Customer Reviews

Deliveries: A Collection

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Deliveries" is a sharp, entertaining, and thoughtful collection of 14 short stories encompassing several genres, including science fiction, horror, and crime. But keep this in mind: while it may be unfair to label many genre stories as simply time-passing entertainment product, it would be doubly unfair to apply such a description to Mr. Yee's efforts here. For the author brings a level of wisdom and sophistication to his tales of gangsters, alien viruses, cynical detectives, and suburban seductresses. Specifically, he doesn't settle for clever scenarios and surprising plot developments (though he most defintely gives the reader those things, too), but always includes the human element, how the head and the heart- both individually and collectively- are the ultimate deciders of our fates.

Let me give one quick example on this point, and I'll try to do so without heavy spoilers. The collection includes a terrific "Twilight Zone" style story called "The Assassination of God", where we meet a man intent on eliminating all religious hatred, holy wars, and faith-based terrorism in our time. His plan? To go back in time and assassinate every major religious figure who ever started or inspired a worldwide religion. Jesus, Moses, Mohammed, he goes after all of them. After all, if no religions ever develop, how can there be religious hatred? Now, initially I was extremely entertained with just the cleverness on hand, story elements like the main character's intense speculation regarding whether the science and various unknown theoretical factors would allow his plan to succeed (for one thing, could the act of the guy's time travel itself turn out to be one of the necessary, original components that made the original timeline begin to unfold in the first place?). Heady, fun stuff like that.

But then Mr. Yee surprised me and veered off into an unexpected direction, bringing into the mix the influence and impact of- as noted at the outset- the human element, or the human factor. Without revealing exactly what happens in "The Assassination of God", we learn that, even if the science works, the way that human beings are at our core- again, as individuals and as a species- would likely trump any effort to do a little historical housecleaning. So, in the end, the story had plot cleverness (in spades) but also a lot of wise, incisive observations about our cagey little species.

This is the case with every story in this book. Mr Yee will tell you a good, entertaining yarn, which would have been enough, but always goes the extra distance and fuels it with the human factor, which will usually end up being the main thing either helping or thwarting his characters, sometimes a little of both. He also repeatedly displays a sophistication beyond his years (judging by his youthful photograph on the back of the book), especially in the way he treat characters with unusual habits and beliefs, and different ways of looking at things.

For example (yeah, I'll throw another one at you), one story features a character with a sexual outlook that would probably be condemned by most people (by most religions, certainly) but the author shows her enjoying a certain level or peace and stability, and even benefitting others around her. Reading this story, some will undoubtedly dismiss Mr. Yee as a liberal supporter of "situational ethics", but I found his sympathy-tinged-with-edge outlook in the story complex and exciting. In any event, if you read the book, you'll know exactly what story I'm referencing, and it's a good one.

And just to show us that he doesn't need a genre framework, several stories are simply straight-up family dramas or character pieces (in other words, "literary" stories), including the story mentioned at end of the preceding paragraph, and the opening story of the collection, "The White Whale", which is a subtle, realistic, and resonant treatise on grief.

Like Stephen King does at the close of many of his collections, Mr. Yee includes notes on seven of the stories at the end of the book. While these notes fun to read, they aren't- as is the case with Mr. King- really necessary. Because everything you need is already in the stories, just as it should be.

Again and again in "Deliveries", Mr. Yee demonstrates that entertainment and depth need not be diametrically opposed forces on the printed page. I'm definitely looking forward to his future work.

I've always responded well to introspective stories, stories that delve deeply into the mind of the protagonist and allow the reader to understand him or her on a more personal level. "Deliveries," a collection of short stories by Richard Yee, relies heavily on introspection, on characters that appear functional but live almost exclusively within their own heads. Almost every story is a meditative examination of what was and what will be, and were it not for some truly outlandish circumstances, it would not be unlike many of our better pieces of creative nonfiction.

