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Use Your Imagination
A woman becomes obsessed with a story about her family from 1890—when a naked, mute girl stumbled onto their property—and whether or not it really happened. A self-help guru and his chief strategist take their most affluent and unstable clients on a harrowing nature hike that destroys their company. A young convict in a prison creative writing class chronicles the rise and fall of his cellblock’s resident peacemaker. A rural neighbourhood is mesmerized by the coming of a strange and powerful new homeowner who is in the middle of reinventing herself.
The stories of Use Your Imagination! are about stories, about the way we define and give shape to ourselves through all kinds of narratives, true or not. In seven long stories, Kris Bertin examines the complex labyrinth of lies, delusions, compromise, and fabrication that makes up our personal history and mythology. Sometimes funny, strange, or frightening, these stories represent Bertin’s follow-up to his critically acclaimed, award-winning debut, Bad Things Happen.
269 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 31, 2019
4 people are currently reading
67 people want to read
About the author
Kris Bertin
10 books65 followersKris Bertin is a writer of from Halifax, NS. His first book of short stories, BAD THINGS HAPPEN, won the Writers' Union of Canada's 2017 Danuta Gleed Award and the ReLit Award for short fiction. Kris's graphic novel (illustrated by Alexander Forbes) THE CASE OF THE MISSING MEN, published in 2017 by Conundrum Press, was nominated for a Doug Wright Award.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
June 13, 2019
Use Your Imagination! is a short story collection that very immediately put me in mind with Denis Johnson’s Jesus’ Son, both because the majority of the stories deal with misfits behaving badly––or just strangely––and because they’re built upon a solid foundation of exceptional writing. This is happily one of those cases where the why of it all readily comes across. Bertin focuses on small details with a precision I don’t recall seeing so strongly since reading Sean Michaels’ Us Conductors, and this makes the people and the world described come alive. He’s also adept at expressing straightforward ideas that ring true, making the stories reek with sincerity. (Contrast this against Stephen Markley’s Ohio or Liz Harmer’s The Amateurs, that became bogged down from the attempt to do too much and do it too big.) And Bertin knows how to direct readers, throwing us off the scent of important details without actually hiding them and cultivating an effective and meaningful surprise as a result.
While I understand that it’s still early in the life of this book at the time of writing this, the few reviews on Goodreads haven’t been especially kind to it. It feels tragic that a book that so thoroughly impressed me is being met with such vague and petty criticism, mainly because I worry that readers will give it a pass because it doesn’t look like anything special. But I hope I can push back even just a little bit with a suggestion that Use Your Imagination! is something special, because it really is.
While I understand that it’s still early in the life of this book at the time of writing this, the few reviews on Goodreads haven’t been especially kind to it. It feels tragic that a book that so thoroughly impressed me is being met with such vague and petty criticism, mainly because I worry that readers will give it a pass because it doesn’t look like anything special. But I hope I can push back even just a little bit with a suggestion that Use Your Imagination! is something special, because it really is.
March 13, 2019
"Tell me more." Those are the chilling final words of the last story, "Missy's Story" in this solid collection of short fiction from Kris Bertin. I wanted more. Full review here: http://bit.ly/useyourimaginationreview
October 19, 2019
Bertin skillfully creates worlds I'm glad I don't live in. Most of them make me want to take a shower after reading. The last in the collection "Missy's Story" is exceptional - examines how we change the stories that are handed down to us and how they, in return, change us.
May 30, 2019
Don't people get that each new Kris Bertin thing is the part of an inevitable, greater whole that you can kind of get a sense of but could never guess at? There's nobody like him and he should be encouraged and protected.
April 18, 2019
This is a collection of short stories surrounding how the narratives we tell affect our identities, and how an unreliable narrator can warp history. They each surround a person telling somebody else’s story and how it interlinks with their own. As we never get a first hand perspective from these people, we have to take the narrators’ word for it and consequently, the book is steeped in intrigue.
Admittedly, some of the stories fell short for me – particularly the one about the two comedian friends, one of whom has cancer, and the one about the self-help guru. The first one fell short, because I felt it was attempting to make a bad situation exciting and edgy, with the bumblebee and the cake, and it didn’t feel realistic to me. The story about the guru felt stale, and again edgy without reason. The part where Grant removes Turbo’s prosthetic hands felt unnecessary as it did nothing to further the plot. This was also the story that took me the longest to read and I felt, the way it was told, it became anti-climatic when it ought to have been shocking.
On the other hand, there were some strong stories within the collection. I would say the one set in the prison was my favourite as we witness firsthand what a master manipulator can be capable of. The use of a letter from the creative writing teacher at the beginning is incredibly effective, as it is showing how the main character can affect the people around him.
I also thoroughly enjoyed the story about the arrival of a new couple in a small town, because it had a Twin Peaks air about it. The original residents take pride in their town, and feel the new people are a threat. However, they are eventually sucked in by the woman’s charms, often to detrimental effect.
Bertin does not sugarcoat his writing, there are no flowery descriptions, he gets straight to the point. In some stories this worked well, making them feel gripping and tense. In others, though, it made them feel choppy and disjointed. Furthermore, some of his choice of language is distasteful. The example in the guru story mentioned above is one that made me uncomfortable. In the story about Cowan, a young boy named Holbrook is described as having “one of those deformed arms like a baked potato pushing out of his shoulder”, which is both ignorant and offensive.
Had these instances of ignorance surrounding disability been omitted or reworded, I would have given the book a solid three stars, as some of the stories do work well. However, because of the inclusion of these particular phrases, and the fact that some stories were quite a bit weaker, I chose to give the book as a whole a two stars.
Admittedly, some of the stories fell short for me – particularly the one about the two comedian friends, one of whom has cancer, and the one about the self-help guru. The first one fell short, because I felt it was attempting to make a bad situation exciting and edgy, with the bumblebee and the cake, and it didn’t feel realistic to me. The story about the guru felt stale, and again edgy without reason. The part where Grant removes Turbo’s prosthetic hands felt unnecessary as it did nothing to further the plot. This was also the story that took me the longest to read and I felt, the way it was told, it became anti-climatic when it ought to have been shocking.
On the other hand, there were some strong stories within the collection. I would say the one set in the prison was my favourite as we witness firsthand what a master manipulator can be capable of. The use of a letter from the creative writing teacher at the beginning is incredibly effective, as it is showing how the main character can affect the people around him.
I also thoroughly enjoyed the story about the arrival of a new couple in a small town, because it had a Twin Peaks air about it. The original residents take pride in their town, and feel the new people are a threat. However, they are eventually sucked in by the woman’s charms, often to detrimental effect.
Bertin does not sugarcoat his writing, there are no flowery descriptions, he gets straight to the point. In some stories this worked well, making them feel gripping and tense. In others, though, it made them feel choppy and disjointed. Furthermore, some of his choice of language is distasteful. The example in the guru story mentioned above is one that made me uncomfortable. In the story about Cowan, a young boy named Holbrook is described as having “one of those deformed arms like a baked potato pushing out of his shoulder”, which is both ignorant and offensive.
Had these instances of ignorance surrounding disability been omitted or reworded, I would have given the book a solid three stars, as some of the stories do work well. However, because of the inclusion of these particular phrases, and the fact that some stories were quite a bit weaker, I chose to give the book as a whole a two stars.
January 7, 2020
This is an excellent and well-written collection of short stories that explore the power of stories in shaping the self, manipulating others, and creating history. I found most these stories to be fascinating and insightful.
The title story, "Use Your Imagination" and "Name That Mean Spirit" examine how people can create narratives about themselves in order to gain sympathy and manipulate others. It made me really consider the power of stories and how those who write and speak control and manipulate narratives. This is obvious in the case of written history but it also made me think about the stories I tell about others and the stories people tell about me. There is a lot of power associated with telling other people's stories and I think I should be more conscious of giving voice to my own stories.
