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Kilter: 55 Fictions
"The enormous inventiveness of these 55 fictions offers the reader an emotional and intellectual gourmet feast."—2003 Giller Prize Jury.
A finalist for the 2003 Giller Prize, Canada's most prestigious literary award, Kilter is a subtle, funny, ironic, and startling chronicle of contemporary life, full of individuals catching odd glimpses of themselves—a young woman puzzles over the identity of her lost brother; a husband describes a sixteenth-century painting to explain his lover to his wife—and of big ideas working themselves out in strange but revealing ways—a dead man laments the suicide note he failed to write; a wife and husband disagree about the shape of the semen stain on their son's pajamas, he seeing it as an image of Jesus, she as the image of her dog as a puppy.
John Gould has updated and westernized the form of the palm-of-the-hand story, invented eighty years ago by Yasunari Kawabata, who wanted a way to write a fiction writer's poetry. In spare, elegant prose, Gould crafts quirky gems, compact fusions of humor and pathos. At the center of this multifaceted collection is a vision of human beings as paradoxical creatures, finite and haunted by infinite longings. In story after story, Gould locates the fulcrum on which a life tilts from kilter to off-kilter and back again.
A finalist for the 2003 Giller Prize, Canada's most prestigious literary award, Kilter is a subtle, funny, ironic, and startling chronicle of contemporary life, full of individuals catching odd glimpses of themselves—a young woman puzzles over the identity of her lost brother; a husband describes a sixteenth-century painting to explain his lover to his wife—and of big ideas working themselves out in strange but revealing ways—a dead man laments the suicide note he failed to write; a wife and husband disagree about the shape of the semen stain on their son's pajamas, he seeing it as an image of Jesus, she as the image of her dog as a puppy.
John Gould has updated and westernized the form of the palm-of-the-hand story, invented eighty years ago by Yasunari Kawabata, who wanted a way to write a fiction writer's poetry. In spare, elegant prose, Gould crafts quirky gems, compact fusions of humor and pathos. At the center of this multifaceted collection is a vision of human beings as paradoxical creatures, finite and haunted by infinite longings. In story after story, Gould locates the fulcrum on which a life tilts from kilter to off-kilter and back again.
205 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2003
6 people are currently reading
146 people want to read
About the author
John Gould
3 books16 followersJohn Gould is the author of two collections of very short stories, Kilter, which was shortlisted for the 2003 Giller Prize and won the Mary Scorer Award (for the best book by a Manitoba publisher), and The Kingdom of Heaven. His fiction has also appeared in chapbooks, and in periodicals across the country. He publishes occasional freelance nonfiction.
John studied at the innovative Integrated Studies program at the University of Waterloo, where he holds a Bachelor degree. He has worked as an environmental researcher, a tree planter and a house framer. More recently he has turned to teaching fiction, and to coordinating arts programs. He co-created and ran the otherwords program at the BC Festival of the Arts, and is now the Executive Director of the Victoria School of Writing. He serves on the Editorial Board of the Malahat Review.
His first novel, Seven Good Reasons Not to Be Good, was published in 2010.
John studied at the innovative Integrated Studies program at the University of Waterloo, where he holds a Bachelor degree. He has worked as an environmental researcher, a tree planter and a house framer. More recently he has turned to teaching fiction, and to coordinating arts programs. He co-created and ran the otherwords program at the BC Festival of the Arts, and is now the Executive Director of the Victoria School of Writing. He serves on the Editorial Board of the Malahat Review.
His first novel, Seven Good Reasons Not to Be Good, was published in 2010.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 15, 2012
exchange present from Jen (in xchange for my book 'Doreen'). Thanks jen, enjoying..
These well written pieces, usually featuring couples, long married or just starting out, are odd mixtures of sex and philosophy/religion. The sex (I know you want to hear about this first) is often about fertility and barrenness/abortion. In one story a man is sought out for his ability to impregnate and one of his 'clients' thinks it might be the next big thing. There's no magazine dedicated to us yet - Knock-Up? - no website, no secret society. But just wait....“up until now perversity has meant unreproductive sex, barren sex,” she says. “Oral, anal, auto, homo, phone. Cyber. Sadomasochistic..”. The mix with philosophy comes in sentences like To procreate is to vanish. (Which the couple go on to disprove). There are (mainly men) thinking back to first love/sex and its lasting obsessions.
As for religion, a strain of Buddhism runs throughout - someone in the elevator (lift UK people) reminds the protagonist of Nagarjuna, the second century Buddhist whose point of view exhausted all points of view. In another story a teacher proves the existence of God via the Cartesian method - if we can conceive Him, He must exist. (I've never bought that, therefore dragons exist?). There are sentences like For light there’s no such thing as time (a son says to his dying father).
