1 out of 4 stars
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Cherries in the Snow (2015), a self-published book by Jonathan Douglas Duran, is a 147-page collection of ten short stories. The tales generally have dark themes, with some bizarre happenings. The author has written one other book; it is also self-published. The author's biography on Amazon.com describes him as a "writer, visual artist and noise maker. He is a lover and a fighter."
The stories include the following:
• A murder-suicide with a twist; i.e., the suicide precedes the murder.
• A man's reflections on how to eliminate the perpetual pain from a long-lost finger.
• A murder, a 300-year-old death rite, and a revenge murder ... leading to a bizarre confession.
• Two soliloquies from lovers about to split up.
• A face-to-face fight to the death between two hoodlums and two police officers ...
with an unwelcome surprise for the lone survivor.
• A contract renewal between a 148-year-old man and the Devil, who simply wants to have fun.
• A small-town barber's macabre 10-year anniversary celebration.
• A man's inconceivably depraved descent into insanity after the 1929 stock-market crash shatters his life.
• A conversation between two friends about dreams, writing, truth, and life.
The subject matter in the tales includes cross-dressing, child molestation, incest, admiration of the simple lives of wild animals, and speculation about parallel universes.
The author writes clearly and concisely, and keeps most of his narratives interesting from beginning to end. Nine of the stories are succinct and to the point, but the longest tale is considerably longer than is necessary. Half the stories include murder or suicide. Several of the stories feature a character giving an intriguing introspective assessment of himself.
Mr. Duran appears to be quite capable of producing interesting tales. However, some of the stories have far more crude language than is necessary for the author to express himself. It is unclear why he included so much distasteful material. Shocking tales can be interesting, but the worst of these stories are shocking in a dreadfully miserable way.
This book has earned only 1 out of 4 stars. The author has given us some excellent stories, but he has included far too much horribly disgusting vulgar material. And the tales include easily noticed grammatical errors. If you enjoy detailed outlandish debauchery, this book might be for you. But at least 99.99% of readers will likely find the author's depraved graphic ramblings to be unbearable. Was it the author's intent to be intolerably revolting in order to get noticed? Perhaps.
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Cherries in the Snow
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