Reviews
This is the review Richard Allen Hunzinger entered for your story "Just Leave"
It was entered Jan 16 2001 10:22PM
In my awkwardly humble opinion, which should be of little or no consequence, it was
very interesting. I can't classify it in any sort of genre, which impresses me in and of
itself.
The characters were thinly defined in broad strokes, which isn't meant to sound like a
necessarily bad thing. It leaves room for the reader's interpretation, without becoming
entirely confusing. Not entirely, but slightly. That seemed to play into the style, however.
The story didn't exactly appeal to my taste, so my opinion may be slightly biased, but the
plot was loosely configured and not really very intriguing to me. It didn't seem to be a
plot-driven story, though.
You have an original style. Aside from a few possible technical discrepencies, your use
of language is perfectly acceptable, but I'm hardly an expert. Overall, I'd say it was a
worthwile read.
This is the review Stephen Kane entered for your story "Just Leave"
It was entered Jan 17 2001 8:19AM
It is a strange experience to read this story. Is "story" the correct word? This reads like a
dream: vague, out of sequence, lapses of coherrence and logic. But it is strangely
affecting.
The story appears to chart the relationship of a couple... or maybe a couple of couples. It
is an ambiguous stream of conciousness. It is difficult to assemble the various fragments
into a coherrent whole but amongst the disparate passages there are eloquent and simple
truths to be found on the subject of love and relationships. It is apt that authors like Pual
Auster, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Milan Kundera are referred to in this piece as they
are all philosophical, magical and disjointed writers and this story - or whatever you care
to label it as - would appeal to admirers of those authors.
A very strange performance but a tender and emotional one.
This is the review Andrew Schultz entered for your story "Just Leave"
It was entered Jan 17 2001 10:36AM
"He said that books are born out of ignorance and if they go on living after they are
written, it’s only to the degree that they can’t be understood."
I see what you're trying for in stripping out almost everything that one usually finds in
stories to focus on the pure essence of the characters and their pain, but the idea and the
execution don't quite match. In the end you more or less depart from your metafictional
effort and resort to more conventional setting of place and narrative. To me the dialogue
is not clear enough, pure enough, succinct enough to carry off the technique. I don't think
it's bad if you give a few narrative brush strokes and then the exchanges, but as it is now,
the dialogue doesn't grab the reader or move him or her as much as it is kind of irritating
because you can't really tell what's going on. Reading this is like being in a very dimly lit
room and bumping into things and you don't know what you bumped into...
