Short Stories, Crimes, Cults and Curious Cats (Short Stories by Jonathan Day) - Softcover

Day, Jonathan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1906442460 ISBN 13: 9781906442460

Publisher: Dodo Books, 2016

Synopsis

Beware tin cats offering invitations, psychopathic chemists with a turret full of collectable porcelain, priests pursuing satanic cults, and evil entities living in windmills. Better to listen to the green spirit peering over your shoulder, the ghost of a young man with no heart, and Victorian palaeontologist who has unearthed the face of God. Dodo Books https://www.booksfromdodo.uk

About this title

About the Author

Jonathan Day is professor of transmedia arts at the Art Institute of Birmingham UK.

Review

Worth the money for the cover alone (a stunning combination of coloursenhancing an intricate design), but there's more on offer than just anice cover. The alliterative title gives the clue to the content,although I had the sense that the curious cats were slightly tacked onas an afterthought to the crimes and the cults. Jonathan Day writessharply and amusingly, with a nice line in wry/snide social comment that will raise more than the occasional smile, but he's also a giftedstory-teller - almost too gifted, really, for the chosen format, because so many of these stories feel as if they could (perhaps should) havebeen developed further - most contain enough material for a novella, ifnot a full-length novel. Although the style of writing is light andhumorous, some of the stories have serious subtexts (on occasion, thesubtexts threaten to subvert the actual narrative, as in "Behold, theFace of God", even though the twist in this, possibly one of the lessconvincing stories, is cleverly managed). The author's art andachievement is to combine fast-moving and entertaining narrative withthought-provoking reflection about a world (or worlds) that can prove to be nastier places than we'd ideally like them to be.

Waverley

Edition details

• Publisher: Dodo Books
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1906442460
• ISBN 13: 9781906442460
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 127