Tales of Falling and Flying

by Ben Loory

Named a Favorite Book of 2017 by the staff of the Paris Review,
one of the 50 Best Fantasy Books of All Time by Esquire Magazine,
and one of the 25 Best Fantasy Books of All Time by Good Housekeeping.

"Loory is the psychedelic Aesop of our modern age." --Scott McClanahan, author of The Sarah Book

"One of my favorite writers." --Peter Straub, author of Ghost Story

A dazzling new collection of stories from the critically acclaimed author of Stories for Nighttime and Some for The Day

Ben Loory returns with a second collection of timeless tales, inviting us to enter his worlds of whimsical fantasy, deep empathy, and playful humor, in the signature voice that drew readers to his highly praised first collection. In stories that eschew literary realism, Loory's characters demonstrate richly imagined and surprising perspectives, whether they be dragons or swordsmen, star-crossed lovers or long-lost twins, restaurateurs dreaming of Paris or cephalopods fixated on space travel. In propulsive language that brilliantly showcases Loory's vast imagination, Tales of Falling and Flying expands our understanding of how fiction can work and is sure to cement his reputation as one of the most innovative short-story writers working today.

Praise for Ben Loory's Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day

"This guy can write!" --Ray Bradbury

"[A] wild, dreamy debut . . . These stories are full of wit, humor, and heart." --The Boston Globe

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Fantasy, Short Story Collection, Contemporary, Speculative Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

224 pages, Paperback

First published September 5, 2017

About the author

Ben Loory's first book, Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day, was a selection of the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Program, and was named one of the 10 Best Fiction Books of the Year by Hudson Booksellers. His second collection, Tales of Falling and Flying, was named a Favorite Book of 2017 by the staff of the Paris Review, and one of the 50 Best Fantasy Books of All Time by Esquire Magazine. Loory's fables and tales have appeared in The New Yorker, Fairy Tale Review, Electric Literature, and BOMB Magazine, and been heard on This American Life and Selected Shorts. He is also the author of a picture book for children, The Baseball Player and the Walrus.

"This guy can write!" –Ray Bradbury

Reviews

[Ben Loory · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some reviews:
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...
http://www.npr.org/2017/09/07/5475601...
https://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/revi...
http://www.vol1brooklyn.com/2017/10/1...
http://dishmag.com/issue195/lifestyle...
https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-...
http://sdcitybeat.com/special-issues/...
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2...

A profile story in the LA Times:
http://www.latimes.com/books/la-ca-jc...

A few interviews:
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/l...
https://anotherchicagomagazine.net/20...
http://www.hobartpulp.com/web_feature...
https://tetheredbyletters.com/author-...

Here's Brad Listi interviewing me on the OtherPpl Podcast:
http://otherppl.com/ben-loory-intervi...

And here are some blurbs about the book:

“Ben’s stories are little gifts, strange and moving and wonderfully human. I devoured this book in one sitting.” —Ransom Riggs

"Who the hell is this guy? What happened to make this brain? These are the questions you’ll ask after Ben Loory’s Tales of Falling and Flying. Loory is the psychedelic Aesop of our modern age, the king of talking birds and frogs, characters named war and peace, the Apuleuis of the internet generation. His words are full of swords and wings. Get ready. They’ll cut you. They’ll make you fly." —Scott McClanahan

"This darn book is like receiving a sword in the mail or finding a maze in the kitchen or a squid who fell in love with the sun or a dragon in the backyard; it's confusing at first and then the next thing happens." —Ron Carlson

“Russell Edson’s new protege, or Steven Millhauser, distilled into tea. Meet, or re-meet Ben Loory, whose preposterous, friendly stories can’t help but charm. They are so bizarrely readable they don’t even feel like they’re made of words." —Aimee Bender

“To read a Ben Loory story is to slip through a portal into an adjacent dimension. To learn—with brevity and clarity—the laws of this universe next door, new rules of logic and contradiction and truth. And, in the end, to be left with the disturbing and wondrous feeling of having never left home at all." —Charles Yu

"These tiny off-kilter fairy tales, equal parts Beckett and Twilight Zone, will amply suit surrealistic seniors and twisted teens alike. Perfect for reading on strange beaches and by oddly-shaped swimming pools. Fits right in your pocket or purse for emergency doses of the charming and weird." –Janet Fitch

“Parables, dark fables, quirky flash fictions—call them what you will, Ben Loory has perfected the form and in Tales of Falling and Flying proves once again he can disturb a little and entertain a lot. Easily read, not easily forgotten.” —Jeff VanderMeer

“Ben Loory is a wonder. I'd like to curl up inside his marvelous head and canoodle with a besotted squid, swallow a tiny dragon, levitate with Death and fall in love with the Eiffel Tower, and after reading these sublime stories—slyly funny, melancholy and deeply weird—I suppose I have, and it was fantastic.” —Elissa Schappell