Many of the stories in this collection are told by a first person narrator who isn't named until much later into the story. This had the effect of making me forget about their presence as a character who is filtering the story, often as an unreliable narrator, and giving them the power of an authoritative voice.
Other stories such as "The Grand Self" and "Missy's Story" explore how people tell narratives to themselves to better cope with their own lives, as characters divert agency and responsibility onto others. Humans are constantly shaping themselves through stories that contradict and clash with one another as everyone struggles to bring their own sense of self into reality. I really enjoyed this collection and I'm going to take it as a personal reminder to give less power to other's stories and more to my own, though that probably wasn't Bertin's intention.
The title story, "Use Your Imagination" and "Name That Mean Spirit" examine how people can create narratives about themselves in order to gain sympathy and manipulate others. It made me really consider the power of stories and how those who write and speak control and manipulate narratives. This is obvious in the case of written history but it also made me think about the stories I tell about others and the stories people tell about me. There is a lot of power associated with telling other people's stories and I think I should be more conscious of giving voice to my own stories.
Many of the stories in this collection are told by a first person narrator who isn't named until much later into the story. This had the effect of making me forget about their presence as a character who is filtering the story, often as an unreliable narrator, and giving them the power of an authoritative voice.
Other stories such as "The Grand Self" and "Missy's Story" explore how people tell narratives to themselves to better cope with their own lives, as characters divert agency and responsibility onto others. Humans are constantly shaping themselves through stories that contradict and clash with one another as everyone struggles to bring their own sense of self into reality. I really enjoyed this collection and I'm going to take it as a personal reminder to give less power to other's stories and more to my own, though that probably wasn't Bertin's intention.
August 21, 2019
Bertin’s writing is somehow detailed while still feeling spare. Nothing feels cluttered, but the writing is vivid with characters that feel especially rich. There is something slightly odd and uncomfortable in each of the seven stories, and in stories like “The Calls”, about a brother phoning his sister, this strangeness adds an element of tension to otherwise familiar settings and circumstances. I think my favourite story was the eponymous “Use Your Imagination”, which tells the story of an incident in a jail through letters and a convict’s creative writing assignment. I’ll definitely be checking out more by Bertin.
November 2, 2020
It's impressive to see Kris cranking out yet another book of stories so soon after his first. These longer stories went down well enough, although I feel they focused heavily on telling and less so on showing. My favourites were: The Calls, Cowan and Missy's Story, in that order. The Calls had a way of revealing information bit by bit that increase the annoyance of the first person narrator until she could tolerate it no longer. The conclusion made a thorough case for tolerance as opposed to standing in judgement. It succeeded in having me identify with the sister, which resulted in a reassessment of my own beliefs about the 'questionable' behaviour of others.
May 25, 2019
While not a fan of the cover or title, I did find the contents more than compensated for any minor disappointments in that regard. Quite a few gems within this collection that compliment Bertin's direct and readable style very well. Even the stories that didn't quite hit the mark with me were well written.
Liked it.
With thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.
Liked it.
With thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.
April 21, 2019
This was a great collection of short stories. There were one or two that were not as good as the others, but that is to be expected with a collection of short stories. Overall, this was an enjoyable and quick read!
July 2, 2019
Kris Bertin's mastery of prose and insight into human behaviour is remarkable. I thought these stories were beautifully written and entirely unpredictable.
August 28, 2019
Probably my favourite book I’ve read so far this year. Some of the stories will require recovery time because they’re that good.
November 2, 2019
Good dark stories, congratulations Mr. Bertin! I particularly liked Name that Mean Spirit, The Grand Self and The Calls
February 28, 2021
Fresh and inventive, but also sometimes glib and heartless.
April 10, 2019
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you NetGalley.
i wish the book was available as a kindle book, rather than protected pdf. but that's not necessarily the author's thought.
the stories were interesting.. some fell short for me, but others were great.
i wish the book was available as a kindle book, rather than protected pdf. but that's not necessarily the author's thought.
the stories were interesting.. some fell short for me, but others were great.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews