What do you think?
Rate this book
Attemptations: Short, Long and Longer Stories
Imagine you're given the startling news that your body is only capable of having six more orgasms. "It's either buck up or fuck up," decides Mel in "Six Degrees of Altered Sensation," adding this new restraint to the perplexity of single life with progressive Multiple Sclerosis. In "Flickering," Francis becomes a pyromaniac in order to give her grown sons the opportunity to become heroes. Mundane directions for propane use parallel a brief sizzling affair in "Dick & Jane & the Barbecue and No, It's Not a Love Story."
Altered and twisted realities make the impossible possible for Clark's characters. Lillian, an arthritic senior in "Solitaire," discovers the rejuvenating properties of the bones of her lively, young new neighbour. Looming dementia is replaced by ravenous desire. In "Split Ends" a woman finds a book that contains her own memories, but it is written by a stranger with the same name; in "No U's," a woman slips away through the mail slot to escape her stagnant life.
Ranging from micro-fiction to near maxi-fiction, the stories in Attemptations are peopled by women, often physically challenged women--darkly humorous, feisty, sexy, manic, persevering, observant, contemplative women. These characters will snag you and hold you there 'til they're good and done.
Altered and twisted realities make the impossible possible for Clark's characters. Lillian, an arthritic senior in "Solitaire," discovers the rejuvenating properties of the bones of her lively, young new neighbour. Looming dementia is replaced by ravenous desire. In "Split Ends" a woman finds a book that contains her own memories, but it is written by a stranger with the same name; in "No U's," a woman slips away through the mail slot to escape her stagnant life.
Ranging from micro-fiction to near maxi-fiction, the stories in Attemptations are peopled by women, often physically challenged women--darkly humorous, feisty, sexy, manic, persevering, observant, contemplative women. These characters will snag you and hold you there 'til they're good and done.
176 pages, Paperback
First published September 30, 2011
1 person is currently reading
2 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 26, 2012
The shot startles me. I turn automatically. Start running back. I’m thinking, if she isn’t dead, the second blast could be for me, for what I have that she doesn’t.
I wish I had not gone back. I wish I could remember her the way she was when I first laid eyes on her, sitting in the spring sun, thin straps, bathed in yellow. She was waiting for me, the first blast a fading echo as I rounded the shed. She placed the pistol in her mouth. Slowly squeezed the trigger. Everything out of sight and out of reach.
***
Attemptations, the first book of short fiction from BC’s Kim Clark, is a darkly comic collection of nine sharp, economical, and often melancholy stories. Using a loose, length-driven hierarchy, Attemptations quickly builds from short stories of only a few pages, to a pair of almost novella-length narratives to close out the collection.
With a punctuated style and tone similar to Carolyn Black’s The Odious Child, Kim Clark’s stories offer up a darker slice of individuality. Her characters are universally flawed, often with physical manifestations to their idiosyncrasies. Often times employing an extraneous narrative mechanic (barbeque instructions, medical terminology, and deliberately repetitive—and manipulative—nomenclature), the stories in Attemptations are quite deliberately structured; Clark’s writing is organized and neat, leaving little to chance, as noted in the lovely play on words detailed in the final sentence of the passage quoted at the start of this review—taken from the third tale in the collection, “Mr. Everything.”
Though Attemptations starts strong (the aforementioned “Mr. Everything” is an early standout), it stumbles a bit in its middle section with a trio of stories—“Lucky Strike”, “Flickering”, and “Tangled Threads”—that are unfortunately bereft of strong characters or intriguing premises.
