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This Isn’t a Story: Stories
A collection of darkly funny stories, which, together, comprise a certain portrait of an uncertain man. From the sleazy streets
of Reno, Nevada, to the sleazier streets of Los Angeles, California, This Isn't a Story: Stories spans a period of thirty years,
from the middle 1980s to the late 2010s, and presents a nonlinear account of the strange mundanity, the sordid hilarity, and
the deep, erotic sadnesses of one man's Millennial life - a pretty good and mostly easy, absurd and sorry life.
of Reno, Nevada, to the sleazier streets of Los Angeles, California, This Isn't a Story: Stories spans a period of thirty years,
from the middle 1980s to the late 2010s, and presents a nonlinear account of the strange mundanity, the sordid hilarity, and
the deep, erotic sadnesses of one man's Millennial life - a pretty good and mostly easy, absurd and sorry life.
227 pages, Paperback
Published June 22, 2024
8 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 24, 2024
A kaleidoscope of stories, some mundane and others bordering on the fantastic. This is the kind of collection that has a story for everyone. If you're into modernism, Going Digital is a kind of neo-modernist story about a young man anxious about a changing world who seeks meaning to provide an illusion for stability. If you like dark comedies, The Drowning Giant is a hilarious story about the unintended consequences of our efforts to make others laugh, and be okay with our self-image. You Can't Keep Us is a day-in-the-life of an early thirties man and his romance that, based on the author's keen awareness of people's body language and social cues, we assume is a doomed one, but the journey through the pages is one that is weirdly comforting in a way that we hope it also was for the writer.
For a funny, sometimes upsetting, but always enjoyable collection of stories, don't miss this one.
For a funny, sometimes upsetting, but always enjoyable collection of stories, don't miss this one.
July 20, 2024
”For, in all my years since then, throughout what you might call my "adult" life, the one thing I've learned for certain is that nothing adds up. Life is hard and bad and ugly and okay. Sometimes it's good, even great, though mostly it's not, and that's pretty much it. In terms of meanings, lessons, logic, justice, etc.- it doesn't add up. And the older you get, and the more you know, the less it adds up. The thing is, though, if you look at it right, if you look at it really, it's almost always funny. That's the one real saving grace: the funniness. Without the funniness, the rest would be unbearable. Without the funniness, there would be no rest.”
Books don’t usually make me laugh. Sometimes they make me smile or smirk, but rarely chuckle and smack my knee. Something about comedic timing in written form is tough as hell to pull off. But these 22 stories are hilarious. Unbelievably funny. Like, laugh-out-loud-on-every-page funny.
Which isn’t to make this book out to be a collection of comedies. This is a moving collection of reflections. Which is also not to say that the book is sentimental or goopy. Patten’s memories are often embarrassing, mundane and sad, detailing those quiet mediocrities in life that you think about over and over again but don’t really know why. But he writes about those moments with the poignant observations of a master comedian, and with a rare humility and self-deprecation that only the wisest people seem to possess.
Patten writes about B-movies, dumb retail jobs, backwards relationships—all things that us modern readers know about all too well—with the pinpoint poignancy of JD Salinger or Virginia Woolf. I can’t recommend this book enough, especially to those who have ever lived in either Reno or Los Angeles. To anyone who lives in either of those locations: this is our writer!
Books don’t usually make me laugh. Sometimes they make me smile or smirk, but rarely chuckle and smack my knee. Something about comedic timing in written form is tough as hell to pull off. But these 22 stories are hilarious. Unbelievably funny. Like, laugh-out-loud-on-every-page funny.
Which isn’t to make this book out to be a collection of comedies. This is a moving collection of reflections. Which is also not to say that the book is sentimental or goopy. Patten’s memories are often embarrassing, mundane and sad, detailing those quiet mediocrities in life that you think about over and over again but don’t really know why. But he writes about those moments with the poignant observations of a master comedian, and with a rare humility and self-deprecation that only the wisest people seem to possess.
Patten writes about B-movies, dumb retail jobs, backwards relationships—all things that us modern readers know about all too well—with the pinpoint poignancy of JD Salinger or Virginia Woolf. I can’t recommend this book enough, especially to those who have ever lived in either Reno or Los Angeles. To anyone who lives in either of those locations: this is our writer!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews