Dennard Dayle

Everything Abridged: Stories from Dennard Dayle is an initially startling but ultimately satisfying trek through our unusual society, by way of alternative and speculative realities. Oh yeah, and some definitional one-liners.

My opening paragraph is a bit misleading. I mention the definitions, the dictionary aspect of the book, as almost a second thought. That may well have been the intention because it allows the power of some of those definitions to sink in without our being fully aware. Don't get me wrong, some of them did not work for me, but that is the nature of a long list of short items. But many of the ones that did work also gave me something to think about, often from a new perspective.

The stories are sometimes humorous, sometimes head-scratching, but each one works once you invest in the premise. These really are stories that can be enjoyed as short works of fiction as well as thought about as social commentary. It is in that second aspect that I think the format of the dictionary works particularly well. Whether any of the entries around each short story are intended to be explicit commentary on it, readers, or at least this one, are compelled to try to make connections. Through that act we are indeed thinking about what each story as well as the definitions mean. Put more bluntly, we are compelled to think, and active reading always leaves a more lasting impression.

While I might hesitate to recommend this to some friends who seem to hate anything even remotely outside the norm I would enthusiastically recommend this to almost everyone else. The stories are good as stories and the structure of the book serves, I think, to make the experience more active.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.… (altro)