether you enjoy this book will depend, mostly, on how you feel about flash fiction. If you love to spend time with a character and really get under their skin, you may find the brief glimpses offered by Not So Perfect a little frustrating. If, on the other hand, you're happy to be dropped in just in time to share a tiny but vital moment in the history of a relationship, and don't mind being left to imagine how things turn out afterwards, you'll probably get a lot out of this book. Interested? Seek out some of Nik's stories online and see what you think.
May 6, 2010
Nik Perring’s little pocketbook is a gift. A pocketful of 22 flash stories, perfect little glimpses into 22 not so perfect lives. At times it feels as if we are thieves surprised by the return of the tenants we wanted to rob, and instead of stealing we just happen to witness intimate moments. Still, we sneak out richer.
Perring’s stories are accompanied by minimalist drawings that remind me of Paul Klee’s drawings of angels. A perfect match.
There is magic in Perrings realism. It’s a mundane magic. Perring sometimes opens a story with something like a girl spitting fire in “Not Nitro”, but quickly and in a few lines the peculiar talent bursts with emotional complexity, metaphoric quality, and yes, something quite ordinary, typical maybe, but presented in a new light, in fact, extraordinary. Another favorite of mine is “The Mechanical Woman,” incredibly suggestive, and funny. I recommend it to men to read aloud to their wives/girlfriends/… .
You can get a taste of the book in this video based on the story “When you’re Frightened, Honey, Think of Strawberries” on Perring’s fan page on Facebook. Buy the book on amazon.
Perring’s stories are accompanied by minimalist drawings that remind me of Paul Klee’s drawings of angels. A perfect match.
There is magic in Perrings realism. It’s a mundane magic. Perring sometimes opens a story with something like a girl spitting fire in “Not Nitro”, but quickly and in a few lines the peculiar talent bursts with emotional complexity, metaphoric quality, and yes, something quite ordinary, typical maybe, but presented in a new light, in fact, extraordinary. Another favorite of mine is “The Mechanical Woman,” incredibly suggestive, and funny. I recommend it to men to read aloud to their wives/girlfriends/… .
You can get a taste of the book in this video based on the story “When you’re Frightened, Honey, Think of Strawberries” on Perring’s fan page on Facebook. Buy the book on amazon.
July 1, 2011
I am utterly amazed at the prolific positive reviews this volume has received. Reading this is like reading the blog of a lonely 17 year old boy who, with every short story, is begging you to think he is "deep". Funny enough, when writing this review on Goodreads I clicked on the author's link and saw his picture which also seems to be begging you to think he is deep.
However the stories themselves are a jumbled assortment of random half-baked thoughts that have, without reason, been put to paper and, with even less reason, been published.
A very good short story causes you to reflect on it long after it is read. None of these stories do that. You finish and think to yourself "Ummmm....seriously?" and then read on, hoping this book might get better. But it doesn't. Case in point: finished a short story about a woman who vomits different animals who then live with her and her husband. Thought to myself, "Ummmm....seriously?". Then regretted wasting my $3 on the Kindle version.
However the stories themselves are a jumbled assortment of random half-baked thoughts that have, without reason, been put to paper and, with even less reason, been published.
A very good short story causes you to reflect on it long after it is read. None of these stories do that. You finish and think to yourself "Ummmm....seriously?" and then read on, hoping this book might get better. But it doesn't. Case in point: finished a short story about a woman who vomits different animals who then live with her and her husband. Thought to myself, "Ummmm....seriously?". Then regretted wasting my $3 on the Kindle version.
April 22, 2014
I loved the quirkiness of this book. A varied mix of tales that will exercise all your emotions in turn. Some made me laugh at the bizarre turn the stories took while others had me wiping tears away at the sheer poignancy of the human situation.
February 27, 2011
Gewoon prachtig!
June 27, 2011
My favourite stories from Nik's great short story collection would be 'When you're frightened, honey, think of strawberries,' and 'The Mechnical Woman.'
June 18, 2014
Great short stories
November 19, 2018
Quirky, weird short-shorts.
January 8, 2021
I've always loved Nik's work, and reading this book feels drinking a mug of hot chocolate on the coldest of days, but also like a frozen lemonade in the middle of summer. It is both comforting and refreshing, and one of my favourite collections of short stories.
October 4, 2013
A great selection of thought-provoking short stories for adults, with brilliant illustrations to boot.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews