Customer Reviews

In Brief: Short Takes on the Personal

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I find this book an excellent companion to Kitchen's and Jones' first book on the creative nonfiction "short" entitled, In Short: A Collection of Brief Creative Nonfiction. The evolution of creative nonfiction and the "short" is apparent in these pages. No longer is it mandatory that a literary journalist or creative nonfiction writer "immerse" the reader in a person, place or thing. These pieces of creative nonfiction show that writers can make a simple journal entry, letter, or, for that fact, an email, stand on its own -- that even the smallest episode in our lives, or simple everyday pictures we've taken with our mind's eye, can have "symbolic realities." As a person who reads and writes prose and poetry, I find the brevity, and yet complexity, of the works appealing. Mary Oliver, who I've enjoyed as a poet, turns a poetic list of items she finds at the beach into a prose piece on beauty and existence. Kimberly Gorall turns a brief childhood conversation with her mother into a statement about womanhood. William Heyen uses one simple paragraph explaining the habits of an insect to an analogy on creativity and imagination. A bright high school senior, Janice Best (editor of Elan), uses an ingenius email format to try to explain why she writes. All of these "shorts" have a similar element -- they start with detail -- an intense focus -- and they end making a statement about our human existence. I have been liberated by the form presented in these pages -- and plan to teach college students using this book as a reader. But I believe any one who enjoys learning about the 'human condition' will enjoy this book. It's a quick read, but the impact of the material here lasts a long time.

This is a great book if you like to read but you never feel you have the time. These stories can each be read in a matter of minutes. This was a textbook for my creative non-fiction class and I think there are some great examples of the creative non-fiction format. The only downside I would say is that most of the stories are of a serious nature, so while the stories are short, I wouldn't call it 'light' reading.

An object lesson in how to cut to the chase; an example of tiny bites of beautiful writing; the art of the flash essay. By whatever name you call it, In Brief is proof that a piece of writing sometimes needn't be more than a paragraph or two in length to move readers and give them something profound, funny, enlightening, or beautiful to take away with them. This refreshing collection of teensy personal essays is a real winner.

Caution: You should have a brake already figured, like an unavoidable appointment, if you dont want you fingers to crazily move onto the next pages.

Most pieces are smaller than the introduction.

Recalling a time that repeats, a color more vibrant and extant in imagination, a townful gaping at gulleywasher, how lies start for one - these shorts make themselves known like electric pulses.

Days at the beach are all the same - Low Tide at four, Harriet Doerr

But the story my grandfather never told was his own - Good workers, John T Price

Its in a neighbour's house fiction begins - The Bend for Home, Dermot Healy

..when people are dead they dont read books. This I find unbearable. - Nearing 90, William Maxwell

Let me say first of all that this is the best read (assigned for college) that I even read. The book itself is a keepsake, one that I will cherish. From beginning to end, I cried and laughed through each essay as I read it again. At first, I couldn't get into it, but after the second time around, I got into it. My recommended favorites are "Rhapsody In Green" by Marjorie Sandor, "Dream Houses" by Tenaya Darlington, "email" by Janice Best, "Desire" by David Shields, "Considerating the Lilies" by Rebecca McClanahan, a piece from "On The Street" by Vivian Gormick, "January 13" by Rick Bass, "The Deck" by Yusef Komunyakaa, a piece from "Dirt Roads" by Mary Cleanman Blew, and "The Weather of Distance" by M.J. Iuppa. Each essay from this collection spoke to different parts of you, in different ways at different and often randon times in your life. You may read this book and decide that you wasted your time and money on it, but trust me, you did not. You need a book that "gets you", and that exactly what this book does. It "gets you" when you least expect it too. It's worth the cash.