Rate this book

Immortality

Name: Immortality (And Other Short Stories)
Rating: 4 (11 reviews)
ISBN: 9781482611748

Josh Barkey

Rate this book

The twenty-two short stories in this collection are at turns tragic, funny, cringe-worthy, transcendent, and more. But though they range widely in content and scope, they are unified in this affirmation: that life, despite its inherent and inevitable tragedies, is beautiful.

194 pages, Paperback

First published March 19, 2013

13 people are currently reading

42 people want to read

About the author

Josh Barkey

8 books13 followers

Josh Barkey was raised from diapers to diploma in the Amazon Basin of Peru, South America. He then paid for an English degree by sticking hundreds of thousands of baby trees into Canadian dirt, and now lives in a shed in North Carolina, arranging words into stories and screenplays.

What do you think?

Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars

18 (43%)

4 stars

9 (21%)

3 stars

11 (26%)

2 stars

2 (4%)

1 star

1 (2%)

Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews

John

57 reviews19 followers

May 6, 2013

The short story as a genre is sometimes a hard one to define. It has been classified by some as an apprenticeship form preceding more lengthy works, and by others as a crafted form in its own right. In either case, one can only hope that this is the author's launchpad to more.

Josh Barkey's Immortality (And Other Short Stories) is a fascinating collection of twenty-two tales that manage to cover a wide array of topics and geographic locations, and his characters are memorable in their own right. In these tales we meet Jono as he confronts a horsefly in a most surprising way. We encounter a very profane parrot with one particular repeated word, along with its owner. There's Thurman Bellweather, a grizzled man of fifty-nine, who goes through a surprising metamorphosis of sorts on a September morning. We meet Kurt, the fierce tiger hunter at the age of ten, and then there's Paddington, propped on a corner shelf, in his second life when most bears only got one.

Immortality - Cover

Josh Barkey's debut work, in twenty-two short stories

Author Barkey's characters come to life with his descriptions, and the title story 'Immortality' is a good sendoff to this collection, right from the beginning. In 'Fear: a Love Story' we encounter Madeleine Beauregard, a confident woman from outward appearances, but with her own inner fears. It's the way that the author puts together descriptions that bring the reader back to read certain passages over and again, as can be seen here:

"Madeleine was thirty-one, and possessed of librarian good looks and a breezy savoir-faire that could easily drive a man to distraction... and often did. She wouldn’t exactly be called a raving beauty—not exactly—but there was a voluptuous, organic wildness about her that spoke the kind of promises that men find irresistible. As a result, there were many men who pursued her, and Madeleine fell quickly into and out of love."

The story with Samuel Lawrence and his taxi tide is another excellent example:

"Samuel was used to the sharp, blowing wind in the hills around his snug, North Carolina home. But here, somehow, in the narrowed steel-and-glass canyons of New York City--in the crush and press and frenetic pace of all these human stories--the wind took on a more frantic, insistent tone. It had a scent jarringly discordant to that of his home, and seemed to him imbued with an animal desperation, lifted and carried from the charging lives of the people bustling all around."

There's more to this tale of love in a taxi, but without leaving any spoilers, as the author stated through one of the characters: "This was theater. Everyday, New York theater."

Immortality is one of those books that, at 195 pages, left this reader wishing that there were more. Had first encountered Josh Barkey, a gifted author, budding screenplay writer, and artist, on his blog, josh barkey (dot com), which he describes as "a journey in words and pictures... one magic lie at a time." But in this book, there is both rhyme and reason to the way the way that he has organized the stories found on these pages. It should also be noted that the author illustrated the book cover, and as you read it, you'll understand better its clever meaning.

This debut book, in twenty-two short stories, is highly recommended, as noted in my original review of this title.

Immortality (And Other Short Stories) by Josh Barkey

Ionia

1,471 reviews73 followers

May 30, 2013

So, I am really bad about judging things before I get the chance to read them and this book was no exception to that rule. When I heard the words 'short stories' I somewhat expected rather boring collections of random, unfinished thoughts. This was not the case at all with "immortality."

Along with a memorable cast of characters that you just can't help but become involved with, the author has included a wide variety of topics. Each story is unique and it is so easy to revel in them that you hate to see each one end. The only fault I could find with this book is that you don't want to stop reading it once you have begun.

There are some incredibly well crafted phrases in these stories, things that you wish to print and hang in frames as quotes for others to read. Such as "She had long found comfort in the oak's rumbling paternalism, an amusing steadiness anchoring her fiery demeanor."

