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The Fiction Desk #4
Crying Just Like Anybody
Our fourth anthology, Crying Just Like Anybody takes its title from a story by Richard Smyth, and features ten new stories.
Previous contributors Matt Plass, Matthew Licht, and Colin Corrigan are all making their return in this volume, and newcomers to the series include Die Booth, Mike Scott Thomson, William Thirsk-Gaskill, Luiza Sauma and S.R. Mastrantone.
This volume also features our first story in translation, with 'I'm the One' from Slovenian author Miha Mazzini.
Previous contributors Matt Plass, Matthew Licht, and Colin Corrigan are all making their return in this volume, and newcomers to the series include Die Booth, Mike Scott Thomson, William Thirsk-Gaskill, Luiza Sauma and S.R. Mastrantone.
This volume also features our first story in translation, with 'I'm the One' from Slovenian author Miha Mazzini.
Paperback
First published November 26, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 28, 2020
Finding a bit of silver in the soup
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'Crying Just Like Anybody', published in 2012, is the third and most disappointing FD collection I have read. Some stories are rather flat, some are not really stories - just anecdotes - and my immersion was diminished by some unlikely plotting and the editorial notes above each title.
I began by reading the collection's introduction. Lots of stuff about publishing houses, suitable font and the role of the editor. I found nothing about the stories.
So on to the stories. The meat on the bones. Or, as one bilious tale would have it, the tripe soup on the table.
Research and editing - kind of patchy. We encounter a 'brittle vinyl 78' rpm record - but 78s were mostly made of shellac. In another story a troubled man buys beer in a pound shop. Maybe you could buy liquor in a pound shop in 2012 but it jarred. In another, a fax machine makes a sound like spaghetti twirling round a fork.
It was also confusing to stumble into writerly quirks, i.e. no speech marks (we only notice them when they're not there, you see) and odd lines of hash tags.
But I'm going to close on a high. How come? Well, within the 137 pages of this collection, I found a great big pot of shiny silver paint, didn't I! Hats off to Mike Scott Thomson for the perfect poignancy and fun of "Me, Robot". I was with the protagonist all the way, feeling his pain, hoping for his future. The excellently-crafted voice lingered in my head after the neat close. The best stories have an untold past and future, and "Me, Robot" fulfilled that with perfect finish.
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'Crying Just Like Anybody', published in 2012, is the third and most disappointing FD collection I have read. Some stories are rather flat, some are not really stories - just anecdotes - and my immersion was diminished by some unlikely plotting and the editorial notes above each title.
I began by reading the collection's introduction. Lots of stuff about publishing houses, suitable font and the role of the editor. I found nothing about the stories.
So on to the stories. The meat on the bones. Or, as one bilious tale would have it, the tripe soup on the table.
Research and editing - kind of patchy. We encounter a 'brittle vinyl 78' rpm record - but 78s were mostly made of shellac. In another story a troubled man buys beer in a pound shop. Maybe you could buy liquor in a pound shop in 2012 but it jarred. In another, a fax machine makes a sound like spaghetti twirling round a fork.
It was also confusing to stumble into writerly quirks, i.e. no speech marks (we only notice them when they're not there, you see) and odd lines of hash tags.
But I'm going to close on a high. How come? Well, within the 137 pages of this collection, I found a great big pot of shiny silver paint, didn't I! Hats off to Mike Scott Thomson for the perfect poignancy and fun of "Me, Robot". I was with the protagonist all the way, feeling his pain, hoping for his future. The excellently-crafted voice lingered in my head after the neat close. The best stories have an untold past and future, and "Me, Robot" fulfilled that with perfect finish.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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January 10, 2013Author review ahoy!
‘Crying Just Like Anybody’ is the fourth volume anthology from The Fiction Desk.
