wrapping them in layers of humor and longing that make the whole thing sort of beautiful in a very human way
342057
What can I say about this book that wouldn't sound completely trite? Sarah Jean Alexander tackles heavy emotions honestly, wrapping them in layers of humor and longing that make the whole thing sort of beautiful in a very human way. Five hundred stars.
3954349
Jeffrey Brown calls his latest memoir Little Things, but the truth is that the title is a little modest. It's certainly true enough; the book is filled with mundane events, like getting a cat, meeting a boring friend of a friend, conversations with parents and exes. That kind of thing. But those small occurrences are where the magical events of life happen, which Brown is well aware of.

The book begins with a prologue that promises this collection of short stories is "about how things interconnect in life. . . . How everyday stuff is . . . how we find meaning in our lives." Some of the events described are more "eventful" than others--the late-night trip to the emergency room, for example, which results in a gallbladder removal and tens of thousands of dollars worth of hospital charges. Whatever level of importance may eventually be assigned to them, the happenings reach a sum total that is nothing short of poignant and moving. Brown knows when to hold back and when to deliver on the promise of something he's been building toward; it's nice to relax and watch the story unfold knowing the storyteller has a complete vision in mind, a comprehensive tale that will make more sense in retrospect. Enjoy it while it's taking place and then look back to connect the dots.

Brown is already somewhat well known for directing the music video for indie favorites Death Cab for Cutie's "Your Heart Is an Empty Room." He's also written several other graphic works, most of which have centered around his own life. Brown mines his past for rich material and uses it make deceptively simple stories that pack a universal emotional wallop.

All of which is not to say that Brown isn't funny. Make no mistake; he most certainly is. He makes wry observations throughout Little Things with admirable subtlety. That restraint helps keep Little Things afloat, succeeding without sinking into self-indulgence. There's always a risk in such personal works--the danger that the reader will feel as if he or she is looking at the equivalent of the storyteller's vacation slides, secretly eyeing the door and wondering how long it will all last. And of course it has been suggested that, too often, the comic and graphic novel format is used for memoir that doesn't have the substance to sustain an entire work. With an elegant simplicity, Brown is able to dismiss all those worries almost immediately. These stories are too charming to be boring, too friendly to overstay their welcome.

That Brown has been able to make several memoirs work--and work well--in the format is a testament to his strengths as a graphic storyteller. His short stories here feel like hearing about the escapades of a funny friend. You'll almost find yourself anxiously wondering aloud, "And then what happened?"

-- John Hogan
4794742
The writing is particularly artful, amazingly so.
797027
What seems like a simple story of a curmudgeon evolves into a lovely series of humanizing interactions  revealing the personal dramas that make up who we are and how we can find each other in a divisive world.
1343280
The chief character(s) in each chapter are linked in some way--as the reader discovers--with those in other chapters, making the point of our human inter-connectedness in sometimes surprising and meaningful ways.  There are many ways of viewing this book, but for me it's about how beauty and love can appear within the most sordid of realities, that there is hope and goodness in sad/bad situations, that we can stretch ourselves beyond the ordinary, drawing strength from/with others.
3431190
Well rounded, touching, great humor evoking a host of emotions.
3722630
The stories in this book move between diary-like realism and dreamlike weirdness with such grace. It's about growing up. It's about time travel. It's about so much. So much in such a short book, in such short stories. The emotions can get overwhelming at times, and the second person perspective that so many of the pieces in this book favor really puts all the feelings right into your heart so you can't help but let them overtake you. This is crucial reading.
4618780
The Holy Innocents is a beautiful assortment of ghostly stories that illuminate differing aspects of the human condition. In poetic prose, the author constructs vivid worlds that deftly use unique locations (Cincinnati, Chicago, Brazil) and contemporary and historical issues (chemistry, corporate greed, art) to contextualize characters in impossible scenarios. For example, the author spins the first story around a Cincinnati orphanage and the specters, both living and dead, that haunt the building and grounds at the time of the 1932 Influenza outbreak. The story illuminates a maelstrom of past, present, spirit and flesh in which very human experiences play themselves out in loops of despair, kindness, hostility, and, ultimately, hope.

While each story is self-contained, the stories, as a whole, follow a central theme, using the perspectives of tangibly flawed characters (aren't all good characters flawed?) to unearth the heartbreaking consequences of their all-too human, and unreflective, desires:

- A daughter looking to reconnect with her deceased mother
- A nun avoiding oblivion through lifetimes of servitude
- The infectiousness of a mans greed
- An artists refusal to succumb to natures order
- A woman, who cant see past her own darkness, regretfully giving her life to another

If I had a complaint, it would be that the characters are vibrant enough to have been expanded beyond these too short stories.
1806413
A beautifully written book that will make you feel just about every emotion you can imagine, and then some.  The main characters are larger than life and yet their emotions, longings, and missteps are entirely relatable.  You feel as though you might run into one of them on the sidewalk or overhear a couple of them quarreling at a restaurant.  Some of the most affecting scenes from the book have stayed with me for a very long time.  And the author's exploration of the relationships and everyday interactions between friends, lovers, and family members raises broader (and fascinating) issues regarding family ties, love, displacement, immigration, sexuality, and the human desire to be accepted, without being heavy handed - not an easy feat.  Very highly recommended.
1512169
How sweet and touching a story like this can reach out and touch the hearts of people in life situations.
2304096
I'm not here to write a scintillating review, but just to give my heartfelt comments, albeit brief ones. This is a book about grief and healing. I fell in love with its very human, slightly oddball characters. The author somehow cuts to the heart of what it is to be a flawed human, yet gives the reader hope and confidence in their own humanity and that of others. She magically evokes France. The river journey reminded me of Huck Finn just a little bit - in a way, this novel is also a Bildungsroman. I will read it again, next time with highlighter and pen in hand.
2782323
When I noticed this book was a translation, I must admit I balked at reading it. I have had regrettable experiences in the past with novels that were originally written in a language other than English. That said, once I read the first couple of paragraphs I was totally absorbed. The rich descriptions of people and places, the ease of reading what was written and how the words were crafted, pulled me in seamlessly.