While it's difficult to place this collection in terms of genre, the thematic implications of "Deliveries" seems firmly grounded in Action and Consequence, with almost every character forced to ruminate on his or her life altering decisions. Take, for instance, the narrator of "The Assassination of God"; his sister was one of the thousands who lost their lives on September 11, 2001, which prompts him to use a special machine to go back in time and murder all of history's most influential religious figures, including Jesus Christ. By destroying them, he hopes to rid the future of organized religion, the primary cause of the 9/11 attacks. The message of this story is so profound that we hardly focus on logistical issues never mentioned, such as the mechanics of the time machine or even how it came to be in the first place.

Let us also consider both "The Impressionist" and "The Crying Shirt," two stories involving detectives who have been beaten down by their jobs. While the former story pits the narrator against a criminal who destroys his victims only in the figurative sense, the latter story shows that the narrator and a teenage murder have something in common: Neither one understands why they do what they do. The narrator tries to make sense of his life through a series of mental notes, many of which are revealing in spite of their sarcastic tone.

Introspection can also be found in "Delivery Men" and "Delivery Boys," the collection's central stories written in the style of hardcore mobster sagas. While each story features some unpleasant graphic descriptions (a castration in the first, a working curling iron inserted anally in the second), there are also undercurrents of deep thought, as if to say reaffirm, perhaps expectedly, that crime doesn't pay. In "Delivery Men," the narrator, assassin Spade Leonard, begins rethinking what it means to be a professional when he discovers that his next target is his estranged father. In "Delivery Boys," both a prequel and a sequel, the protagonist is so consumed with vengeance that he doesn't stop to consider the fact that vengeance may not get him what he wants.

What makes this collection intriguing is the way Yee develops these characters. He relies on strong personalities more than he does on plot, and this is especially good for stories like "The Broken Projector," which is founded on a psychological premise that's fascinating but also outlandish and oddly predictable. The same can be said for morality plays like "Exonerated" and allegories like "The Bogeyman," the latter so overtly symbolic that it's practically a fairy tale.

As far as mere content, the sexually explicit "How to Be a Superhero" and "The Pizza Girl" are likely to provoke a reaction. "The Pizza Girl" especially, since it's told from the perspective of an old woman who was once a porn star. "The Assassination of God," however, is probably the most provocative story in the entire collection, which is to say that some readers will be drawn in while others will be offended. Regardless, "Deliveries" is an engrossing, well-structured collection of stories, fast paced and compelling with contexts that give the reader more to digest than mere words.

DELIVERIES (Richard Yee)
Deliveries: A Collection

A Review
by
JM Shephard
2009
JOY in the arts!


Richard Yee dedicates his book, DELIVERIES(1) "To everyone who ever said I was a good writer," and he is; and that is an understatement. Storyteller extraordinaire, Richard Yee (www.writersbump.com) is a writer who will be in the classrooms of the future to be read, discussed and cherished into adulthood to inspire and entertain, to teach, and reveal our deepest thoughts, fears, imaginings, and wisdoms.

He writes with razor-edged verbiage that is tightly honed and clear. To call his prose "tightly tuned" is another understatement. This book begins with a gripping and compelling narrative (The White Whale) that pulls you so fast into the pages I was surprised to find myself still standing 20 minutes later as I whizzed through the first story, a tale that began with a fascinating and fast-moving commentary on reading Moby Dick(2) - - or attempting to read it. I easily identified with the compulsion to continue on through a book dubbed "a classic," determined for all I was worth to slog through and finish the damned thing. Well, I haven't read MOBY DICK, so I was curious about his experiences with it. (I humbly confess that my 'Moby Dick" was Nathanial Hawthorne's, "The Scarlet Letter,"(3) required reading in 10th grade English - - I still haven't finished it!)

As soon as I finished The White Whale, I got a cup of coffee and sat down to continue my escapade. I was enchanted and compelled through each and every sentence of these stories and, to be frank, I was pleased to see that short stories were still being written, essayist and poet that I am. I learned more from the short stories than in all the books I've read over the years, so they have a special place in my heart. I was also surprised to learn how many movies or television series are the extensions of short stories rather than books. I imagine some of these will be opted for such celebrations of fine writing.

