Kit Anderson (1)

A collection of blah little short stories mostly bores but shows the talent of a promising newcomer.

Five of the tales are about a wandering wizard who is a caretaker for nature. His low-key adventures seem to be part of a comic book in one of the other stories, "The World's Biggest Ball of Twine." Three of the stories feature people listening to hypnotic, meditative narrations on a sleep app -- so, like, literal snoozers.

"The Basement" is the only story that really stood out for me as it show more explored an interesting metaphor for grief. And "Fallow" was sort of nice too as it reflected on agriculture's relationship with nature.

Many of these stories have previously appeared in mini-comics and were the basis for the author's MFA thesis.

FOR REFERENCE:

Contents: Quest I -- The Basement -- Wonders of the Lost City -- Sleep Tape: Country Lane -- Quest II -- Deep Breath -- Sleep Tape: Forest Walk -- Lookout Station -- Morning -- Hills -- Waves -- Quest III -- Fallow -- Wallpaper -- Weeds -- Quest IV -- Sleep Tape: At the Seaside -- Whump -- The World's Biggest Ball of Twine -- Ride -- Quest V -- Acknowledgments show less

Weeds is my favorite, weird and poignant with many ways to interpret it. I also liked The Biggest Ball of Twine for being emotional with minimum words.

The Wizard one was okay; spectators thinking him weird or projecting these huge adventures for him when he just simply lived a mundane life.