This Nervous Breakdown Is Driving Me Crazy: A Collection of Short Stories - Hardcover

Reiner, Annie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0787107077 ISBN 13: 9780787107079

Publisher: Newstar Pr, 1996

Synopsis

Stories reveal what is really on people's minds beneath the surface of ordinary logic and common sense and delve into the unconscious motivations of the mind

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

Psychotherapist and children's author Reiner comes to dinner at the grownups' table, and brings along with her a repertoire of tall tales and shaggy-dog stories that might play well in the nursery but seem a trifle recherch‚ for the guests downstairs. The rhetoric of most of the 17 pieces here falls somewhere between surrealism and magical realism--anything but realism per se, which doesn't make much of an appearance anywhere in the volume. The narrative drift is easy to catch and frequently amusing, as in ``A Special Morning Report'' (which portrays the frustrations of a middle-aged man who finds every action of his day watched and reported on by the radio and TV news broadcasts) or ``Time and Again'' (which follows the confusions and anxieties that result from the reincarnation of a black woman from the South as a 17-year-old Connecticut preppie). Sometimes, however, the musty air of the writing workshop becomes a trifle overpowering, and results in pieces that seem more like five-finger exercises for the laptop than actual narratives in any recognizable sense. ``In My Own Words--by God'' is precisely that: a guest editorial (lament would be far too strong a word) by the author of the universe, who complains that his creation seems to have slipped from his control. ``Nietzsche Speaks'' introduces us to a semiliterate beautician who becomes suddenly erudite when drunk, and systematically turns herself into a dipsomaniac in order to finish a two-volume study of the German philosopher. And ``The Heisenbergs'' gives a brief history of the married couple by that name whose every action is surrounded by the deepest uncertainty. Low-cal and no fat throughout: There is some wit and real originality in Reiner's imagination, but all of her constructions seem to be enclosed around a single gimmick that becomes obvious in short order and holds no surprises and few insights thereafter. A three-ring circus filled with one-trick ponies. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly:

Reiner's (The Smallest Mouse in Town) first book for adults is a cleverly conceived collection of absurdist tales, in which characters find themselves suddenly plunged into fantastic, psychologically disruptive situations. In "In My Own Words?by God," the deity complains of the unbearable loneliness of monotheism and whiles away His empty hours by writing a self-help manual for dealing with unruly mortals. In "A Special Morning Report," Sam Daniels is driven mad as newscasters reveal the minutiae of his life to the public. The 16-year-old protagonist of "Leda July's Flight" leaves home, only to find herself painting portraits of friends who assume the same poses as her middle-class parents. Sometimes, Reiner's conceits are more tantalizing than her execution. "Time and Again" starts with a provocative premise: after 17 years of grieving for his deceased wife, Gerald, a successful black obstetrician, is flabbergasted when she returns to earth in the body of a white teenaged girl. But the story spins its wheels as Gerald alternates between bafflement and acceptance. If many of these tales read like outlines for Twilight Zones episodes or for Borges stories, they lack the razzle-dazzle of the former and the philosophical depth of the latter. But Reiner has a richly comic imagination and brings a refreshingly light touch to matters of metaphysical and emotional confusion. Author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Newstar Pr
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0787107077
• ISBN 13: 9780787107079
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 181