Customer Reviews

Human Oddities: Stories

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

 

 

Human Oddities, Noria Jablonski's short story debut, is teeming with the kind of people your mother warned you about. It's even got some mothers of whom your own mother might not approve. In fact, Part One of the book contains three tales focusing on just such a matriarch. Seen from the viewpoint of the narrator, the Mommy who emerges from Jablonski's pages is narcissistic and neurotic in ways that could shame Joan Crawford. Moreover, her vanity is married to a severe brand of body dysmorphic disorder that pushes her from drugs to cosmetic surgery in ever more desperate bids to alleviate a smidgen of her self-loathing.

While this expos' of common, household dysfunctions is enough to justify the book's title, the more obvious Human Oddities occur in Part II. Here we enter a sea littered with hominid flotsam. "One of Us" features Siamese twins - the second set we meet in the book. "Monkey's Paw" climbs inside the world of an infuriating relationship on the skids and the unrequited devotion that allows it to survive. "Big Guy" examines the kind of faceless, working class stiffs, who consider sex with, well... stiffs. "The End of Everything," the last and most accomplished story in the collection introduces transvestites and murderers.

In this final tale, Jablonski flexes her writer's muscles to add complexity to a life that outsiders might carelessly dismiss with a single epithet. Interestingly, it is here that the mother figure, who has haunted so many of the previous tales in the form of a monstrous and carelessly selfish antagonist, takes shape as the alter ego of the main character himself.

All the stories in the collection exude a quiet desperation examined unflinchingly and with an eye toward everyday details that forces the reader to see a reflection of themselves in those from whom they would most like to avert their gaze. Human Oddities was number three on the bestseller list at Atomic Books in Baltimore, between Playboy Brunettes and 101 Diseases You Don't Want to Get - two more books full of people your mother doesn't want you to meet.

I never write reviews, but after reading Human Oddities, I felt compelled to tell others how great these stories are. Jablonski's writing is reminiscent of early Mary Gaitskill- raw, honest, and lovingly concerned with the details of life that make most people avert their gaze. But Jablonski is sweeter than Gaitskill, less incisive. Her writing invites you to embrace her characters' psychic and physical deformities in one big group hug.

I loved all the stories. But the conjoined twins in "Pam Calls her Mother on Five-cent Sundays" made me want to cheer, I loved them so much. "The Monkey's Paw" was one of the best renderings I've ever read of the 'magical crush' - that connection you had with someone where it seemed so damn meant-to-be and yet, and yet... I also loved Big Guy, but then I've been known to grieve in really debasing ways too. ;)

I think it's Jablonski's first published book and it has some of the crackliness and self-consciousness that you find in the early work of someone still finding their groove. But still, read this book. It is kind and smart and will touch you in funny places.

Jablonski is a story weaver to keep and eye on. Her characters are carefully constructed. I thouroughly enjoyed reading this collection. The thread of connection is body image but each story is unique and intriguing. I suppose if one has exhausted the threshold of unusual and interesting folks in their lives then perhaps they might be put off by this book. I relish in newness and oddities of all kinds.

Apparently brilliant writing, deftly constructed characters, and excellent storytelling isn't enough for some people. True, this book features few explosions. If other things are more important to you, give this book a shot. Jablonski is one of the finest wordsmiths I've read in some time.

J

This book was pretty boring and so were most of the characters.. A few of the stories were vaguely interesting, but most were not entertaining in the least. I tried to keep reading in the hopes that it would get better, but eventually gave up.