by Scott Snyder
ISBN: 9780385338424
One of the interesting things about reading a collection of short stories is that tics, interesting word choices, or obsessions are easier to spot than they might be when experienced in smaller doses. For example: there’s one blimp that is impossible to miss in these stories (though for a time it was also impossible to find), but it isn’t the lone blimp reference.
Compared to much of what I’ve been reading lately, Snyder’s short stories are longer, with the shortest of the seven here being a good thirty pages long. That means Snyder can take his time to build a story. He pulls you in right away though, he doesn’t waste any time. Consider his opening lines:
The blimp passed first, silver with six white fins at the tail, like a giant bullet fired slowly through the sky. (“Blue Yodel”)
I once lived next to a man who was indestructible. (“Happy Fish, Plus Coin”)
I made a mistake, is how it all started. (“About Face”)
My girlfriend and I are not rich people. (“Voodoo Heart”)
In the summer, I sit up in my hunting stand and watch the children get thin. (“Wreck”)
The rule for guarding the dumpster was simple: no one, under any circumstances, takes anything out. (“Dumpster Tuesday”)
John circled back over the pumpkin patch, bringing the plane lower this time, just to make sure his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him. (“The Star Attraction of 1919”)
If these don’t do anything for you, don’t pick up the book. But if you are intrigued, rest assured the payoffs are there, the goodness doesn’t end with the beginnings. Snyder writes clear, solid, dependendable (or dependably undependable) characters who try — though frequently fail — not to come unglued. Highly recommended.