Though the story and setting draw much from the seedier side of humanity and the darker circumstances of the time period in which the story is set, I found beauty, humor, hope, and a poignant apathy that can be inseparable in the human spirit when life has dealt a bitter existence for some who were born into a world with little empathy for those who are different.
2231591
These stories of unlikely friendships are heart touching. The photography is beautiful and engaging. The paper and printing is of excellent quality. The physical experience with this book is an excellent argument for the physical book vs the e-book.

The layout is ideal for short reads. If you have a few minutes flip through the pages and pick a story to read. A quick lift and often a laugh and smile.

The underlying theme I got was that we all CAN get along together. When the most unexpected can find love and friendship there is hope for the rest of us too. This is an uplifting, interesting and humorous book for me.
1432760
This collection of essays written around personal objects of the author, exposes the author's innermost life in finely woven patches of fabric.  I was underwhelmed after reading the first several essaysalthough the writing is engaging, almost poeticbecause I hadn't yet figured out what the author was trying to achieve.  But soon, I began to connect the dots and saw a most beautiful tapestry emerging.  Midway through the chapters, I was surprised at how emotionally resonant the stories had become for me, and how the author had become, at least for the duration of my reading of this book, a warm, loving friend, whose every line of prose fastened me more securely to her life.  By the final chapters, I found myself weeping when she describes trying to parse how her dead father now fits into her life.  The Object Parade earns my highest recommendation for literature that carries the reader to a magical place within him- or herself, and exposes the most obscure areas of the heart to light.
126903
The title of this assortment of stories--micro, flash, short and a novellamay mislead except in its resort to humor, of which theres plenty in this kaleidoscope of colored, attractive, distinct lives crossed by lust, love and desire. These stories have nothing to do with dead people and, in the occasional reference, even the doomed perspire the spirit of the well alive, like the condemned in the micro Lapsus Linguae, whose final wish is to sleep with the executioners life.

Its always nice to go back to the first works of writers one admires and see the progress, the repetition of themes, and the firmness of a voice which often, like in this case, seems to have been there since the beginning. Mr. Bittner is above all a poet and the same language of his most accomplished works, Letters to my Children and Girl from Baku, shines through the twenty-three pieces. Hyperkinetic, the poet moves as he focus on a world that moves along with him, or in counterpoint, and which is never steady. An English language astoundingly richone which is Saxon in the pace but doesnt fear latinates or the occasional immersion into the pool of world languageskeeps company to the incessant stroll over lives and deeds, giving a palpable body to the voice. To flow and timbre adds the always nuanced tone: good humored, but also melancholy, cynic, bittersweet.

Voice is all, and its this voice which allows us as readers to enter into the characters, their wishes and quandaries. In Aubrey Ference, one of the most achieved brief pieces in this collection, the door of dreams is opened to the poignant thoughts of the narrator as hes sent into a dream of his own by the mysterious name printed on a newspaper page carried by the wind; in Panties, to the unquenchable lust many guys will recognize as theirs; in Last Exit, to the feelings of a divorced father as he takes out his children to have dinner, all described in proustian detail; in Room for Rent, to the soul of a lonely woman; in Publish or Perish, to the mind and heart of a student, wannabe writer, and his story within the story; in The Cure for Original Sin, a humorous take on a father and son relationship when the time for a supposedly appropriate sex education comes; in Your Best Friend to a night of August in which the heat keeps a man awake, forcing him to review again what his life has becomemarriage, children, work; in Night Train, to a brief frustrated encounterin which the stylistic technique of movement is applied with a masterful result.

Therere women and men, often with destroyed, failed lives, which apparently cant be straighten up unless the mind decides to play high. Theres again when language leads, not only in the writing of these stories, but in the characters themselves, as though life couldn't really be shaped unless the change is summoned before by the right images, those able to give its form to desire. The wonderful ending of Dark Matter, a lovely comedy with a light, amorous French tone, gives a final hope: in spite of all the harshness and ruthlessness of life, happy endings (and happy beginnings as well) are possible.

My favorite story in this collection, because it plays in this ensemble like the key noteand in all of Russell Bittners work like a Rosetta stone--is Allegory. A simple, democratic cricket chirps, endlessly calling for a mate, for hes crippled, a one-legged cricket that can only attract the wrong mates or none at all. In this first-insect story, the lonely cricket introduces us in his world, which is the tragic world of a poet, always singing to attract not only the occasionally or often missing physical mate, but that metaphysical mate only art or religion provide. Far from the majestic baudelairean albatross, the fable of this American cricket poet reminds us that in Bittners workthe earliest, the latest and the one to comeall is about art, even though art may often choose the clear language of sex and desire, as most poets do.
209266
Beautifully written stories and poems that bring a smile and a warm feeling of identification with the themes presented.
1898300
Outstanding.  There are some incredibly sweet moments in there that creep up on you in the midst of the ugly.