Saïd Sayrafiezadeh latest collection of short stories, American Estrangement, takes the reader completely unprepared. I am identifying with the average, book lover reader, reading for pleasure, keen to new, but not always finding that new take that completely blows my mind. This intellectual challenge may come when I read novels, or theatre, but rarely through short stories. Until you write like Bora Chung. Or like Saïd Sayrafiezadeh.
His Brief Encounters with the Enemy was at a certain extent predictable, in the vein of the post-9/11 America. Well written, I agree, but the take was not unique and the tragi-comical cynicism expected, belonging to a certain (over) self-critical take on America. American Estrangement is exactly what estrangement is all about: separation - one one´s self, reality, meaning, life. There is a desenchentment of an existential nature. The bodies are displaced in a fake surrounding.
But if the ambiance may be a familiar surrounding, the ways of the 7 stories is a completely different level of talent, denying the danger of a potential predictable storyline. Hence, the effect of surprise, a pleasant intellectual challenge.
Saïd Sayrafiezadeh is a fine artist of the short story genre both in terms of the inspiration and the literary talent.
Rating: 5 (full) stars
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