Short Stories Book Reviews

Atoms and Other Small Pieces is a short collection of fiction by author L. N. Nino, with the general theme of small details and the transition into horrible, deeply humanistic developments.

The first story, eponymous “Atoms,” compares and contrasts typical storytelling with the emotional existence of a non-sentient protagonist – a chemical compound – with the circumstances of a human tragedy; the second, “Debris,” centers on the story of a loveless mother-child relationship; the third, “Pennies,” ascribes itself an extended letter from a self-described philosopher of modern masculine virtue and creative genius who has fallen into difficult and unfair circumstances; […]

Infinite Ending: Ten Stories by Frank Marcopolos is the resulting book of a challenge to write a story a month over ten months. The ten stories follow two hikers on a long journey, a college baseball player assessing his prospects, erotica writers ruminating about the publishing business, a wounded soldier, and other tales where characters assess their present and future condition. By his own declaration in the foreword, these are “postmodern literary fiction,” not stories with high-concept premises or tidy endings.

These are rich quick-paced stories where not a lot happens, but still manages to be page-turning because of Marcopolos’ […]