“One of my favorite writers, smart, original Ben Loory is almost impossible to describe. Like Bruno Schultz, if Shultz had been born to a left-handed Little League coach in Short Hills, NJ? Like Lydia Davis, if she’d been hatched from an egg? Like listening to a conversation between Betty Davis and Miles Davis outside the house where Amy Winehouse died? Like listening to Mick and Keef not talk about Altamont? Probably there is a war going on somewhere, but these cool, dazzling little tales will never let on.” —Peter Straub

"Ben Loory's stories are like perfect kōans cracked from inside the world's smartest fortune cookie; funny, crunchy, and irresistible." —Mark Haskell Smith

"A perfect follow-up to his starred debut... Delightfully disarming stories for readers seeking a plunge down the rabbit hole." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me about three stories to find the rhythm of Ben Loory's cooky, brilliant, weird, wonderful writing style - then I stopped questioning what was happening and just went where his imagination took me - and I adored this. This collection of very short short stories reads unlike any I have read before and I absolutely, totally loved it. I sped through it in two sittings and then was a bit mad at myself because I made it end so soon - but the stories were so addictive! Thankfully he has written another short story collection that I will have to check out sooner rather than later.

Ben Loory tells stories reminiscent of fairy tales and fables but always with a twist. His anthropomorphic animals are a joy to read about and reminded me of my favourite stories as a child. He trusts his reader to just follow him and go with it and he absolutely managed to enthrall me. His stories are beyond weird but still somehow grounded in something humane and real even though they are super short and quick.

As I am finding out, I like short stories with a bit of weirdness and magic in them and this one fit the bill perfectly. And when they are as exquisitely rendered as these are, then I am a very happy reader.

______
I received an arc of this book curtesy of NetGalley and Penguin Publishing in exchange for an honest review. Thank you so very much for that!

[Nnedi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this collection of short stories. They each left me feeling...some kinda way, lol. My favorite was by FAR "Squid Who Fell in Love with the Sun". INCREDIBLE, it brought tears to my eyes. I'd buy a framed poster of this story and put it on my wall to be read whenever I felt like stopping and thinking. My only advice, buy the hard copy. This is a book you need to be able to hold.

[☘Misericordia☘ ⚡ϟ⚡⛈⚡☁ ❇️❤❣ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nope. Not my cup of tea (or any other beverage for that matter!). What was this that I just read, really? Someone's deliria diary?

It made me feel as if my brain will escape out of my head via ears right now. Was the author tipsy/medicated thinking this up? Did he just look up random things in a dictionary, take random words and combine them into stories? It's like watching someone else's dreams or listening to drunk rambling. A real jumble of miscellania.

Felt very disjointed. I'm sure it was supposed to be very inovative but it didn't click with me at all. Whimsical not in a good way. All the flying women and geese? Ostriches and aliens? Men swalowing growing rocks? Squids inspiring aliens civilizations to self-improve? Lemon trees? Wings and love? Read schizophreniac to me..., mostly because no motivations have been explored, there is little joining things happening in the stories. Can I unread it, pretty-please?

[sAmAnE · Rating 4 out of 5]

یک مجموعه داستان سورئال، داستان‌ها کوتاه و خوب بودند. اگر به سبک داستان‌های سورئال و خیالی علاقه دارید، مجموعه‌ی خوبی هست.

[Bud Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one has some of my favorite short stories ever in it 'Elmore Leonard', 'The Dodo', 'the sword', 'war and peace', 'the squid who fell in love with the sun', 'the rock eater' ... the stories in this book are all really great, but those ones in particular are extra sublime.

Something magic happens when you get comfortable with a story not having to adhere to a set of rules. Ben Loory is my favorite contemporary writer of short fiction. His stuff is so open. There's never anything to hide behind, even though there are secret passages everywhere.

[Peter Tillman · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK, I've read maybe two-thirds of the stories. I liked “The Squid Who Fell in Love with the Sun” (3.3 stars) and the others I've read ranged from good to eh. The stories are all very short, and a couple with a sting in the tail reminded me of O'Henry.

This is my first encounter with Loory, and I might read more, but the book is due back today. Overall, 2.7 stars, maybe?

You may well like them more, but you might want to see if your library has a copy. And read a few at a time, is my advice.

Here's the review by Tobias Carroll that led me to try the collection:
https://www.tor.com/2017/09/29/the-ch...

"...there’s “The Squid Who Fell in Love with the Sun.” It opens in the manner of a fable, delineating the ways in which its title character had been fixated on the sun from an early age. He tries a series of maneuvers in order to reach his beloved: jumping high, designing a pair of wings, and then creating a craft that can travel through space. From there, though the story takes an unexpected shift: at the conclusion of his journey, the squid suddenly realizes the folly of his decision, and that his trip will soon lead to his death. “He wrote out all his knowledge, his equations and theorems, clarified the workings of everything he’d done,” Loory writes. The squid beams this information out into the cosmos—where, eventually, an alien civilization discovers it and is forever transformed."