Although some of this is brain-hurting, it is always fascinating and always rooted in the day-to-day of 'ordinary'lives (although many here are academics/teachers). A lot of it is funny. This is the opening to 'The Perfection of the Moment':
Note to self: Next time you're walking alone at night on a deserted downtown street lined with darkened shops and some drunken goon leans out of a pickup truck shouting "Hey faggot!" do not blow him a kiss. Consider these alternate course of actions: Pray. Play deaf. Pull out your keys and approach the nearest door...
So, not what I normally get from flash fiction, but all the better for that, it proves that you can do so much in such a short space. If I may get philosophical and Blake-ian for a second - the world in a grain of sand.
These well written pieces, usually featuring couples, long married or just starting out, are odd mixtures of sex and philosophy/religion. The sex (I know you want to hear about this first) is often about fertility and barrenness/abortion. In one story a man is sought out for his ability to impregnate and one of his 'clients' thinks it might be the next big thing. There's no magazine dedicated to us yet - Knock-Up? - no website, no secret society. But just wait....“up until now perversity has meant unreproductive sex, barren sex,” she says. “Oral, anal, auto, homo, phone. Cyber. Sadomasochistic..”. The mix with philosophy comes in sentences like To procreate is to vanish. (Which the couple go on to disprove). There are (mainly men) thinking back to first love/sex and its lasting obsessions.
As for religion, a strain of Buddhism runs throughout - someone in the elevator (lift UK people) reminds the protagonist of Nagarjuna, the second century Buddhist whose point of view exhausted all points of view. In another story a teacher proves the existence of God via the Cartesian method - if we can conceive Him, He must exist. (I've never bought that, therefore dragons exist?). There are sentences like For light there’s no such thing as time (a son says to his dying father).
Although some of this is brain-hurting, it is always fascinating and always rooted in the day-to-day of 'ordinary'lives (although many here are academics/teachers). A lot of it is funny. This is the opening to 'The Perfection of the Moment':
Note to self: Next time you're walking alone at night on a deserted downtown street lined with darkened shops and some drunken goon leans out of a pickup truck shouting "Hey faggot!" do not blow him a kiss. Consider these alternate course of actions: Pray. Play deaf. Pull out your keys and approach the nearest door...
So, not what I normally get from flash fiction, but all the better for that, it proves that you can do so much in such a short space. If I may get philosophical and Blake-ian for a second - the world in a grain of sand.
May 1, 2018
I’m guessing that the title implies the phrase “off kilter.” These 55 vignettes don’t follow the typical length and structure of short stories. They’re only 1-3 pages on average, and their content seems designed to subvert reader expectations as unusual, uncomfortable, and sometimes incomprehensible moments in time are revealed. Well-written and developed despite their brevity, but for my tastes some selections felt too abstract and experimental (perhaps the word is “post-modern”?) Worth a read if you’re looking for something unique and are satisfied with many unanswered questions — and the occasional WTF? moment.
April 9, 2024
A good collection, and I'm glad to have read it, but I don't think it will have sticking power for me. These stories are super short (2-3 pages each) so character and setting aren't concerns. The brevity of poetry is here. And each story is a tipping-point moment - what would be the culmination of a longer story. It's the moment things go off-kilter. Most of the stories leave a sense that things are about to change, or maybe already have.
Without character or setting though - it's hard for these to stick. I'm left with more of an emotional tone of upheaval or truth laid bare, than any specific plots or outcomes. Like poems, these stories might unfold more upon re-read.
Without character or setting though - it's hard for these to stick. I'm left with more of an emotional tone of upheaval or truth laid bare, than any specific plots or outcomes. Like poems, these stories might unfold more upon re-read.
December 13, 2019
A collection illustrating the range and potential of flash fictions. Neither personal narratives nor free form poetry, these little bonbons, stories of 4 pages or fewer, should not be devoured all at once, though.
December 25, 2021
I'm sure that it's a decent book, but I can not get into short stories. Every year I try one or two short story collections and still don't like them. This one was far too think-y and made me feel like I was missing the point on every story.
July 17, 2013
Ah... off-kilter you will be after these dolmas of insight as well as delight. Fifty-five distinct flavours and textures, a seasoned essence of narrative, offered to marinate your tongue. Rich snippets of the mundane open in a banquet of aperitifs. Count on a concentrated richness. Each bite guaranteed to leave you fulfilled. It takes talent to say more with less.
August 18, 2007
Very, very short stories (they're a spin on "Palm of the Hand Stories"), none longer than four pages, some of which are extraordinary. I read this book very slowly because I didn't want it to end.
August 23, 2008
Master of the small moment! Fantastic collection! Highly recommend!
September 7, 2009
I liked the stories, but my attention/patience span isn't tolerant enough to get through all of them.
March 31, 2011
55 fictions in one thin paperback? A great example of tight writing, no words a-wasting.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews