Customer Reviews

Terminal Vibrato: And Other Stories

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

 

 

"Terminal Vibrato" contains a novella and a selection of very interesting, thought provoking short stories. These stories take you into the worlds of other people. Some take place close to home in the United States; others take you to different places or other times. Each one focuses on human behavior and human nature. It is fascinating to discover how each person interacts with others as they traverse through their own adventures in life.
I really enjoyed being absorbed into each story. The characters are very real and gritty. They are not perfect. Reading into their minds to see what they are thinking as they decide how best to interact with others was a real treat. Sometimes I found myself laughing, other times cringed. I loved Pritchard's ability in catching me off guard. Each story is unique and has its own flavor. I definitely feel that this is a book that will be enjoyed by all readers who enjoy quality fiction.

The main character of the novella with which this collection begins has a lot on his mind: so much, in fact, that even during a professional boxing match he rages on between rounds about science, history, philosophy, psychology--and all manner of things--to his assistants and trainers. Hilariously funny and bittersweet, his overheated musings continue long after the match and subtly lay the groundwork for the surprise ending. Even though I have read the novella several times, I still find myself taken in by the opening premise and enjoy seeing the clever way that the ending is prefigured in the preceding chapters.

The memorable and tightly crafted short stories that follow the novella draw the reader in with unpredictable twists and sly humor. Funny, ominous, and tragic, the stories are uniformly refreshing and a pleasure to read.

A life is barren without the inclusion of other people. "Terminal Vibrato: And Other Stories" is an anthology of short stories by Stanford Pritchard, an award winning novelist, poet, and playwright. His stories focus on the relationships between people and how they form the very people involved in them. The stories speak to the soul, and will entertain alongside enlighten. "Terminal Vibrato" is a unique set of writing which is highly recommended for personal, community, and academic Literary Studies and Short Story collections.

This is the type of book that wears on you because the twist endings are not quite O'Henry or Twilight Zone quality. All of them seem to be almost like the person is dreaming and you can't separate the reality until the very end.

In the first tale the narrator is in a hospital room after apparently being knocked out. He then goes on a rant against the seemingly lifeless patient next to him. Some of the dialogue reminded me of some of the exchanges between Jerry Seinfeld and George Costanza in the Diner of the Seinfeld show but with more philosophy involved. Soon the narrator realizes he knows the other person who was his professor in college. There are some very good thoughts in the dialogue in this story and that is why I gave this book at least three stars.

The rest of the stories missed the mark and seemed to wear on me, once I got the idea of the common theme and weak twist endings.

Stanford Pritchard's Terminal Vibrato consists of a novella and fifteen short pieces. Some of the stories explore the solitary inner musings and fulminations of one character, and some deal with miscommunication between two or more characters. All have unusual twists and surprise endings.

The title novella and the short stories are perfectly polished little gems, some only a few pages long. "Just Tell What Happened" is a comic and frustrating story of a man with important evidence regarding what may have been a violent crime, and two bungling small-town policemen who fiddle with the tape recorder and interrupt his testimony with trivial chit-chat. In "two Thieves," a couple of cocky but inept burglars execute an elaborate scheme for breaking into a residence, and nearly blow the whole enterprise by playing with the victim's answering machine. The piano soloist in "Player in the Symphony" worries that his career is ruined because he hit a B instead of a B flat. While these three are my personal favorites, all are worth reading.