Following the slower-than-desired mid-section, the collection rebounds with “Aphylaxis”, and then hits its stride with the two longest pieces: “Solitaire” and “Six Degrees of Altered Sensation.” The latter, in particular, is the last strongest piece in the collection. The protagonist, Mel, who is suffering from Multiple Sclerosis, is witty, acerbic, and at times manically focused around the number six—six being her placement on the Kurtzke Expanded Disability Status Scale, the number of fingers on one hand of Marvin, a man she’s attracted to, and the number of orgasms she’s expected to have before she loses all sensation to her disability. In Mel’s own words:
Again, I ready myself—get a little dolled up. Between hair and makeup, I text the mystery texter with three quick before-I-change-my-mind messages, allowing for slightly more honesty than I can muster with friends, acquaintances, or medical professionals.
recruiting volunteers to have sex with hot disabled chick
position open immediately
sliding pay scale
Attemptations is a strong first collection for Kim Clark. Though some of the stories lack the polish of the first few and of the two novella-length narratives, the quality of this collection is readily apparent.
I wish I had not gone back. I wish I could remember her the way she was when I first laid eyes on her, sitting in the spring sun, thin straps, bathed in yellow. She was waiting for me, the first blast a fading echo as I rounded the shed. She placed the pistol in her mouth. Slowly squeezed the trigger. Everything out of sight and out of reach.
***
Attemptations, the first book of short fiction from BC’s Kim Clark, is a darkly comic collection of nine sharp, economical, and often melancholy stories. Using a loose, length-driven hierarchy, Attemptations quickly builds from short stories of only a few pages, to a pair of almost novella-length narratives to close out the collection.
With a punctuated style and tone similar to Carolyn Black’s The Odious Child, Kim Clark’s stories offer up a darker slice of individuality. Her characters are universally flawed, often with physical manifestations to their idiosyncrasies. Often times employing an extraneous narrative mechanic (barbeque instructions, medical terminology, and deliberately repetitive—and manipulative—nomenclature), the stories in Attemptations are quite deliberately structured; Clark’s writing is organized and neat, leaving little to chance, as noted in the lovely play on words detailed in the final sentence of the passage quoted at the start of this review—taken from the third tale in the collection, “Mr. Everything.”
Though Attemptations starts strong (the aforementioned “Mr. Everything” is an early standout), it stumbles a bit in its middle section with a trio of stories—“Lucky Strike”, “Flickering”, and “Tangled Threads”—that are unfortunately bereft of strong characters or intriguing premises.
Following the slower-than-desired mid-section, the collection rebounds with “Aphylaxis”, and then hits its stride with the two longest pieces: “Solitaire” and “Six Degrees of Altered Sensation.” The latter, in particular, is the last strongest piece in the collection. The protagonist, Mel, who is suffering from Multiple Sclerosis, is witty, acerbic, and at times manically focused around the number six—six being her placement on the Kurtzke Expanded Disability Status Scale, the number of fingers on one hand of Marvin, a man she’s attracted to, and the number of orgasms she’s expected to have before she loses all sensation to her disability. In Mel’s own words:
Again, I ready myself—get a little dolled up. Between hair and makeup, I text the mystery texter with three quick before-I-change-my-mind messages, allowing for slightly more honesty than I can muster with friends, acquaintances, or medical professionals.
recruiting volunteers to have sex with hot disabled chick
position open immediately
sliding pay scale
Attemptations is a strong first collection for Kim Clark. Though some of the stories lack the polish of the first few and of the two novella-length narratives, the quality of this collection is readily apparent.
January 23, 2012
A bright and fresh compilation of dark, humorous, and sometimes dirty shorter stories. Each work is packed with wit, wordplay and such depth of character that the reader cannot help but be swept into the minds and bodies of the women that await inside. Attemptations is electric--a sensory and sensuous experience for the reader--a collection that plays both the prude and the provocateur. Clark's first cover-to-cover publication is the modern face of fiction, an absolute must read.
October 28, 2012
Kim Clark's writing is luscious, lascivious, and brutally honest. This collection of short stories features strong-minded, determined women -- who know what they want and how to get it. The fact that these women inhabit degenerating bodies (i.e. Multiple Sclerosis) adds levity and desperation. And even orgasms!
November 25, 2011
Horrible.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews