3 out of 4 stars
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This is a review for the book, Illustrated Short Fiction of William H. Coles: 2000- 2016, written by William H. Coles. It is a 500 page book, consisting of 33 short stories, 2 graphic novels and a novella. Some of the stories have won awards under the Flannery O'Connor banner and the Faulkner creative writing competition.
The 33 short stories are of varying genres and travel across different ranges of people's lives. Some of them start off very well. We see an intense emotional encounter between a mother and daughter. There are issues of teen pregnancy and its aftermath. Another story was on how a man has to deal with the sudden deaths of his wife and child. We see how he has to depend on his daughter's friend, to produce his eulogy in church. 'Homunculus' is one short story that really stands out. It's about a dwarf called, Didi, in the circus. It was atmospheric and romantic, with a touching ending. I loved all the different characters in this story. Other stories were very strong with abrupt endings, especially a story called 'Suchin's escape ' which had unusual slang language and dealt with child prostitution. Another story had a very intriguing plot line, full of mystery but came to an abrupt end. It was about how a man plans to do away with his wife. One story addressed the 'Black lives matter' movement but it had a rather open ending. I did not like the story, 'The Necklace ' because it had a confusing start and ending. There was another, which was barely a few lines long called 'The bear', about bear hunting and chases. I was pleasantly suprised to encounter a familiar story -' Gatemouth Billie Brown on Guitar', because I realised that it was an extract taken from the author's book 'Mc Dowell ', which I had reviewed some time ago on this very platform. It's a beautiful piece, about an ex-surgeon on the run. 'Dilemma' is another very short story about a surgeon father and his nearly dead son. I loved the story, 'The Amish girl', which was very informative about the Amish lifestyle. But this story also had a good plot line and flow. I was quite moved by the story, 'The cart boy', which highlights the stigma and problems faced by the disabled people in our society. 'Lost papers' is an intriguing story about three characters in a World War II setting. 'Inside the Matryoshka' was a strange story about an unknown, foriegn girl who gets rescued by an elderly couple. There's a story called 'Big Gene', which touches on the subject of the Klansmen and the black-white discrimination. 'Grief' was a good story about the process of grieving and dying.
Another story I loved, was 'The miracle of Madame Villard' set in Paris in the 1700's, about a son's dedication towards his sick mother. The story, 'Clouds', felt incomplete but its aspects were relatable to me personally. 'Reddog' was a confusing story about a prisoner facing life sentence for murder and a woman student who interviews him for her project. Another interesting story was 'The perennial student', about a timid teacher and an overbearing student. I laughed reading 'The activist', which was about a tough mother trying to impose upon the hospital staff over the death of her grandchild. 'On the road to Yazoo city' was a good story about a wandering musician, who gets snagged into helping a poor family. The story, 'Captain Wither's wife', was a sort of an edge of your seat tale, about an army wife and her outbursts.The final story, 'The 13 nudes of Ernest Goings ', was enjoyable but bittersweet. However, I could not figure out where the '13 nudes' figure in this story.
The remaining two graphic novels, were based on two of the above short stories. The novella, 'Sister Carrie', deals with Islamophobia, terrorism and love which transcends all boundaries.
It was truly an unique experience to read these collection of stories. It was exciting and I had a lot of anticipatipn, going in. I felt, each story resembled a confection, encased in a giant box of confections! So it was like a delightful treat! I felt deeply touched by a couple of stories, especially 'Homunculus', 'The Amish girl', 'The cart boy', 'Inside the Matryoshka', 'The miracle of Madame Villard ' and 'The 13 nudes of Ernest Goings '. However, most of the stories felt incomplete to me. Most of them lacked closure and came to an abrupt end. All of them displayed an amalgamation of human feelings, drives and desires but some of the very short ones were almost like story prompts. While the writing and plotline were good, the genres kept changing from one story to another. By the time you immerse into one story, its almost the end of it. This was a bit jarring at times. I thoroughly enjoyed the illustrations, by Peter Healy, at the beginning of each story. The graphic novels were good but could use more finesse.
I think this book will appeal to most people especially the teens, as it contains a range of human behaviors, narrated in a realistic way. However, there are a few racial slurs, incidents of abuse and violence with mild profanity in some of the stories. Some common themes that struck me were: most of the protagonists were surgeons or doctors and most had first person narratives. There were certainly no issues of plagiarism and this book was well edited.
I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars because though it had its downsides, there were aspects of it which appealed. It is a good one- time read as a whole and some of the stories are really memorable.
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Illustrated Short Fiction of William H. Coles: 2000-2016
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