The Human Ambit

by Anne P. Collini

Love, ambition, revenge and the ambit of other good human stuff told in thirteen short tales. Humour, honesty and the odd kick in your contemplative capacity awaits. Being human isn’t always pretty, but it’s pretty interesting and sometimes it’s really, really good.

Genres: Short Stories

58 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 21, 2015

Reviews

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I love my family. Matthew and the kids are my everything. But they are sucking the
living juice out of me as surely as I am emptying this tall, waxed cup of strawberry
smoothie at an alarming rate. When I said I do, little did I realize I was assenting to a life
from which I would escape to a place where no-one would call me Mom".
"The elderly busy-bodies eye me, and I mutter in my head--yeah, that's right. That's
what I'm doing here, you old geezers. And I have every right to be cranky. Did 'you' sleep with a four-year-old foot in your mouth last night? Then shut up and leave me alone!"

Mom - mom- mom......poor Mary Jane Elizabeth. She actually had a life before
peanut butter smeared hands. She won the Maths award in *10th* grade! She likes to write stories, enjoys George Bernard Shaw plays, and she wants to take a trip to
Thailand.
On top of everything else, Mary Jane Elizabeth feels like a terrible mother. When her little munchkin gives her a giant sleepy early morning smile....rather than melt with the 'love-moment'....she feels bad for having 'anti-rebel-mom' thoughts...
.....but then something happens ....an ordinary moment....
Mary Jane looks at her children >>> really looks!!! They are the air she breathes.
The kids take a breather with mom.....
"We're breathing with Mommy my youngest is pleased to report".

Mary Jane Elizabeth says...
"I made a choice long ago, but now I'm the chosen one. I choose them like I choose to breathe. Then Matthew's eyes twinkle and he begins to very quietly sing to us,
"I'm going to love you forever and ever, forever, and ever, ...amen"
Soooooooooooo Sweet!!!!!!

This is the first time I've read anything by Canadian author, Anne P. Collini .....
I focused my 'above' review from one of the thirteen stories in this collection. "Mom Takes A Breather".
The entire collection are interesting and varied.... ( I picked out a warm- hearted story to share about because I felt many of us could relate to loving our children like the air we breathe - no matter how drained - worried - angry -or burned out we've felt at one time or another).
But every story is very different. There is a story about a slave girl which lingered with me long after I read it. A story about a man whose wife has died...a story about an artist, a scientist, ( Anne P. Collini has a science background), a story about young love--or rather missed love...(school friends reuniting through the years)...
The stories are original , ( intended for us to think)....and the prose is often playful.

Anne P. Collini has a novel coming out this year. Annabel Cameron, the leading female, is only 12 years old at the 'start' in 1765. She "ran like a boy, shameless and unafraid"........she's headstrong. She "chases fate, fortune, and misfortune on her freedom-seeking journey through the American wilderness".

"The Human Ambit: Love, ambition, revenge, and other good human stuff told in short
tales" is a Kindle bargin-gem at 99 cents.

[Kevin Ansbro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Folkloric, whimsical and delightful.

“The garden of the world has no limits, except in your mind.”
-Rumi

The Human Ambit is a mercurial anthology of short stories by Canadian author, Anne Collini.
I happily spent an enjoyable few hours, spilling biscuit crumbs on my shirt, in the company of this enchanting book.
Collini is a splendid storyteller who promotes the quality of human life in a miscellany of imaginative, often hugely funny vignettes.

Love, life, death, it’s all there.
The author shifts effortlessly from Shakespearean discourse, as in the tale of The Prince of Meander, to the unprogrammed thoughts of a lovelorn android in Red, Bloodless World.

Dialogue is meticulously observed and artfully recorded, and we see a scrap of zoomorphism when we envisage The Prince of Meander’s wife ‘standing with her hens’ sending him off with ‘a pecking glare.’

I would also like to think that Fuckingham Palace would be a nice place to pop into on a flying visit and that I might one day be greeted at those pearly gates by none other than Benjamin Disraeli.

Although Anne Collini’s read is a brief encounter, it is nevertheless a generous insight into the human psyche. And those anxious parents among you can find some succour, for herein lies the universal truth that children don’t always love their iPads more than they do their parents!

Collini recognises that our flawed, inequitable lives are still worthy of salutation and celebration, so “hurrah” for us humans!
I can think of far worse ways to spend a couple of hours, fuelled (since you ask) by three cups of tea and an abstemious supply of choccie biscuits! : )

[Cheri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anne Collini is a wonderful weaver of fanciful and enchanting tales. Like modern-day folktales, these each have a message and a meaning, but are written in a down-to-earth style that will bring you laughter and take you to the brink of tears. Filled with insight, filled with hope, filled with everything that is part of daily life, living and even dying.

Life is filled with so many emotions, it would be almost impossible to cover them all, but Anne Collini does a wonderful job of entertaining and enlightening you.

Folktales. Parables. Short Stories. Life lessons and told in short story format, these will have you celebrating love, and life in all their frustrating, messy glory.

