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StoryPeople, Collected Stories & Drawings of Brian Andreas Series #1
Mostly True: Collected Stories & Drawings
Brian Andreas is an artist, sculptor and storyteller, who works with new forms of human community. He uses traditional media from fine art, theatre, and storytelling, as well as the latest electronic technologies of virtual reality and the Web. His work is shown and collected internationally. Born in 1956 in Iowa City, Iowa, he holds a B.A. from Luther College, in Decorah, Iowa, and an M.F.A. in Fiber and Mixed Media from John F. Kennedy University in Orinda, California. He lives with his wife, Ellen Rockne, and their two wild and beautiful boys in the Midwest, where they make art and soup and stories as often as they can.
74 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 1993
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 63 reviews
June 30, 2018
the next time the demons come, he said,
just wave your penis at them.
I can’t do that, I said.
why not? he said.
well, I said finally. because I’m American.
(Page 16)
just wave your penis at them.
I can’t do that, I said.
why not? he said.
well, I said finally. because I’m American.
(Page 16)
May 17, 2011
I want Brian Andreas to live with me and narrate my entire life. Everything in these books is so beautiful and touching and sad, I can't get enough. I'm shocked to find it on Goodreads; the experience of reading the series is so intimate that I was nearly convinced I was the only person to have discovered them.
May 24, 2008
Brian Andreas is my favorite living artist hands down. He's a charming soccer dad kind of guy, but his simplistic drawings that go with what I find to be profoundly worded snippets of stories are soul stirring. His whole Story People series, both art prints and books, are another one of my "comfort zones"--I read them over and over to lift my spirits and remember the possibilites that surround us in everyday life.
October 25, 2007
I picked up my first Brian Andreas book quite a few years ago while in Minnesota with some friends. He calls it story telling but it's a mix of that, poetry, comedy, and if you really think about it, songwriting (although music isn't involved). Some of his stories remind me of things that children may innocently say. This is another one of those books that stays in my collection. This is a great book if you need to gain some perspective.
Read
January 1, 2026Ok this year I’m trying to remember more of the books I read w these reviews because in my Goodreads recap it felt really weird that I couldn’t remember the plots of some of the books I read less than a year ago. Anyways I’m glad this was the book to kick off my new year. I randomly pulled it from my parent’s bookshelf because the cover intrigued me, then I started flipping through it and the drawings also intrigued me so I read it/looked at the drawings (is there a word for that?) cover to cover and am already excited to re-read it. THEN my parents told me we’d had art from this author up on our walls for a while and my mind was blown remembering the specific piece and everything just clicked in a nostalgic way because now I’m seeing that art in a whole new light. These stories and drawings really felt like a spontaneous dream, and the simplicity is what made it all so good (lately I’ve really been enjoying reading authors that either write so simply in such a profound way or just blurt out their stream of imaginative consciousness on the page). I found myself laughing out loud at things that didn’t even make sense to me, and found so much joy in his child-like drawings and little excerpts of writing because it reassured me that art doesn’t have to look/sound a certain way to be valid and meaningful. “We need new myths so we can see the world as the strange and beautiful place it is.”
December 12, 2024
man that was actually alot cooler than i thought itd be
i got this at readers corner for 2 dollars and its been on my shelf for 2 years. decided to crack it open today and although it went quickly it really surprised me with how well it was written. its silly little poetry and sillier drawing accompaniments but alot of them were really good. very poignant. cool.
i got this at readers corner for 2 dollars and its been on my shelf for 2 years. decided to crack it open today and although it went quickly it really surprised me with how well it was written. its silly little poetry and sillier drawing accompaniments but alot of them were really good. very poignant. cool.
Read
April 9, 2025This is a super small collection of odd drawings (emphasis on odd) and short poems/writings. In all honesty, I don’t know if I understood any of it enough to formulate an opinion, and so I’m leaving it unrated
May 16, 2013
I have always loved Brian Andreas' books. They consist of poems and short stories. Some make no sense, while others are extremely relate-able. All of the poems and short stories are only a few sentences long. My favorite from this book reads "I saw them standing there pretending to be just friends, when all the time in the world could not pry them apart." The image on this particular story is of two people standing on either side of the sentence, but they're facing away from each other. One figure has an arm outstretched over the words with an extended finger almost touching the other figure. I like this image. It makes me happy, though I'm not sure why. I have always enjoyed going to his work space in Iowa. I look forward to going back to his work place again. I loved reading this book as much as the last few I've read. I have recommended these books to a few friends before and I will continue to recommend these books, as well as continue to read them in the future.
