I have a weird relationship with short fiction. I used to be die-hard against it, preferring the longest and most involved fiction possible for the immersive experience it offered. As I’ve gotten older, I’m finding the appeal of shorter pieces. Time is harder to come by. Life is immersive enough, thank you very much. And my attention span is not what it once was… I still occasionally struggle with short pieces when I don’t feel connected to the characters (character development is EVERYTHING to me), but I’ve learned that 150,000 words are not the only way an author connects character and reader.
Microlit, like flash fiction, is a newer format for me. As you can imagine, from my explanation above, it’s been an adjustment. If I find short stories occasionally too surface-level or brief in explanation, you can imagine how I find ultra-shorts… I do best when the collection is thematic or developmental, with similar characters and worlds populating all/the majority of the pieces. It gives me the depth I crave in the shorter bursts that allow for enhanced creativity in a multiplicity of directions.
This collection is designed to achieve that, although I must confess that I did not always see the connections that were alluded to… Bacon and Hecq may consider their back-and-forth a dialogue; I had a harder time viewing it as such. That doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it – I did, generally. But I don’t know that I found the connectivity (both in their call-and-response format OR in the book taken as a whole) that other readers have – or that the authors intended. This may be due to my own perceptual issues with such short pieces. Or with the spec fic nature of their writing. Or with my recent headspace which is, admittedly, a bit all over the place…
Regardless, I struggled with the themes throughout much of this, even while enjoying the lyricism of the language. The two authors have very different styles and voices. I enjoyed the interplay between them in that regard. Dissonance is interesting to me, and seeing how two different individuals perceive the same themes/topics is always fascinating to watch.
Thanks to the authors and the wonderful folks at Meerkat Press for providing me with an obligation-free review copy. It was an experiential book, and while I don’t always “get” them, I do enjoy the ride!
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