So, I began my venture into Richard Yee's "Deliveries," a collection of stunning, deeply engrossing and compelling short stories, each one savored, partaken, digested, and remembered as enchantingly delightful. Each story led me on to the next and left me wanting more of this engaging writer's wisdoms and entertainments. These are stories that have visceral impact. They quite literally live and breathe within their telling. So much so, that I quite honestly missed them when other things in life interrupted or pulled me away. I resented not being able to read them, but placated myself by running them over and over in my head until I was back at them and thoroughly enjoying my reunion.

The Second story (Ghost Dreams) ratcheted me into the tones of some recently-read Chuck Palahniuk, but deluged me with overwhelming emotions so prevalently vacant in his compelling, but matter-of-fact writings. I thought on this and realized that it was Yee's compassionate crafting of the most horrific of details that made my throat clutch and tears rise in my eyes. His masterful prose - - edgy and crystal-clear - - is so precise it goes right to the heart and provokes emotions to rise suddenly and without warning that can only be called cathartic and stunning.

The only story I couldn't get through was his last one - "Look," as I am a metaphysical person with spooky ideas of osmotic transference, which also kept me from even opening a page of Palahniuk's "Lullabye,"(4) because of these same fears and reasons. It was like reading "Psycho"(5) when I was a teenager - - where I was often afraid just to turn the page. Even now, all these years later, the mere thought of it cuts terror right to my center. But, I KNOW it ("Look") is a good story. Anything that so takes my breath at the first paragraph is a DAMN good story. I am working up to being able to read it.

As I said, I firmly believe that years from now Yee's writings will be read, cited and emulated by aspiring writers, as well as used as examples in classrooms around the world. It is, quite honestly, the most precise, shimmering, finely-crafted and surgically-spun writing I have seen in years. Yee's "scalpel" pen deftly engraves these stories into our psyche's with such exquisite precision that it almost etches itself directly into the pages. I will be ordering several copies of this book - - and any future ones - - as gifts for those I know with an abiding love and appreciation of finely-crafted prose. I am still shaking my head in stunned appreciation at his magic.



1.
DELIVERIES by Richard Yee
www.writersbump.com: 2009
Deliveries: A Collection

2.
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
London, Richard Bentley: October 18, 1851 "...in an expurgated three-volume edition titled The Whale, and later as one massive volume, by New York City publisher Harper and Brothers as Moby-Dick; or, The Whale on November 14, 1851." (Wikipedia)
Moby-Dick: or, The Whale(Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

3.
THE SCARLET LETTER by Nathanial Hawthorne
Boston, MA, Ticknor and Fields: 1850
(According to Wikipedia - "The Scarlet Letter was also one of the first mass-produced books in America. ...")
The Scarlet Letter (Oxford World's Classics)

4.
LULLABYE by Chuck Palahniuk
NY, Doubleday: 2002
Lullaby

5.
PSYCHO by Robert Bloch
NY, Simon & Schuster: June 1959
Psycho

A great book from a very creative and talented new author.

Between the pages, it transported me to a place similar to witnessing Eminem hauling a body from a bloody trunk and burying it underground, or like watching a Tarantino character carrying out a murderous rampage, and a detective Ken Follett choosing to entertain parts of his sex perverted mind.

This book has succeeded to stir a lot of things in my head. It roused my senses and made me squemish. It reminded me that dark places can sometimes be uncomfortable. Somehow, it brings up a feeling similar to the movie "The Ring", but instead of a video tape, it is about a book that whoever reads it will be the next to suffer a horrible fate. Makes me wonder, is the author a twisted lunatic? Could be, but there is some kind of itch that I want to keep reading it, a strange masochistic satisfaction. Some stories is truly riveting. Especially the story about Spade, Jimmy and Richie which made me felt uneasy when the story ended up the author's way and not my way.

Just a caution, this is a book that is not for average consumption. A whole palette of swearing in many colors permeated this collection.

I wanted to rate it 4.5 stars but Amazon does not allow half stars, and because he mentioned the "whale" at the earlier part, I had to pay proper respect to the fish. (OK, it is not a fish...whatever)

Somehow, I felt relieved that he wrote this book. What if Richard Yee cannot write? With all the things coming from his head; it can be scarier out there.

Highly recommended.

Richard Yee's collection of stories will send you down a disturbing path. I enjoyed the stories very much and his talent to strike a nerve to the reader's psyche is both alarming and at the same time gratifying. All the stories are enjoyable, they make you uncomfortable at times, make you think at times,and most of all, Mr. Lee keeps the reader in suspense.

I have to start this review with a word of warning: you have to read with an open mind, and I would not recommend this collection of stories to anyone who is of a nervous disposition or who dislikes graphic descriptions of sex and violence, or who has an aversion to the use of swearwords. With that out of the way, I have to say that on the whole, I really enjoyed reading this collection. The author is a very talented writer and has a fantastic imagination. He has created many interesting and compelling tales.
Each story is completely different from the other (with the exception of the two connected stories 'Delivery Men' and 'Delivery Boys' about the lives of gangsters).
The stories are written about the darker side of life and some are frightening, some shocking. All the tales will make you think. Most, if not all, are controversial.
My favourites include: 'White Whale' - where a book almost takes controls of the protagonist's mind; 'The Broken Projector' - where a writer meets the characters from his novels in real life;'Choices'- about how the choices we make in life can affect us; 'Look'- an entertaining, if somewhat gruesome, Sci-Fi tale.
All the stories are cleverly written, and this collection shows that the author has a talent for creating great fiction. It's definitely a book which you will want to read to the end.

For this reader, the ability to write short stories seems to take as much if not more talent than writing a long novel. The author must find ideas interesting enough to arrest the reader's attention in a few pages, and be able to develop those ideas quickly and with enough of a sense of completion that the brevity of the story is not even noticed. Young writer Richard Yee has mastered the art of storytelling and in this collection, DELIVERIES, he provides a rich variety of themes and tales that range from hilarious to bizarre to gruesome and is able to traverse this complex territory with complete ease. Levels of language communication match the various climes of his stories and each story succeeds.

'The White Whale' briefly explores a man's response to a death, providing a reason to uncover his avoidance of entering the world of great literature, as in finally reading MOBY DICK. 'Ghost Dreams' fathoms the depths of a child's imagination. 'The Assassination of God' examines religious beliefs in response to the 9/11 tragedy: 'I realized, then, that beliefs could be dangerous, and in fact, had been dangerous for thousands of years. Throughout history, people killed for their Gods, killed for the precious ink in their holy books. Belief meant nothing until they were placed in the wrong hands, and then there was murder and bloodshed'. 'The Pizza Girl' addresses the physical limitations of aging in a hilarious yet touching manner, fortifying lack of performance ability with the incorporation of fantasy acting out. 'The Crying Shirt' (for this reader one of the best stories) balances the responses of those who deal with crime scenes and the 'stages' of support and involvement in approaching tragedy. And then there are two related stories, 'Delivery Men' and 'Delivery Boys' that 'out James Bond' James Bond: delivery men are hired assassins who must always be professional, even when the job turns against them. In these well-constructed stories Yee demonstrates how he can take the most explosively offensive material and find humor as sharp as shark's teeth.

Varieties of topics abound in this volume, but the underlying matrix is the work of a wordsmith who knows his craft well. It will be interesting to watch the development of this fine writer: he is most assuredly a gifted artist to watch! Highly recommended. Grady Harp, April 09

"Deliveries: A Collection" is a compendium of short stories
which capture the imagination of everyday experiences.
The presentation would be perfect for the teen in your
house.

For instance, the first story "White Whale" deals with
the seemingly bottomless pit involved in facing the
loss of a loved one. The author captures the apprehension,
finality and " the grief of a whale".

On a happier note, "How to be a Superhero" describes
the joys of sex and intimacy of teen sexual exploration.
At one point, the author talks about the "defeat of
evolution on a human level". The presentation is
interspersed with superior vocabulary, as well as
gross colloquial use of English. In a way, the author
is utilizing a considerable literary license by
mixing "The King's English" with the language of
everyday usage.

"Deliveries" would make a good read during a
3-4 hour trip. The acquisition would be a perfect
gift for the teen or young person in the house.
This book would be very popular with the high school
and early college constituency of readers.

"I developed the Bogeyman analogy to show the flawed logic of creationist arguments ... My philosophy is that if something inside you compels you to believe in a higher power, then you should. But don't try to rationalize it with half-assed logic or science, because then you're insulting both faith and reason." - Author Richard Yee on his story entitled "The Bogeyman"

I began reading DELIVERIES: A COLLECTION expecting a compendium of short stories written for entertainment purposes only. Before the last page, however, it became apparent that the chapters are, to me at least, vehicles by which author Richard Yee charts the course of life's undercurrents, especially those generated by sex, violence, death, betrayal, revenge, and guilt. Inasmuch as each human individual has a philosophy about life to some extent or other, DELIVERIES has its genesis in Yee's, and perhaps he hopes the stories in this book will cause you to ponder.

For me, the most thought-provoking of the fourteen tales was "The Pizza Girl", in which a 69-year old woman intersperses graphic memories of her career as an adult film star with the mental anguish and loneliness brought about by her 72-year old husband's descent into Alzheimer's disease. Perhaps I found this chapter so arresting because the best book I read in 2008 was a novel on Alzheimer's entitled Still Alice. "The Pizza Girl" is certainly a strikingly different take on the subject.

Only once does Yee leave the planet Earth with a touch of weird sci-fi originating on the planet Mars. This chapter, "Look", as improbable as it plays, is apparently the author's parable on the power that visual and aural images have to influence behavior.

Just as a joke that has to be explained is a joke that founders, I might suggest that some of the stories' characters go too far in explaining their motives and actions and the impact of the latter is reduced; this occurs most noticeably, I think, in "The Broken Projector." This niggling criticism aside, however, all the stories are engaging and interesting and involve personalities most likely not included in your circle of friends. I read the volume in a single day while blatantly neglecting my domestic chores.

Writer Richard Yee is a bright talent. I'll buy and read more of his stuff if and when it's published.

This collection of stories shows the tremendous talent of Mr. Yee as a new author. Each story is complete and thought provoking, and each stands alone well. As a first collection of work, they are well chosen for variety of plot, with the theme of good and evil running through all. The writing is good. Mr. Yee understands the value in holding a reader's attention.

A few of my favorite excerpts:

"The White Whale"
"Oh...this is a good one," I said to the empty room. My voice came out flat. I tried again, imitating my father's inflections.
"Oh...this is a good one."
Surprising myself, I laughed. I laughed for the first time in a
long time.

"Ghost Dreams"
I'm sure there are many others like me, but I can't sense
them, and they probably can't sense me. How long I've been
roaming through space and time, searching for myself, I don't
know.

"The Assassination of God"
If I was going to stop one act of religious violence, I would stop them all. The familiar crack came from outside the machine. I took a deep
breath and opened the door, eager to see the newer and brighter
version of humanity.

"Delivery Men" and "Delivery Boys"
"You better start talking, or I'm blowing off the other one."

The twists and turns in "Delivery" keeps the reader on his toes and alert for the next big event! Tension is high and doesn't let up until the end, which ends with finesse. The line written in author's notes at the end sums the book up completely, it's all about friendship, betrayal,vengeance, and regret. A good solid read of the dark kind. You won't go wrong with this choice.