Wednesday 28 November 2012

David Wailing

This short book of two stories and a few 'Drabbles' - ultra shorts, has rather a different feel.  The two main stories are told by youngsters - and very convincingly too!

Fifth Season

Amazon.com   Fifth Season

My review -

This is a short book comprised of two (longish) short stories and a few ‘Drabbles’ – one hundred word super-shorts. Fifth Season is the first of these longer stories and is set a little way into the future. It begins with a near-global panic and we follow it through the eyes and the understanding of a 9 year old boy – one with a particular interest and intelligence. Nineteen Seventy-Steve is set in the past. Mostly! Those of us who remember the 1970s will find a sudden smile twitching our faces as we recall television programmes, adverts and the like. The drabbles are especially intriguing. It’s quite a feat getting a ‘story’ into 100 words.

David’s writing is usually unfussy, modern, I might almost say suave. Here it is very different. He accurately speaks in a young boy's voice and persuades us to believe it’s a child telling us the stories. Have you ever listened to a youngster telling you something s/he’s excited about and said ‘Slow down, take a deep breath and tell me again.’? It’s a bit like that. The story comes excitedly, phrases trying to leapfrog over one another, in a convincingly child-like way. All in all, it’s very well done. 

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