Before I get started on Amelia Gray, I have to tell you something about this wafer-thin story by Lindsay Hunter that tells more in a few sentences than most novels do. My Brother will kick your ass, it will take just a few minutes to read, if you’re a slow reader like me.
This staple-bound story came in the same package from Featherproof Books, and I’m so glad it did. My Brother goes something like this: your sister is telling her friends about you, but you’re telling her that monsters live in your closet. Your record needle drops on the vinyl and you both agree that you’re father is a pussy. It’s sort of bulletproof like a mile marker sign on the side of an empty stretch of desert. Or a stack of Playboys you find at the dump. You hope no one is watching you while you page through them. This story makes you feel like you’re the only one reading it, that maybe it was written just for you.
Lindsay Hunter writes like a Yeah, Yeah, Yeah’s song, Karen O would be proud, like Gold Lion…this story is.
For a free download of this story…go here:
http://www.featherproof.com/Mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=193&Itemid=41
Amelia Gray, I’ve seen her name here and there, mostly when I was searching out Blake Butler, and AM/PM was mentioned on the same website. JE got me going on the short form of writing, the 500 words or less style of telling a story, where Amelia Gray is already operating like a seasoned pro. This deceptively big book wrapped in a small package tells the story of several different characters who stumble through life, either enjoying their own mortality or riding shotgun towards a uncertain future. I especially like the flash fiction format, each story, or snippet is told in chapters that barley make up a page, and were written in the morning or at night, AM/PM. You don’t need to go on for hundreds of pages to tell a story, your narrative arc doesn’t have to be Robert McKee inspired, you just have to tell the reader what it is you like about your characters. I can point to many characters in this book and call them my favorite, but chapter 29/PM is really funny. You always remember the girls you dated, at least most guys I know do, and Amelia Gray imagines a game of shirts and skins between the girls you had a chance with and the girls you never had a chance with. This book slips through your hands like a fine silk scarf, and is just as attractive.
Gray sprays these pages with slivering moments from the lives people you’ve met, and who are nothing more than pebbles of sand on beach of life. These people aren’t unique, but the way Gray tells it they offer a vibrant case for their own existence. Independent publishers like Featherproof are getting their hands on some of the most exciting and urgent storytellers out there, and it’s nice to have a chance to read them before they hit the big time. You can buy AM/PM here.
wow, thank you for the lovely compliments!