Breaking it Down (Paperback)

~ Rusty Barnes (Author), David McNamara (Editor), Stephanie Pratt (Illustrator)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Behind all his characters...there's a quietly humane authorial presence interested in exploring our frail humanity in a way that reminds of the early work of Raymond Carver. Rusty Barnes is his own writer, though, and his flash fiction is terrific. --Edward Falco, author of Wolf Point

The jolt of this slim, intense collection is bracing. Barnes s narrative art is as masterful as his vision is profoundly honest and humane. His characters, like Robert Frost s, are mainly rural, poor, and farm-bound, and yet their agons are those of classical tragedy. Voicing these inarticulate characters with image, gesture, and narrative eloquence, Barnes opens the core of their imagined lives. --DeWitt Henry, co-founder of Ploughshares

The stories of Rusty Barnes are short, sharp, and shocking in their humanity. His characters are like sad love songs, sweet and full of hurt. --Steve Almond, author of (not that you asked)

Product Description

In Breaking it Down, Rusty Barnes lays bare the lives of the vulnerable as they traverse the difficult paths of love. Short and punchy, these stories show the cumulative effects of heartbreak and simple dreams while keeping a reserve of hope in even the darkest of circumstances.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 104 pages
• Publisher: sunnyoutside; 1st edition (November 8, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1934513032
• ISBN-13: 978-1934513033
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 4.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,420,893 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great things come in small packages, December 7, 2007

By	Xujun Eberlein "xje" (Boston, USA) - See all my reviews

In this book, Rusty Barnes tells 18 stories that are both poignant and memorable. Barnes is a master of flash fiction, who says more in a paragraph than can usually be found in a page. The characters and imagery quickly grabbed me, and held me in their short embrace. For the past week, I read a few each evening like savoring a delicious bitter-melon dish, a Sichuanese favorite, before falling asleep with a heavy heart.

The stories have an intensity that surprised me. Frequently, the situations described are grim, sometimes helpless. In the opening story, "What Needs to be Done," a farm wife of 30-years has to balance the guilt of infidelity with her 19-year-old brother-in-law, against any hope of a moment's happiness. The concurrent senses of right and wrong from a simple heart reveal unexpected complexity.

Many of the stories are set in rural America, often hinting of the South, and the characters are usually unsophisticated. Barnes, however, has managed to mix a variety of cultural overtones into the characters that made me reflect on myself. One of my favorites is Beamer, the opera loving farmer who, to his last breath sings Arias to the dancing cows. Coincidentally, "playing music to the cow" is a Chinese adage that derides someone who speaks to the wrong audience. In the story "Beamer's Opera," our innocent writer unintentionally turns the saying around, as Beamer's whole life unfolds in a few pages and ends as artfully as it is portrayed.

Despite all their woes, the characters take the situations in stride, and Barnes renders this with authenticity. Presented from a number of different points of view, the narration never gets in the way of what is happening. Even those written in second person, which I almost always have trouble reading, came through crystal clear. This was another surprise to me - I did not expect a flash to have as complete a storyline and characterization as a "regular" short story.

I have not been what you would call a fan of flash fiction; Barnes makes me feel that should change.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Almost a poem, December 29, 2007

By	David Bulley (Western Mass) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Rusty Barnes' prose is as unique and wonderful as his vision. Each of these sparkling little gems of stories begin with an economy and intensity or prose that, where it not for the overwhelming dive into narrative, I'd think was poetry reinvented.

Sometimes the subject of his vision is bleak, but don't let that stop you. Bleak or not, the love and humanity comes pouring, pounding, driving through all these pieces of flash fiction. Each one leaves me breathless.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unique and well written, February 12, 2008

By	Timothy Gager "some call me Tim" (Boston) - See all my reviews

The grit of these stories stays with you for a long time, and better yet, these well written micro/flash stories are moving as well as dark and unforgettable. Things are often not what they seem but in very creative ways. They can be opposite of where the reader thinks they are going or completely over the edge of the cliff the reader is balancing on.

The story "Beamer's Opera," is an amazing tapestry of work which can be viewed in more than one way. It, as all 18 of the stories in Breaking It Down, was crafted in only a few pages. "What Needs to Be Done," the first story in the collection sets the tone, where in this one, a woman who is stuck in a bad marriage with a drunken southern farmer fuels her life with an affair in the barn with the man's son.