Reading The Grown Up made me realise that I still hadn’t got around to reading Sharp Objects; so after caving into the “If you liked this…” section on the Kindle, I downloaded it.

This book was Flynn’s debut novel but she was relatively unknown before the Gone Girl saga.  It follows Camille Preaker, a journalist who reluctantly goes back to her hometown to investigate two missing girls.  She has spent years self harming after the death of her sister which is just part of an unhappy childhood.

But back home she must go, if she wants her name to be associated with career changing ‘breaking headline.’ As is now expected from a Gillian Flynn novel, the young journalist begins to unravel a web of murder that is much closer to home than she could wish.

I must come clean and state that what I thought was the twist, wasn’t in fact the twist. I didn’t pick the novel up for a whole day thinking: How obvious was that, I saw it coming a mile off.

The smugness was soon sucked from within, as I realised I was wrong.

I really have to give Flynn credit, as she really catches you with the unexpected. Especially when all of her audience are anticipating a nice twist.

I can’t wait to see how she’ll catch us out post-Gone Girl.

Section that stayed

“I am a cutter, you see. Also a snipper, a slicer, a carver, a jabber. I am a very special case. I have a purpose. My skin, you see, screams. It’s covered with words – cook, cupcake, kitty, curls – as if a knife-wielding first-grader learned to write on my flesh.”

This is the first book I’ve downloaded on my new Kindle – my old one broke about 2 years ago – as I like flitting between print and digital.

It us about 40 pages long, this thriller has a couple of really great twists and kept me hooked throughout. The narrator who is a con artist gets drawn into a twisted revenge plot; but who is telling the truth, well, that’s for the reader to decide.

This got an award for best short story 2015, but I do wonder if it was based on the author’s credentials rather than the story.

I mean everyone is going mad for Gillian Flynn at the moment!

Overall, a really good way to spend an hour-or-so.

This collection of 37 short stories mainly focus on:  Booze. Sex. Horse Racing. And those of you who’ve read Bukowski before won’t be surprised.

Bukowski writes about ‘the low life’ with absolute perfection. The subject matter and simple style may seem easy to replicate, but no one pulls it off quite like ‘The Buk!”

Like any collection of a writer’s work; you’ll love some and loath others. I didn’t loath any in this collection, but some passed through me with a certain ambivalence.

The thing with Bukowski is that he talks honestly about everyday situations. If a story begins with a man walking into a bar; the ending will usually be him exiting the bar.

It’s that simple. The End.  

I imagine that at times the abruptness of the ending may frustrate the reader, but I kinda like it. For example the story, A Favor for Don ends:

“I put the phone back in its cradle and closed my eyes. It was only 10:45 a.m. and I always slept until noon. Life’s as kind as you let it be. (p. 193) 

Likewise, Its a Dirty World finishes with the narrator saying:

“Then they stood and sat and sat and stood waiting for Gloria to get back with the cold beer.” (p. 55)

Simple and ordinary.  The excellent thing about most of the stories is that they are usually no more than 5 pages. The best way to digest them, is by spreading them out, rather than binge reading the collection. Why? Many are based around a simular subject which can get rather tedious – even for a hardcore Bukowski lover.

In opposition to the ordinary endings, there are some captivating openings. In the story, Not Quite Bernadette the narrator opens with:

“I wrapped the towel around my cock and phoned the Doctor’s office” (p.87)

Like the above there are many moments that will  made you  laugh and some that will shock you to your very core.

The protagonist in  The Hangover, awakes to a phone call from his friend about what happened at the previous nights party. He can’t remember what happened at the party and shocked he hangs up the phone and tells his wife:

“Bonnie claims I took JeanJean and Cathy in the closet and took their panties and sniffed their peepees” (P.94)

When you consider that Bonnie is a friend and JeanJean and Cathy are her young daughters, then it’s pretty shocking.  Bonnie decides not to involve the police and it ends with her saying:

“Why do you drink so much?”, The protagonist replies:  “Hell, I don’t know. I guess, mostly, I just get bored.” (p. 97)

The unlikely ending shows the reader that it is just a story, albeit a pretty sick one.

Section that stayed

“Kevin sat down to crap. Crapping seemed so safe, so warm… Kevin finished, wiped, flushed, washed his hands like a civilized man and walked into the kitchen.” (Not Quite Bernadette, p.94)

For my next read, I’ve been working my way through The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. So far, I’m about half way through; so to bridge the gap I thought I’d start reading online short stories at work (yes, while I’m getting paid for it – great huh!)

So I entered “online short stories” into Google and To build a fire by Jack London was one of the first. I must confess that I’ve never read any London, but this had me hooked right from the beginning.

It’s about a man walking through the icy Yukon trail with his dog; the dog is immediately aware of the danger of traipsing through the wilderness in this climate:

“The dog did not know anything about temperatures. Possibly in its brain there was no understanding of a condition of very cold, such as was in the man’s brain. But the animal sensed the danger.”

I really liked the way London makes you identify with the dog, as if it should be he who was the master over the man. This can be seen in the way the man is first described:

“The trouble with him was that he was not able to imagine. He was quick and ready in the things of life, but only in the things, and not in their meanings. Fifty degrees below zero meant 80 degrees of frost.”

The man who, as a newcomer in this part of the world ignores the advice of the locals; that any hike in the icy weather should be done as a pair. It isn’t long before the man, who is making good ground (and getting a little cocky) accidentally submerges his foot in the freezing water.

Due to the temperature, the man needs to light a fire to thaw his body before continuing on his journey. But alas, his hands are frozen. The rest of the story focusses on the mans fight between life and death.

Does he make it? Read it here, It’s a very well written, quick read!!

Best part

I really like the advice given at the beginning by an old man well versed in the climate of that region. The advice is re-visited throughout the story:

“He remembered the advice of the old man on Sulphur Creek, and smiled. The man had been very serious when he said that no man should travel alone in that country after 50 below zero.”

This novel was really interesting, and I flew through the first three quarters of the book. The mystery surrounding the disappearance of Harriet Vanger was addictive to read; I couldn’t predict what was coming next.

Brilliant.

However, after the mystery was solved and the novel slowed down my interest began to wane slightly and I struggled to the end.

The death of Larsson is very strange indeed. In the novel the old man Vanger is hospitalised when he suffers a heart attack.

After doing a bit of research on Steig Larsson I discovered that after he’d delivered the millennium trilogy to his publisher, the lift for his office was broken so he had to walk up eight flights of stairs and sadly had a heart attack. What a shame that is; he had planned a few more in the millennium series.

I have the next in the series sitting on my book shelf waiting to be read. I might read a short novel from a different author first just to break things up a bit. First book of the year done; I hope there is many more to follow.

Rating – 8/10