It took me an impossible amount of time to finish this goose bumping collection of short stories by Jennifer Fliss, released this July. Generally, it is a very bad sign when reading a book takes me more than a week, but it was not struggle I was fighting against in the case of As If She Had a Say, but my weakness trying to figure out the overwhelming amount of feelings stirred by every single story.
Creative developments of flash fiction formats, they are new and intellectually provocative both in form and in content, from the choice of the topics to the story journey. Like a match between a surrealistic painting with a dadaist prose - Jackie´s vagina projecting films, Notice of the Proposed Land Use Action, the small woman living in a fridge witnessing the disappearance of a couple story - trying to follow the anti-poetic bourgeoisie of the everyday life, There are feelings of disappearance and death and sudden separation and regrets, which are served raw, leaving the reader depleted of any further strength and mentally blocked for thinking about anything else.
This collection is one of the most fascinating, obsessive work of literature I´ve read this year. Sometimes told with the singsong of a fairy tale getting completely out of hand, sometimes echoing stories within the stories, As If She Had a Say is what art is expected to do: clean your inner chambers of your mind and give them a courageous magnifying glass to look beyond their narrow society glasses. It´s bold but frightening too.
Rating: 5 stars
Disclaimer: Book offered by the author in exchange for an honest review
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