February 24, 2008
I first discovered Andreas through his StoryPeople. Haunting, to say the least.
So finally I pick up one of his collections of stories and drawings... and frankly, some of his pieces approach greatness, but most are odd and some even a little bizarre.
Here's one of my favorite oddities:
"The next time the demons come, he said, just wave your penis at them.
I can't do that, I said.
Why not? he said.
Well, I said finally. Because I'm American."
So finally I pick up one of his collections of stories and drawings... and frankly, some of his pieces approach greatness, but most are odd and some even a little bizarre.
Here's one of my favorite oddities:
"The next time the demons come, he said, just wave your penis at them.
I can't do that, I said.
Why not? he said.
Well, I said finally. Because I'm American."
August 4, 2010
Outside the box is a great place to be is what you’ll discover after picking up this book. Andreas demonstrates outwardly thinking through his writing and drawings. His style simplifies the complex in a childlike manner.
It is impossible to find just one favorite story.
It is impossible to find just one favorite story.
August 4, 2012
Read this book in one sitting and loved it. It's really short and simple, but all the different stories are wonderful. My favorite story was this one - "She said she usually cried at least once each day not because she was sad, but because the world was so beautiful and life was so short"
May 31, 2017
I appreciate this book more for its formal structure than for its subject matter. That does not mean to say that the book is thematically uninspiring, but that the design of the book and the narrative (or lack thereof) is marked by points of innovation.
First, the introduction from the author encourages the reader to engage the book in multiple ways, such as reading it, teaching it to someone else, sending it to a friend, or throwing it at your dog. I actually received this book from a friend who knows I collect books by the pound, so we both met the understanding that the book would most likely stop here. (At least until I find somebody worthy…who knows how long my friend had it before me.) Whatever you choose to do with the book, Andreas wants you to recognize it as more than a story or a collection of short stories. It is a bound block of paper, an object with mass in this universe. It could be a shim, a fire starter, a conversation starter, a weapon---its potential is only limited by the shortcomings of humanity.
Second, the stories are hardly a page, only fifteen to fifty words each. Most of these stories are accompanied with a drawing and another smaller story within the drawing, and it is these small bits of fiction which really interest me. I have noticed a trend in the past five to seven years (today being May 31 2017), a trend characterized by so-called ‘poets’ avoiding the demands of creating a sonnet or any sort of organized and extended verse. Instead, the ‘new poet’ writes a short phrase or sentence then leaves it to the reader to believe that these scant few words somehow carry a magnitude of knowledge incomprehensible to mere mortals. The stories of Brian Andreas do not follow this trend. They do not force themselves upon you. You can read the stories and find that five or six bring you great truth while the rest feel like filler only to read the book a second time and discover that some stories have lost their gravity while others are only just now open to you.
Setting aside my admiration for the format of Mostly True, I can honestly say that this book stopped me on more than one occasion and begged me to sit and ponder. Like I said before, some stories just did not do it for me, but a handful of them made me question my understanding of reality. Presence of Mind, for example, was fun to explore: the narrator is certain that he does not lie in his dreams and therefore, if he speaks mostly from his dreams then his waking life will mostly proceed truthfully, I.e. in an honest manner. However, this argument only stands if ‘presence of mind’ is only ever active consciously. The narrator does not have the presence of mind to lie, but the dream world itself is beyond the realm of the present mind. I believe that the narrator’s presence of mind in the conscious world would not be strong enough to confirm that there is no dishonest presence of mind in the dream world. Furthermore, every aspect of waking reality in our current world was part of somebody’s dream, but the dreams of some are the nightmares of others, meaning the truths of some are the falsities of others. One religion says the others are wrong, and yet each religion is steadfast in its predictions concerning existence, so who could ever ultimately decide what is ‘wrong’ and what is ‘right’, what is a ‘dream’ and what is a ‘reality’? How could a liar know when he lies and when he tells the truth if he does not know himself to be a liar? If you make your actions true by default then there is no action which can be false unless you forgot to learn what false means in the first place.