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

VERY ENTERTAINING SHORT TALES.

“Words flow like water and all of us are thirsty for the human voice.”—HYDROLOGY (Kindle Locations 43-44)

Anne P. Collini’s, The Human Ambit: Love, ambition, revenge and the ambit of other good human stuff told in short tales—a collection of wonderfully written short stories—is a warm hug of a read. Storytelling at its excellent best.

Recommendation: Don’t miss this one.

“We hasten to our decline ... the ride on this meteor is brief ... the measure of life is in the living.”—THE PRINCE OF MEANDER (Kindle Location 243)

…and, just for Nancy,

“She was comely, with elfin green eyes… They were green jewels, limpid looking-glasses of high understanding.” MIRRORS (Kindle Location 804 & 808) [you just don’t get any prettier ‘greenies’ than that.]

Kindle Edition. 899 Kindle Locatons, 58 pages.

[Julia Grantham · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was delightfully surprised by this wonderful collection of short stories, each an original and inventive gem. Collini is a marvelous writer, a great storyteller with a keen eye for human foibles, yet always with empathy for the human condition to which we are all heir.

Collini’s evocative prose was filled with fantastic verbs and unusual phrases that made every scene leap from the page. She wrote using several points of view and with pitch-perfect deftness of different eras, diverse dialects and ethnicities yet always encircling the human heart, even when it was beating in an android shell. There were laugh-out-loud stories and others that tore at your heartstrings, but always capturing with humor and pathos the human heart crying out to be seen and acknowledged.

I would love to see these stories expanded. The characters charmed, amused or tore at our hearts: in Silver and Gold, a boy with uncaring parents became a man without a moral compass, his collision with fate inevitable; in Twitty Jenny, the breaking heart of a mother who could not “own” her child, and the poignant moment of her liberation.

Collini painted characters with sweeping brushstrokes that crackled with humanity, capturing the essence of emotions, moods, and situations. A thread ran throughout of the redemptive spirit, of people who refused to lay down their humanity, and the need for love and connection. I love her strong women, whether a runaway slave, a lovelorn android, or a free-spirited 17th century artist. I could almost feel a conspiratorial wink from Collini to the reader.

There were so many phrases I loved: “I peered into my tankard, the grave of my care” in The Prince of Meander; “born tore-down poor” in Silver and Gold; “A friend like that, who turns you back to the laughter when you don’t feel like laughing, is the very best gift of all” in Circus Maximus. There is the dark side too: revenge, anger, some of the stories with a shocking twist at the end, as in Red, Bloodless World.

This is storytelling at its finest. I have recommended this book to friends and I know I will re-read stories from this delightful collection.

[Mela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marvelous.

I am really surprised. I haven't expected it. But (yes, there is a but) now I have a great expectations and I am waiting for Anne P. Collini's next book impatiently.

She seams to have what a good writer should have had: eyes, ears, heart, mind, voice, words, which see and hear humans and details, which understand them, which can explain them (us) to us. This collection of stories is enough proof. Each story tells us at least two things. There isn't a story about one matter. For example:

"Hydrology", "Red Bloodless World", "Mirrors" show that Collini can write beautifully about love.

He wanted to tell her, but he did not know how to turn fire into water. His energy stayed bound.

Reflected in their kindness, he saw a better man . He wanted to be that man.

"The Prince of Meander", "Titty Jenny", "Silver and Gold", "Castle Mountain", "Artemisia" proof that she has a passion for a historical accuracy.

I could write that way on and on. You have here contemporary stories, science fiction, magic-realism and of course historical fiction. You have here a mother's love, yearning for freedom, question of being a human.

Life is ridiculous, man. People are ridiculous. I mean, soon as God made us, he saw how fucked up we were. So he gave us laughter and told us spread it around. Laugh or you’ll cry. It’s the only cure, man, nearest thing to heaven on Earth.

So, I just simply want more! And I want it now! ;-)

[I have tried decide which stories I love the most. I would pick: "Hydrology", "Circus Maximus", "Red Bloodless World", "Mom Takes A Breather", "Titty Jenny", because they went directly through my heart.]

[Jena Henry · Rating 5 out of 5]

A string of pearls, a box of chocolates- these delectable and lovely short stories are waiting for you to savor them. Perhaps a flower garden is a better description- because while each story is indeed a gem, each of the twelve tales is different. You will read about periods of history, past and present, about men and women from other countries, with different passions, and you will get to know them at varying stages of their lives. If there is a connection among the stories, aside from clear and creative writing, it is that each of the characters has come to their “aha!” moment either willingly or unwillingly. An artist, a scientist, an old man who has lost his wife, a young slave child, a frazzled mother- you will delight in all their stories and want to read them again and again. It's hard to choose a favorite, but the story of the young slave child still affects me. I have to commend the author for the tantalizing way she begins each story and for her expertise with historical period accuracy and dialects. Highly recommend.

[Sheri McInnis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve heard so much about ‘The Human Ambit’ by Anne P. Collini, I had to check it out. I read the first story and thought, “Tight writing. Clever theme. Great dialogue. Good job.” Then the next story unfolds, but in a completely different tone. “Wow, okay. Collini has that gear as well.” And then the next story unfolds – and it, too, is completely different – and the book suddenly becomes this fugue of skill and scope.

Unlike Alice Munro, another brilliant Canadian short story writer – no question I’m a fan – who’s so comfortable with her domestic stories she rarely strays beyond them, Collini has those down pat, and just about everything else from romance to science fiction to historical. There’s even hip, contemporary serio-comedy in ‘Circus Maximus.’

“Circus Maximus was a comedy club on Baker Street, across the street from the needle exchange. It had rust-colored carpet and rustier toilets. An inexperienced drinker might catch a buzz from inhaling the cloud of stale beer fumes hanging in the air. I loved the place.”

She tackles a period English piece in ‘Prince of Meander’ about a drinker on his way to his favourite pub. Like the best short story writers, she deals with enormous ideas – unwieldy concepts like suffering, meaninglessness, God and love – and handily wraps them up in wit and wisdom. In ‘Meander’ there is a particularly insightful exchange between our narrator and his wife.

“What do you know of life,” she sneered, scattering chicken feed. “Life is not measured by pleasure!”
Her homily arrested me. I had always thought it was. “Pray then how?”
“By industry!” she huffed and tossed seed. Guardedly she peeked at me. “By love.”
Unable to refute my idleness, I replied, “I love you, dearest.”

Then, later, “I peered in my tankard, the grave of my care.”

'The grave of my care.' I love that! But Collini doesn’t shy away from the traditional classic short story genre either: poetic domesticity, which she embraces in ‘Mom Takes a Breather.’

“I love my family. Matthew and the kids are my everything. But they are sucking the living juice out of me as surely as I am emptying this tall, waxed cup of strawberry smoothie at an alarming rate. When I said I do, little did I realize I was assenting to a life from which I would need escape to a place where no one would call me ‘mom.’”

In the story, the character contemplates her mistakes, as we all do. The regrets of an entire life, mulled over while simply waiting to pick up her kids! But the story resolves beautifully, with the exquisite love of family.

In 'Fighting Fire with Fire,' Collini returns to her theme of humour and pathos, as a young woman considers a lifetime of bad luck. “My life was a litany of burns. Lately by raisin (in a hot cross bun) … Bad luck, bad choices, bad attitude, bad hair, and enough bad boyfriends to form a platoon of shoot-her-through-the-heart snipers.”

Immaculately written, flawless in my opinion, The Human Ambit is funny and wise and full of depth. But it’s also an incredibly entertaining read. Such a rare combination in any author, let alone a new short story writer. An amazing accomplishment!

[Wendy Slater · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful Short Stories

Brilliant short stories that weave from one to the next like waves in the ocean seaming and fusing into an extraordinary compilation. Collini clearly has a gift for writing and her command of different dialects, historical time frames, and the perception of the heart is astounding. Highly original work that I highly recommend.

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an enchanting collection of short stories!

All unique, all delightful. Collini brought them to life beautifully, and I found myself purring with satisfaction at the end of each.

I enjoyed them all, particularly Red Bloodless World; Mom Takes a Breather; and Mirrors. Stories so short, yet so full of life, bursting with emotion.

An absolute joy to read.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was delightfully surprised by this wonderful collection of short stories, each an original and inventive gem. Collini is a marvelous writer, a great storyteller with a keen eye for human foibles, yet always with empathy for the human condition to which we are all heir.

Collini’s evocative prose was filled with fantastic verbs and unusual phrases that made every scene leap from the page. She wrote using several points of view and with pitch-perfect deftness of different eras, diverse dialects and ethnicities yet always encircling the human heart, even when it was beating in an android shell. There were laugh-out-loud stories and others that tore at your heartstrings, but always capturing with humor and pathos the human heart crying out to be seen and acknowledged.

I would love to see these stories expanded. The characters charmed, amused or tore at our hearts: in Silver and Gold, a boy with uncaring parents became a man without a moral compass, his collision with fate inevitable; in Twitty Jenny, the breaking heart of a mother who could not “own” her child, and the poignant moment of her liberation.

Collini painted characters with sweeping brushstrokes that crackled with humanity, capturing the essence of emotions, moods, and situations. A thread ran throughout of the redemptive spirit, of people who refused to lay down their humanity, and the need for love and connection. I love her strong women, whether a runaway slave, a lovelorn android, or a free-spirited 17th century artist. I could almost feel a conspiratorial wink from Collini to the reader.

There were so many phrases I loved: “I peered into my tankard, the grave of my care” in The Prince of Meander; “born tore-down poor” in Silver and Gold; “A friend like that, who turns you back to the laughter when you don’t feel like laughing, is the very best gift of all” in Circus Maximus. There is the dark side too: revenge, anger, some of the stories with a shocking twist at the end, as in Red, Bloodless World.

This is storytelling at its finest. I have recommended this book to friends and I know I will re-read stories from this delightful collection.