You know you have discovered a gifted author when you look at the clock one moment and it is a certain time and then you look again and it is past dinnertime and you have nearly finished the book you are holding. I really am very impressed. If you like short stories, or even if you don't, but you wish to read some excellent writing, give this book a try. You won't be sorry that you did.

Josh Barkey

Author 8 books13 followers

April 16, 2013

I gave this book five stars because I know it better than any book I've ever read, and I still very much like it. I wrote it with my own fingers, though, so it's probably best to take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Leah

6 reviews

May 1, 2013

Barkey's stories participate in replenishing a love for life by niggling at the heart, awakening an impulse to live courageously in the midst of disappointments, outrage, and tragedy. Among my many favorites in this book are Epiphany, Into That Good Night, Last Dance, and The Apple and the Oak. I highly recommend this book!

Sri Indah

1 review

January 15, 2018

This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.

Premiumpromocodes

1 review

Read

September 27, 2020

After a borrower has obtained a mortgage they have the option of taking on a second mortgage if more money is needed. private morgage lenders

Grady

Author 51 books1,823 followers

May 5, 2013

A marriage of art and words: Introducing a mature craftsman

So much of what IMMORTALITY: Meditations on the beauty of this finite life is right in front of us, on the cover, in the art - which happens also to be the work of the writer (Josh Barkey is an accomplished satirical painter and draughtsman with gifts that have only begun to gestate): a man/boy sits on the edge of a high cliff, head bowed in frustration, while in one hand he holds a string attached to a floating anvil (in his original art the floating anvil includes a paused riding butterfly) - inconsistencies, dissonances, paradoxes, and a touch of madness.

What happens in this little miracle of a debut is the discovery of Josh Barkey, a young imaginative iconoclast who has such a fine way with words that each of these twenty two stories - in some ways related to the fact that despite the bumps in the road, the fleeting moments of incivility, the occasional kick to the gonads - is another way of affirming that Life is beautiful.
In his initial title story (which feels more than a bit autobiographical) about two immigrants from Peru who find work in Vancouver planting trees: `Something about it clicked for Joey...The raw, unmitigated communion with the wild woods. The daily battle against the land, the sky, and most of all, himself. It was like he was born to put trees in the ground. Joey sank into that world. He `became' planting.' Something about the strange occupation, the words, the comma placement makes us think there is joy here. But as is so often the manner in which Barkey opens a story, the real message is in the first sentence: `Nobody ever blamed me for it, but love can kill you just as quick as anything. He [Joey] was there, after all, because of me.'

His topics range, from a very strange reunion of old friends in `A Thinly-Veiled Gray', a very brief but pungent story `The Hookup' in which a farming culture family is given a computer - and that changes everything about destiny, in `Perspective' the process of dying (`death always comes as an ugly lonely lie') is explored and includes the life of a lizard, a kestrel's movements, and God, and in `When Twice Again They Died' we follow the path of a teddy bear Paddy passed from first boy owner to next boy owner that speaks volumes about father son relationships. And Barkey can even write himself into a corner, obviously: in `Thurman Bellwether and the Morning Paper' he ends a rather impossible story with a courtroom statement in which our main character states `I have been thinking, your Honor, and ladies and gentlemen of the jury. Thinking deep, and hard. And you know what? I have concluded that all of this is happening to me because of a man named Joshua Lawrence Barkey. And do you know what else? I don't believe he exists. In fact, this story is OVER!'

How many authors can get away with that? That, among countless other reasons, is why it is so fine to meet Josh Barkey, a model-handsome, witty, wholly artistic and yet down to earth philosopher. Catch him on his video, look at his paintings and drawings, and then step back into this very fine collection of short stories and soak them up again. This, fellow readers, is a gifted man! Watch him grow.

Grady Harp

Kath Middleton

Author 23 books158 followers

February 28, 2014

This is a very good collection of short stories, heavily influenced by the author's time spent planting trees in Canada as part of the reforestation programme. There are some stories of the tough life there, but others on varied topics are thought provoking or amusing.

The stories vary in length but all are well written and gripping. A great book to get your teeth into.

Sami Khan

1 review

Read

November 6, 2019

Custom Packaging Boxes Products
Here are some design ideas of the products where you can take inspirations from and let us work
with your added instructions. We would always maximize the value of the product.
Custom Packaging Boxes