Great book. Besides Presence of Mind, some favorite stories were Opera Man, Geographer, and Porcupine. Definite reread value.
First, the introduction from the author encourages the reader to engage the book in multiple ways, such as reading it, teaching it to someone else, sending it to a friend, or throwing it at your dog. I actually received this book from a friend who knows I collect books by the pound, so we both met the understanding that the book would most likely stop here. (At least until I find somebody worthy…who knows how long my friend had it before me.) Whatever you choose to do with the book, Andreas wants you to recognize it as more than a story or a collection of short stories. It is a bound block of paper, an object with mass in this universe. It could be a shim, a fire starter, a conversation starter, a weapon---its potential is only limited by the shortcomings of humanity.
Second, the stories are hardly a page, only fifteen to fifty words each. Most of these stories are accompanied with a drawing and another smaller story within the drawing, and it is these small bits of fiction which really interest me. I have noticed a trend in the past five to seven years (today being May 31 2017), a trend characterized by so-called ‘poets’ avoiding the demands of creating a sonnet or any sort of organized and extended verse. Instead, the ‘new poet’ writes a short phrase or sentence then leaves it to the reader to believe that these scant few words somehow carry a magnitude of knowledge incomprehensible to mere mortals. The stories of Brian Andreas do not follow this trend. They do not force themselves upon you. You can read the stories and find that five or six bring you great truth while the rest feel like filler only to read the book a second time and discover that some stories have lost their gravity while others are only just now open to you.
Setting aside my admiration for the format of Mostly True, I can honestly say that this book stopped me on more than one occasion and begged me to sit and ponder. Like I said before, some stories just did not do it for me, but a handful of them made me question my understanding of reality. Presence of Mind, for example, was fun to explore: the narrator is certain that he does not lie in his dreams and therefore, if he speaks mostly from his dreams then his waking life will mostly proceed truthfully, I.e. in an honest manner. However, this argument only stands if ‘presence of mind’ is only ever active consciously. The narrator does not have the presence of mind to lie, but the dream world itself is beyond the realm of the present mind. I believe that the narrator’s presence of mind in the conscious world would not be strong enough to confirm that there is no dishonest presence of mind in the dream world. Furthermore, every aspect of waking reality in our current world was part of somebody’s dream, but the dreams of some are the nightmares of others, meaning the truths of some are the falsities of others. One religion says the others are wrong, and yet each religion is steadfast in its predictions concerning existence, so who could ever ultimately decide what is ‘wrong’ and what is ‘right’, what is a ‘dream’ and what is a ‘reality’? How could a liar know when he lies and when he tells the truth if he does not know himself to be a liar? If you make your actions true by default then there is no action which can be false unless you forgot to learn what false means in the first place.
Great book. Besides Presence of Mind, some favorite stories were Opera Man, Geographer, and Porcupine. Definite reread value.
December 30, 2018
This short collection of drawings and micro-prose-poems is amazing and weird and moving. Each time you turn the page, there is a drawing on the left side (often with a poem/story written into it) and a micro-story on the right side. If you aren't familiar with Andreas' drawing style, go online: if you don't like one, you won't like the rest. Me? I'm fascinated. The freedom of a child's imagination combined with an adult's emotional palette. I picture myself asking a child what all the weird little bits and bobs mean, and the child within me comes up with some pretty interesting (and sometimes surprising) answers.
My advice would be: don't rush reading these. Read one or two or four at a time. Think about them. Muse. Talk about the ideas with a friend. There's so much to explore with each one.
It's hard to pick favorites, but here are two:
Place to Fly
She kept asking if the stories were true.
I kept asking her if it mattered.
We finally gave up.
She was looking for a place to stand
& I wanted a place to fly.
Dark Garden
I once had a garden
filled with flowers
that grew only on dark
thoughts.
but they needed constant
attention
& one day I decided
I had better things
to do.
My advice would be: don't rush reading these. Read one or two or four at a time. Think about them. Muse. Talk about the ideas with a friend. There's so much to explore with each one.
It's hard to pick favorites, but here are two:
Place to Fly
She kept asking if the stories were true.
I kept asking her if it mattered.
We finally gave up.
She was looking for a place to stand
& I wanted a place to fly.
Dark Garden
I once had a garden
filled with flowers
that grew only on dark
thoughts.
but they needed constant
attention
& one day I decided
I had better things
to do.
January 18, 2024
A fun, quirky collection of poems and drawings. A decent amount of which have deeper meaning, while others have a good peculiar, witty feeling.
My favorite poems:
"the next time the demons come, he said,
just wave your penis at
them. I can't do
that, I said.
Why not?
he said.
Well, I said finally.
because I'm American."
Empty Space
"After his father
died, he carried
his life more
gently & left an
empty space
for the birds
& other creatures."
Porcupine
"A few said they'd be
horses. Most said they'd
be some sort of cat.
My friend said she'd
like to come back as a
porcupine.
I don't like crowds,
she said."
My favorite poems:
"the next time the demons come, he said,
just wave your penis at
them. I can't do
that, I said.
Why not?
he said.
Well, I said finally.
because I'm American."
Empty Space
"After his father
died, he carried
his life more
gently & left an
empty space
for the birds
& other creatures."
Porcupine
"A few said they'd be
horses. Most said they'd
be some sort of cat.
My friend said she'd
like to come back as a
porcupine.
I don't like crowds,
she said."
April 10, 2025
I would rate Still Mostly True by Brian Andreas 4 out of 5 stars. The book continues the fun and thoughtful style of the first one, Mostly True, with over 80 short stories and drawings. Brian Andreas uses symbols in a clever way to show how people connect and feel. His mix of words and pictures turns everyday moments into deeper ideas about learning more about ourselves. His unique way of telling stories shows how symbols can help us understand what it means to be human.
December 22, 2022
The plumber was digging around
in the pipes & he saw something
shine in the muck & it turned
out to be the soul of the last
tenant.
He gave it to me & I said I
wonder how we can return it &
he shrugged & said he found
stuff like that all the time.
You’d be amazed what people
lose, he said.
a very strange but also profoundly human collection of tiny stories and drawings. it’s quietly emotional and sometimes absurd. one of my new personal favorites.
May 2, 2022
This book, a gift from a friend, is just what I needed. Quirky, funny, poignant, combining fantasy and reality...it made me smile and tear up in equal measure. Here's one of the short short story/poems, "Bittersweet":
She said she usually
cried at least once
each day not because
she was sad, but
because the world was
so beautiful & life
was so short.
She said she usually
cried at least once
each day not because
she was sad, but
because the world was
so beautiful & life
was so short.
December 22, 2024
“when you meet someone new, have them read it to help you decide whether you want to spend any more time with them.”
“he wrote secret notes to people he hadn’t met yet.
some of them aren’t even born, he said, but we live in a strange neighborhood and they will need help figuring things out and i won’t always be around to explain it to them.”
“he wrote secret notes to people he hadn’t met yet.
some of them aren’t even born, he said, but we live in a strange neighborhood and they will need help figuring things out and i won’t always be around to explain it to them.”
January 18, 2020
I once had a garden
filled with flowers
that grew only dark
thoughts
but they needed constant
attention
& one day I decided
I had better things
to do.
There were some dark ones in here, more so than the others I read.
filled with flowers
that grew only dark
thoughts
but they needed constant
attention
& one day I decided
I had better things
to do.
There were some dark ones in here, more so than the others I read.
December 30, 2017
These books make me happy.
March 11, 2019
Enjoy all of Brian Andreas poetry and art.
March 23, 2020
Just what my soul needed yesterday.
September 6, 2021
uhhh…did no one notice that horrible terrible joke he made about a disabled person???
September 20, 2023
“the first time her laughter unfurled its wings in the wind, we knew that the world would never be the same.”
December 28, 2023
only strong enough for a life of partial virtue!!
January 5, 2024
from dad’s old collection
May 2, 2024
Very easy read.
Poems are good, some funny.
Line drawings are ridiculous.
Poems are good, some funny.
Line drawings are ridiculous.
May 21, 2024
Entertaining but none of it made any sense and I think I just don't get his artistic perspective.
May 16, 2025
best line: "I like trains because they make sounds that fit their bodies"
this was in the donate pile and then I read it and and now I'm keeping it - so if that isn't 5 star worthy, what is?
this was in the donate pile and then I read it and and now I'm keeping it - so if that isn't 5 star worthy, what is?
August 15, 2025
Thrift find, wholesome and there were a few that i liked
Displaying 1 - 30 of 63 reviews