Customer Reviews

Emily Ate the Wind

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Forgive me if my review isn't quite as sharp as the previous two, but I'm not in the writing industry. I just happen to really like Peter Conners' writing. Stylistically, I really love this novella. It floats between a novel and Peter's own unique, recognizable prose style in a way that isn't like most "novellas" that I've come across. If there were a bigger market for novellas, I'd say this is his jam because it seems to allow him to really flex his strengths. By that I mean, he has great strengths in his prose/poetry style, but that can't necessarily translate over the course of a full novel. But he also has a great strength in relaying these very real characters that can't be done necessarily as well in the shorter prose/poetry setting. So this hybrid novella medium seems to be able to play to both of those strengths. It took me a couple of passes to fully appreciate each of the characters - which is a good sign as far as I'm concerned. There are things going on just under the surface that Peter doesn't hit you over the head with, but put's just enough information out there so you can guess as to some of the underlying action and underlying personality traits of the characters. What impresses me most here is the crafting of the book. It just strikes me as being so well crafted that every word and every chapter plays a vitally important role and is perfect in that role. Once again, Peter has written something that I think is truly fantastic.

Peter Conners has long been one of my favorite writers. Known for his "brief prose," or as he has termed his PP/FF, Conners here instead stitches together a collage of voices that exist, or near exist in a fictional place, room, hall of stories, known only as The Bar. In these brief composities, texts, news articles, monologues, sketches, stories that resist becoming not quite a novel emerge, whose absences speak more about the struggles to simply "be," than many novels with twice as many pages attempt to convey. As the pages accumulate, slowly, the sheer impact of solitude vs communion begins to argue, in voices often blurred by the fragemented text, it seems, so they become painfully unaware of the fractured nature of their existance. But all is not pathos here, as the book is full of frightfully funny and ironic moments. Perhaps it is all allegory? Read this book, and somewhere in its pages, I swear, you will find a shard of yourself in it, weeping, or perhaps even singing.

There are some works of literature that simply don't fit within the usual categories of genre fiction but stand alone as seminal and unique. Such is the case of "Emily Ate The Wind" by Peter Connors. Told in a series of vignettes, love letters, questions and answer formats, newspaper clippings, short stories, and prose poems, "Emily Ate The Wind showcases a series of drinkers, gamblers, lifelong friends and frustrated lovers whose lives intersect at The Bar. Peter Conners tells these stories with a deft skill that ranges from gritty realism to an almost surreal lyricism as the characters mature from childhood to adulthood, experiencing marriage, war, loyalty and betrayal. Of special note are the entries "Some Thoughts about Money'; 'Headlines from Tomorrow'; and 'The Regular and the New Bouncer'. "Emily Ate The Wind" is a complex, occasionally iconoclastic, sometimes heartfelt, and always engaging work of sophisticated storytelling that is highly recommended for readers who appreciate sophistication and originality.