Metrophilias

This may not be a book for everyone but I would enthusiastically recommend it to the more adventurous readers out there. It's at times exciting and disturbing. It's strange. It pulses. Brendan Connell jumps from city to city shining a bright light in the dark corners of human obsession. Connell playfully shifts between prose and poetry with ease. Thirty-six cities in all. Here's a taste of New York:

"A maggot heap millions strong a beast of glass and steel black pollutants puss. Taxis buzz bees on asphalt steaming miasma eyes mask not just for faces a city that wakes up early goes to bed late at night a great bed of burning coals."

Each city is a story. Each story is notably short. If you let it, show more [b:Metrophilias|7997919|Metrophilias|Brendan Connell|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1270771261s/7997919.jpg|12507565] will slip by much too fast. show less

It's not very consistent and often too self-consciously "arty" for its own good -- there's a fine line between being hurried because There's Simply Too Much To Get In In This Flash Fiction and just being hurried because you don't know what needs to be developed. Connell is most successful when he's more reliant on dialogue (the cannibal trial) or when he's focused on one particular image (ex. decapitated head, giant nose) and can let it marinate for a minute. It's not "good" overall but idk I read it on a short flight and I wasn't mad

Let me start by saying this book is the most bold I've read in a while. I liked that, I really did. It deals with a part of the human psyche that is very dark and taboo. While short, the story is in no way a "light read". The stories are short, yet compelling and well told.

This book is not for everyone. Don't get me wrong, everyone can try it. But some of the stories made me cringe or flinch at some point. Not all, just some. The stories don't linger too much on unnecessary details, which is very good, because it doesn't stray from it's purpose: showing the darker side of humans. I loved the different settings, because it gave more meaning to the idea that anyone, anywhere can have any type of obsession.

I also loved how the author show more managed to describe the feelings and emotion - both physical and psychological - of the main characters. Brendan Connell manages to get the reader inside the characters mind, making him feel the way the characters feel and maybe understand a little bit the nature of the obsession

I can't say it was the greatest book I've read this year, but I can say I loved it and I think anyone should at least try it. I can say it was the first fiction book I've read on this subject. I'm glad this was the first.

The book deserves 5 stars, but I felt the need for more on some of the stories. When I say more, I mean more exploration of some of the feelings of some characters, of some stories and obsessions. But I definitely loved this book. show less