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Orts: Stories, Essays, and Things So Short They May Be Poems
A collection of writings from a man on the verge of personhood, culling the best from his past four years of writing privately and semi-publicly--or as he would describe it, "Shouting into the listenerless abyss of the Internet." In this collection, topics range from oddball sci-fi stories to deeply personal essays, all of which revolve around the themes of disconnection and technology, which have evolved together in our modern times. These feelings of loneliness and fast-paced modernity characterize the essential existential crisis of the 21st Century, and deserve at least a light poking and prodding. Cresswell attempts herein to knead some conclusions from them.
216 pages, Paperback
First published September 5, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 23, 2013
For some reason, this did not save my review -- so here goes again.
First of all -- conflict of interest disclosure -- the author is my son. That being said -- I am probably his toughest critic -- but I will try to be fair and unbiased,
I was surprised ( pleasantly, I should add!!) when he wrote this -- mainly because I had not realized how interested in writing he was. He writes well and engages the reader -- even though many of the pieces are short vignettes. He shows a keen sense on observation and writes about people and situations giving these details and usually a humorous twist.
Many people probably won't know that Rich got his MA in Psychology in May and worked for a while with emotionally disturbed kids in a Child Guidance Center. I suspect that many of his stories in the "Mental Health" section such as Obsessive Compulsions, Narcissism, The Concrete Child, Paranoia, Depression, Attention Deficit, Sense of Self, Oppositional Defiance, Triskaidekophobia ( you have to read it to know what this means!!) and The Eaten Word (don't ask -- but I am sure you can guess!!) are based on some of these experiences and his education.
This is a good first book -- I hope he produces more. He could certainly take some of the vignettes in this book and expand on them further. But he also probably has a lot of ideas on other topics to write about.
First of all -- conflict of interest disclosure -- the author is my son. That being said -- I am probably his toughest critic -- but I will try to be fair and unbiased,
I was surprised ( pleasantly, I should add!!) when he wrote this -- mainly because I had not realized how interested in writing he was. He writes well and engages the reader -- even though many of the pieces are short vignettes. He shows a keen sense on observation and writes about people and situations giving these details and usually a humorous twist.
Many people probably won't know that Rich got his MA in Psychology in May and worked for a while with emotionally disturbed kids in a Child Guidance Center. I suspect that many of his stories in the "Mental Health" section such as Obsessive Compulsions, Narcissism, The Concrete Child, Paranoia, Depression, Attention Deficit, Sense of Self, Oppositional Defiance, Triskaidekophobia ( you have to read it to know what this means!!) and The Eaten Word (don't ask -- but I am sure you can guess!!) are based on some of these experiences and his education.
This is a good first book -- I hope he produces more. He could certainly take some of the vignettes in this book and expand on them further. But he also probably has a lot of ideas on other topics to write about.
March 7, 2014
This is an excellent first effort. What I enjoy the most is I can open this book to any page and visit a well written vignette for as long as it takes to commute to work. I don't want to finish it because it's the best way I've consumed prose in a long time.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews