Customer Reviews

Pieces for the Left Hand: Stories

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

 

 

This is a great, funny collection of 100 very short stories--but as the subtitle suggests, they're more like anecdotes. The stories vary in tone and style-- a small-town sports animosity leads to violence, a lonely man accidentally shares his depression with q co-worker, and a lucid dreamer suffers a crisis of faith. The stories are are all roughly less than three pages, and some of them will say with me longer than many novels I've read--especially haunting, surreal tales such as "Heirloom" and "Twins."

I enjoyed this book of stories and read it much faster than novels of the same page length. Stories range between one and four pages and most of the 100 tales are about a page and a half. If these are all true accounts, the author lives in a very interesting place but many of the comeuppances of the characters seem to undo them just a little bit too neatly that it strains my "suspension of disbelief" membrane and I as a the reader imagine some creative license was employed. Whether they are all true, partially true, and all made-up stories does not really matter to me.

The writing is crisp and interesting and the author practices economy of statement. Like one of the other reviewers said, the stories stay with you. My favorite was The Folder, about a phantom laundry folder who folds the laundry of strangers and visualizes the person returning to the perfect stack of clothes. I have been "the folder" and other characters he paints beautifully on his well-hewn upstate New York canvass.

I am going to check out some of his other work. Lennon is a good writer.

brilliant and highly entertaining. beautifully crafted short pieces, loosely unified in theme. absolutely great stuff. i am a jaded reader, exhausted by the steady stream of tripe i come across. pieces for the left hand is a breath of fresh air, a beautiful collection of thought and substance. more, please.

It's like a big sampler box of chocolates, only there are no yucky ones, none of those jelly-centered losers.
Love 'em all.