While Mortals Sleep: Unpublished Short Fiction (2011) - Plot & Excerpts
some excellent short stories, quite reminiscent of Roald Dahl's. they're all extremely quick and easy reads, but in just a few pages he manages to cram all his usual humour, poignancy and hopeful cynicism. some plots are far-fetched, others anodyne; some characters are unremarkable, others larger than life. but each story ends with a marvellous flourish, and i don't think there was a dud among them. a lot of these are fine stories. not great, but good.it seems like the author has to work really hard to justify the fact that we are joining the story in the middle. a lot of inner monologues are something like "I can't believe i just got married and am in mile 13 of this marathon and inherited a fortune from an uncle I never heard of and had a lifelong desire to be a rodeo clown. "also a lot of the surprise twists fail to cause any sort of emotional reaction. despite that, stories mostly succeed. maybe a triumph of genre and milieu over actual results?
What do You think about While Mortals Sleep: Unpublished Short Fiction (2011)?
I have never read Vonnegut but I really enjoyed his style. I now want to read more of his books.
—Dcypher
definitely drastic stories -- deep or unfinished. title piece amazing
—pipi
The title story is my new Christmas favorite.
—gema
la prefazione di Dave Eggers è imperdibile!
—Tubbz2324
