3:13 a.m.

by Soren Narnia

It is 3:13 a.m., and now the human imagination reaches out to places and yearnings that it shies away from during life's daylight hours of quiet desperation. The brief parables, random episodes, and emotional wanderings within these pages act as a repository of all that can be felt and dreamed when the night is dark, the soul is alone, and our thoughts become uncaged until the first blue of dawn ends the spell.

112 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2012

About the author

Soren Narnia's books are offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, meaning that anyone is free to adapt them as they see fit, even for profit, without the obligation to compensate the author.

Reviews

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first heard of Soren Narnia through his amazing fiction podcast, "Knifepoint Horror," which was on the /r/PNWS Podcast Recommendation List. It didn't occur to me until fairly recently to see if he had published those stories in book format. He has, but said book appears sadly to be out of print, so I bought this one instead.

On the Knifepoint website, Narnia describes his style as "[adhering] to the most primal element of storytelling: a single human voice describing events exactly as it experienced them." This was how 3:13 a.m. was written as well. Each of its very short stories - most of them under 1000 words - is structured as a confession or anecdote, brief enough to have been related in a conversation. As such, there is very little ornamentation. There are no titles, and every sentence is carefully crafted to convey as much depth as possible within a limited space. Narnia reminded me of Hemingway, though more contemplative in tone, with an almost ethereal air. Here is a sample:

Sitting there in the humid night, unable to sleep, he began to feel strange. All of the enormous changes he was going through seemed to suddenly collect in a heavy, unseen mass, blanketing his mind. It was all too much, too much. He felt half terrified, half exhilarated. The future, the past, and the present all swirled together, each unresolved, unsettled, as much a mystery as they ever were.

He tilted his head back and it all came crashing in then: his life, all of it, surrounding him, strangling him, and trying to free him. He sat perfectly suspended between profound sorrow and great happiness. He could not get up from the chair, could not open his eyes. A thunderstorm of confusion held him utterly immobile. His breathing was heavy. His hands opened and closed.

Most of the pieces initially appear quite pointless. They impart no message, are usually left open-ended, and sometimes even appear to have been lifted from a larger story with no context for the beginning or end. This is deliberate on Narnia's part. 3:13 a.m. is best described as a series of little meditations intended to evoke something within the reader, something that only comes in the quiet hours of deepest night.

And here I'm going to do the "YouTube music video" thing and wonder aloud why so many terrible writers like Dan Brown and E.L. James are topping the bestseller lists while Soren Narnia remains obscure!

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

3:13 a.m. is a collection of very short stories by a relatively unknown author, but one who deserves more attention. The majority of these stories are written very well, are thoughtful, engaging, and should each be savored in their own right. The longest of the stories is three pages long, with the majority of them being under one thousand words.

To be honest, with our society's current microwave-time crunch consumption of media, I'm surprised that more authors don't pursue this type of micro-fiction format for story-telling. I suspect it's that the short story is its own skill, and the ability to tell a narrative in a thousand words, or even less, is a challenge. Narnia proves that he is up to the task with this selection of bite-sized tales, and I hope that he releases a second volume of his late night contemplations.

The stories in this volume are entertaining, thought-provoking, and engaging. I recommend it for those seeking a change of pace, those seeking inspiration for their own writing, those who would enjoy a starting point for enjoyable discussion, and for those who enjoy a well told short story.

[Izabela · Rating 4 out of 5]

3:13 a.m. is a collection of short stories. Some of them are amazing, others aren't, but in general, I loved the style of writing. The details are incredible, even though the stories are three pages long, max. Soren Narnia paints a beautiful picture through most of them, sucking the reader in quickly with just a couple of lines. I only wish the stories had titles, so that I could critique the ones I liked (and didn't like) the most.

*Book won through Goodreads First Reads.

[Brian J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspiring and intimate collection of stories, seemingly simplistic yet profoundly complex.