Imaginary Friends

by M.D. Curzon

'Imaginary Friends' is a book of engaging and insightful short stories by M D Curzon, the author of 'Anticipation'. 'Imaginary Friends' includes the title story and a dozen others, from the experimental juvenilia of 'Space Stations and Weather Balloons' through to the highly refined 'One Thing in Light of Another'. These diverse stories were written over a number of years but are now available for the first time in anthology form.

Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2015

About the author

I have always written poetry, lyrics and prose. My first publications were a compilation of poems, entitled 'Introverse', and an anthology of short stories under the title 'Imaginary Friends'. 'Imaginary Friends' includes the title story and a dozen others, from the experimental juvenilia of 'Space Stations and Weather Balloons' through to the refined 'One Thing in Light of Another'.

'Anticipation' was my first completed novel and is, I hope, an accessible work of literary fiction. The protagonist is a young woman in search of her place in the world. Having fallen in love and been rejected, K's story draws on a number of spiritual and aesthetic dispositions in a journey that is fundamentally one of optimism and self-determination.

I have ghostwritten Marie McCreadie's extraordinary memoir 'Voiceless', and have most recently completed my 'High Violence' cycle (www.highviolence.com). Each of the eleven stories in 'High Violence' stands alone as a tightly drawn vignette, but also relays meaning to an overarching narrative as the tension builds inexorably towards a climax that challenges our complicity in the violence of the world.

I am currently working on my Cartesian novel 'Before & After', in which two separate journeys intersect and reflect both tragedy and redemption.

Please feel free to contact me through my website at http://www.mdcurzon.com

Reviews

[Rebecca Gransden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Imaginary Friends is a strong collection of short stories that takes ordinary lives and graces them with the extraordinary quality that elevates the mundanely personal into the uniform magnificence of time shared. These stories deal with raw memory made present, remembrances of childhood made achingly immediate, and if one aim of fiction is to be transported to the self then this collection succeeds in abundance.

Thanks to some fluidly fractured descriptions the writing projects the honesty of beauty, the harshness of it, and images of the lives of others are pulled incredibly close. While the characters are only with us for a flicker they are drawn with an economy that adds to the sense of the incompleteness in the authenticity of knowing others, giving the impression of skirting through these lives with an intense clarity. I want to return to some of these stories. Not all, but some.

Skipping along a thread that weaves its way through tales touched with down-to-earth surreality and the lucidity of the lightness of the everyday, these stories in their range are bound by a clear emotional intelligence and simple clarity. A sense of what lies beneath permeates and is a very effective drag. A fine, cohesive collection that I enjoyed and will come back to. I look forward to reading more from this author.

Another 4.5 Stars - I'm being completely spoilt recently.