Customer Reviews

Breaking it Down

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In this book, Rusty Barnes tells 18 stories that are both poignant and memorable. Barnes is a master of flash fiction, who says more in a paragraph than can usually be found in a page. The characters and imagery quickly grabbed me, and held me in their short embrace. For the past week, I read a few each evening like savoring a delicious bitter-melon dish, a Sichuanese favorite, before falling asleep with a heavy heart.

The stories have an intensity that surprised me. Frequently, the situations described are grim, sometimes helpless. In the opening story, "What Needs to be Done," a farm wife of 30-years has to balance the guilt of infidelity with her 19-year-old brother-in-law, against any hope of a moment's happiness. The concurrent senses of right and wrong from a simple heart reveal unexpected complexity.

Many of the stories are set in rural America, often hinting of the South, and the characters are usually unsophisticated. Barnes, however, has managed to mix a variety of cultural overtones into the characters that made me reflect on myself. One of my favorites is Beamer, the opera loving farmer who, to his last breath sings Arias to the dancing cows. Coincidentally, "playing music to the cow" is a Chinese adage that derides someone who speaks to the wrong audience. In the story "Beamer's Opera," our innocent writer unintentionally turns the saying around, as Beamer's whole life unfolds in a few pages and ends as artfully as it is portrayed.

Despite all their woes, the characters take the situations in stride, and Barnes renders this with authenticity. Presented from a number of different points of view, the narration never gets in the way of what is happening. Even those written in second person, which I almost always have trouble reading, came through crystal clear. This was another surprise to me - I did not expect a flash to have as complete a storyline and characterization as a "regular" short story.

I have not been what you would call a fan of flash fiction; Barnes makes me feel that should change.

I hate Rusty Barnes. Having typed that sentence I realise that it likely needs quite a bit of explanation. I'm a writer. A pretty good one, I think. As a writer I can't help analysing every piece of fiction I read. Often while reading something in a literary magazine or some new anthology I will find myself thinking I can do better than that. Sometimes, though, I read something so shockingly well constructed, so moving, so damn good that I start to hurt that I didn't write it. Once in a very great while I read something that is so good that while I love the story, I have to hate the writer the way a boxer must hate his opponent a little.

Amy Hempel has done that to me twice (Nashville Gone to Ashes and The Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buried). George Saunders did it to me with The Wave Maker Falters. Raymond Carver's A Small Good Thing did it. So did Charles Bookwork's Women.

Now Rusty Barnes has done it. He did it with `No one left to Worry About the Fat Man`. That's a tiny little story buried in his new collection, Breaking it Down. That story left me staring at the page thinking that I could not have possibly just read what I thought I had read. That story alone would make the book worthwhile. It isn't alone, though. All of the tales in this book are well written and compelling.

Breaking it Down is a tiny book. It slips easily into a pocket, which is, I think, the perfect format for a collection of flash fiction. Barnes writes about rural people. His characters are poor and damaged and often larger than the stories they inhabit. Barnes has a way of breaking a scene down into just a few words of well tuned description and a hint of stage direction. He crafts rich, full characters. In this book are stories that are more concerned with people than literary artifice. That's a bit shocking these days. It's also very welcome.

The grit of these stories stays with you for a long time, and better yet, these well written micro/flash stories are moving as well as dark and unforgettable. Things are often not what they seem but in very creative ways. They can be opposite of where the reader thinks they are going or completely over the edge of the cliff the reader is balancing on.

The story "Beamer's Opera," is an amazing tapestry of work which can be viewed in more than one way. It, as all 18 of the stories in Breaking It Down, was crafted in only a few pages. "What Needs to Be Done," the first story in the collection sets the tone, where in this one, a woman who is stuck in a bad marriage with a drunken southern farmer fuels her life with an affair in the barn with the man's son.

As I read--or more accurately, devoured--Rusty Barnes' collection of flash fiction, I couldn't help thinking of an exquisite Japanese Buddhist meal with its a tray of tiny dishes, each serving up a tidbit of austere, perfectly-crafted, and ultimately enlightening fare. Fresh images and elegant prose make a bracing contrast to the gritty and all-too-real characters who populate these brief tales. Often unable to inarticulate their desires and despair, they ultimately do find the strength to do "what needs to be done" as the title of the opening story suggests. I was particularly impressed with the exploration of sexuality in many of these stories. Adultery, partner-swapping, disappointed housewives taking out their frustration in the arms of visiting handymen--Barnes pierces through the clichés to touch the tender, wounded heart of erotic desire. My only problem was that I found myself racing through the stories to find out what happens next and finished the book all too quickly. This is one of those rare dishes indeed--a literary page-turner. Fortunately, this is a book that will only get better with repeated readings.

Rusty Barnes' prose is as unique and wonderful as his vision. Each of these sparkling little gems of stories begin with an economy and intensity or prose that, where it not for the overwhelming dive into narrative, I'd think was poetry reinvented.

Sometimes the subject of his vision is bleak, but don't let that stop you. Bleak or not, the love and humanity comes pouring, pounding, driving through all these pieces of flash fiction. Each one leaves me breathless.

A magnificent read. Barnes' characters are full of longing and hope, even as they stand in dark and bleak places. The quality of Barnes' writing is first rate. He truly knows how to use words in a way that maximizes their impact.

This slim volume of short stories punches way above its weight.

When I first saw the volume, tiny with multiple flash fiction entries, I thought I would finish the entire thing within an hour or so of reading. I was wrong, and it turned out to be a great thing.

Many of the stories are so lively and dense that it took two readings just to get caught up in the world. And each story, though small, is a different world. The stories don't interconnect, and you have the feeling that the author knows the universe of each story so well that each four page story could be a novel. That being said, there is a distinct voice that runs throughout all of the stories, with common themes--lost love, quiet dignity and indignity, the rise of the meek, subtle revolutions of spirit.

"Gross Imperfections" and "Class" were two of my favorites and will warrant reading and re-reading. I'm sure you will find your own favorites, and read them over and over again.

In short the book is quite an achievement.