It starts off with the customary introduction from editor Rob Redman. His introduction in this volume deals with what it actually means to be an editor and publisher and how personal that process is (or isn’t) these days. This is a subject very close to home for me with my recent forays into self-publishing, and The Fiction Desk’s very personal relationship with their publications makes me even more glad to be a part of this anthology.
You can easily see the care that goes into each of these volumes. ‘Crying Just Like Anybody’ has a beautifully crafted and shot cover image that matches the entirely-of-words-and-paper covers of previous volumes, as explained in the introduction to volume three ‘The Maginot Line’. It’s fun to spot the themes that run throughout each volume (as explained in the introduction to volume two ‘All These Little Worlds’). The ones I spotted in the current volume were a sense of being foreign and not quite belonging, and of children behaving in ways that adults find hard to understand.
Writing a review is difficult without giving too much away, so I’ll try to be enticing without spoilering too much! The title story is a tale set very convincingly in Depression-era America and explores themes of belonging – or not belonging – in a foreign country, as does the totally different narrative of ‘Carolina Carioca’ and the protagonist of ‘I’m the One’ learns languages at work whilst they do the important job of doing nothing. ‘Just Kids’, ‘Can We Have You All Sitting Down, Please?’ and my story ‘Phantoms’ touch on the gap between children and adults, and how intimidating children can be. ‘Tripe Soup and Spanish Wine’ and ‘Across the Kinderhook’ show very different families and friends coping with loved ones whose behaviour they don’t understand. ‘Wonders of the Universe’ and ‘Me Robot’ show struggling marriages, both with a gentle comic touch, but I’ll leave you to guess which one has the happier ending.
Again, the quality of the writing in this volume is consistently high and there isn’t a dud story amongst them.
‘Crying Just Like Anybody’ is the fourth volume anthology from The Fiction Desk.
It starts off with the customary introduction from editor Rob Redman. His introduction in this volume deals with what it actually means to be an editor and publisher and how personal that process is (or isn’t) these days. This is a subject very close to home for me with my recent forays into self-publishing, and The Fiction Desk’s very personal relationship with their publications makes me even more glad to be a part of this anthology.
You can easily see the care that goes into each of these volumes. ‘Crying Just Like Anybody’ has a beautifully crafted and shot cover image that matches the entirely-of-words-and-paper covers of previous volumes, as explained in the introduction to volume three ‘The Maginot Line’. It’s fun to spot the themes that run throughout each volume (as explained in the introduction to volume two ‘All These Little Worlds’). The ones I spotted in the current volume were a sense of being foreign and not quite belonging, and of children behaving in ways that adults find hard to understand.
Writing a review is difficult without giving too much away, so I’ll try to be enticing without spoilering too much! The title story is a tale set very convincingly in Depression-era America and explores themes of belonging – or not belonging – in a foreign country, as does the totally different narrative of ‘Carolina Carioca’ and the protagonist of ‘I’m the One’ learns languages at work whilst they do the important job of doing nothing. ‘Just Kids’, ‘Can We Have You All Sitting Down, Please?’ and my story ‘Phantoms’ touch on the gap between children and adults, and how intimidating children can be. ‘Tripe Soup and Spanish Wine’ and ‘Across the Kinderhook’ show very different families and friends coping with loved ones whose behaviour they don’t understand. ‘Wonders of the Universe’ and ‘Me Robot’ show struggling marriages, both with a gentle comic touch, but I’ll leave you to guess which one has the happier ending.
Again, the quality of the writing in this volume is consistently high and there isn’t a dud story amongst them.
February 3, 2013
It took me a little longer getting around to the fourth release by the good people over at The Fiction Desk. Volume four reads much like three in that while there are no truly stand-out stories, they are all good. Unfortunately the last two stories were a bit of a let down for me, though not bad stories by any means. My favourite story here is "Crying Just Like Anybody," followed by "Just Kids."
For my detailed review of each story, please visit Casual Debris.
For my detailed review of each story, please visit Casual Debris.
January 2, 2013
just come through the post (I subscribe).Review soon..
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews