Poetic prose

I have just finished reading Captives by Angela Meyer, a very sweet little book (literally too as it’s perfectly pocket-sized) that holds an entertaining selection of micro fiction.

The book is split into seven juxtaposed sections, such as On/Off, With/Without, Then/Now, with the exception of the last one headed Until.  Story length varies throughout as does focus, resulting in a kaleidoscope of beautiful snapshots that use almost poetic language to frame them.

In The day before the wedding, the opening piece, a woman “saw her love through a hood of dew and halted, her lungs dragging wet air” while in the very poignant Empty cradle, “the wind moaned and whistled through holes, filled with the whispers of fairy folk”.  One of my favourite examples of this delicious imagery can be found in Halloween in Atlanta, in which the protagonist recounts an acquaintance comparing their “episode” with the act of “scooping out – your thoughts like pumpkin mush”.

There is humour and loss, confusion and discovery, some will make you smile, others will make you think, any which way it is a wonderful first collection that warrants a read.