As a very occasional reader and even more occasional writer of flash fiction, for me novella-in-flash was a new and mysterious proposition and the question uppermost in my mind was which would take precedence, the novella or the flash? There was nothing to do but dive in and within a page or two of Charmaine Wilkerson’s How to Make a Window Snake, I forgot the question because I was totally enveloped by this deceptively simple and beautifully crafted piece of story telling. As I read it the structure reminded me of a flower in which individual stories grow like petals around a central scene or group of scenes –the walk by the lake, the terrible accident, the painting of the steps - each of which we see from the differing perspectives of time and the acquiring of knowledge. Family tragedies and the secrets they breed are hardly a new theme in fiction but this is one of the most masterful as well as succinct treatments I have ever read and possibly the most rewarding.
I had to take a break before moving on to A Safer Way to Fall by one of my favourite sort fiction writers Joanna Campbell. Here was something closer to what I had imagined a novella in flash to be – densely descriptive language and a degree of complexity that occasionally had me puzzled. Not that puzzlement isn’t a good thing, and here I felt an answer to my question coming on. Despite the overall story arc wrapped up so beautifully at the end, here was a collection of dazzling stories rather than the mini-novel I glimpsed in Window Snake.
And finally to Things I Dream About when I’m not Sleeping by Ingrid Jendrzejewski which I found to be something else again. I loved this for the universality of its observations on the minutiae of marriage and motherhood – how the big things are glimpsed through the very small. And some of these stories are very small and wonderfully poetic, one of my favourites being When I am Falling which I hope it’s okay to quote:
“When I am falling it is not from grace. It is not for you. It is not apart, or flat or foul.
I don’t fall in love, off wagons, far from trees or by any waysides. It is not hard or fast. No, I am falling just like everyone is falling: quietly, constantly, softly, in and out of sleep.”
And there is plenty more where that came from.
Of the three, Window Snake will remain my favourite perhaps because it is the most like a novel and I am by nature a novel reader, but each of these is s gem of a different kind and the whole book is a fabulous showcase of this emerging genre.
Are you a book seller, library or educational body? See our Trade Discounts. |
Copyright © 2025 Ad Hoc Fiction