[Kerry Dunn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm afraid if I were to use all the adjectives that apply to Ben Loory's stories, someone would roll their eyes, because how could it be possible that ALL these adjectives are apt? I would be called hyperbolic and fawning. But then I would hope that the eye roller would read the stories and understand and then agree with me. So here goes: wonderful, magical, funny, heartbreaking, surreal, fantastic, anthropomorphic, scary, melancholy, joyful, playful, insightful, prophetic, fabulistic. Ok I'll stop.

And remember, Ben Loory rhymes with story. Now that is apt.

P.S. A few of my favorites in this collection: The Dodo, The Frog and the Bird, Death and the Lady, The Ocean Next Door

[Fiona Knight · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the most charming thing I've read all year - maybe ever?

This collection of quirky shorts from Ben Loory is a delight - be prepared to let go of the why, and just embrace the moment of "well of course that just happened!". They are short shorts, and most of them would work across all age groups - though older readers will absolutely bring more depth to these stories.

Absolutely lovely.

[xTx xTx · Rating 5 out of 5]

classic ben loory.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's great to see Loory up to his old tricks again. With this new collection of stories there is no shortage of heart, imagination or adventure.

[Joan Concilio · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up a copy of Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day (which happened to be autographed, though I didn't know it at the time!) at a used bookstore because it had a beautiful cover and those amazing rough-edged pages. I ended up being totally mesmerized by Ben Loory's writing and couldn't wait to read something else by him, but at the time he didn't have any other books and it kind of slipped my mind.

Fast-forward to a couple months ago. I'm browsing a bookstore and see a beautiful cover and amazing rough-edged pages... and then see the name. Loory... Loory... I Google and realize YES! This is what I've been waiting for!

Finally had time to read it today, and of course I finished it today because it's that good. Everyone should read both these books. You'll get lost in the amazing stories - some will make you laugh, some will make you cry, and some will leave you feeling just a little bit... off... but they all are exactly right.

[Tom Li · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of flash fiction opened my eyes and left an indelible impression on me. Never before have I devoured stories as quickly as I have with this wonderfully quirky book.

[Christopher Swann · Rating 5 out of 5]

These tales or fables read like minimalist Beckett, if Beckett had been taught how to write by Aesop, Isak Dinesen, and someone with the faith in humanity of Dickens. They are puzzling, wise, always clever, and often just plain funny, but they all make you think. Great sophomore outing. Revised from 4 to 5 stars because I keep thinking about them.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ben Loory is a fabulist, a writer of fabulous fables. Each is a kind of elegy, an elemental poem that takes words to unexpected places, tickles the mind, and leads to thoughts of the impossible. Each story is a teacher. Ray Bradbury was right when he said this guy can write. We are the beneficiaries of his talent and all of us should be so rewarded.

[Lesley R M · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very short stories and I do like short stories. None of which made any sense even in an slightly abstract way. They were more like those odd little what the heck dreams with no beginning or end . A nice little collection that would suffice while waiting in a Doctor’s office or the line at the DMV.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ben Loory is a genius.

[Gabe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this even better than his first collection, the tone was just really working for me this time. Very unique and worth checking out (and if you don't like it, it's a short read).

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the kind of book you give to the people you love.

[Mark Leidner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like late James Tate poems with much longer runways.

[Todd Petty · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read Tales of Falling and Flying in three sittings. That took some discipline on my part. The book is fun and compelling enough that I could have finished it all at once, but it's also impactful and resonant enough that I wanted to give myself time in-between sittings to think about the stories, the characters, and the quiet mastery with which Ben Loory invites readers into the fantastic world he's created. This project, like all of Loory's work, is uplifting and occasionally harrowing, joyful and occasionally upsetting, often funny, always earnest, and always masterful in its craft. Loory's stories have a quiet intelligence, one that is as inclusive as it is singular. There's no one writing stories quite like this, fantastic stories where so much happens in a few short pages, stories that operate very much within their own logic, a logic that is as persuasive as the dream to the dreamer, stories where humans can fly, animals can talk, and readers can listen to the words spoken by the hearts of writers.

Favorite stories: The Frog and the Bird, The Telescope, The Sloth, Fernando, The Writer, The Lemon Tree

[Sarah Booth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got an advanced copy of this and read it voraciously. These are fun fast bits of fantasy and surrealism that are satisfying as fairy tales and also on a deeper psychological level. They make you want to not only read more of the author but also to sit down and write yourself. You think "if I allowed myself to write unabashed, this is how I'd do it." This is a very very satisfying book of stories that I'll be giving copies of to friends.

[Jenny Robinson]

I did the audio on this book. The actor was great but I wish I had actually turned the pages. This is one of those books you leave laying around and randomly grab to read a story now and again. Each story appears simplistic but has so many underlining meanings that make you think. Basically you can see each as simple or you can see the as so complex you are left thinking about the alternative meaning after. Very thoughtful stories.

[Ray Nessly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good stuff! Loved this collection of wacky tales. Favorites: 'The Squid Who Fell in Love with the Sun', 'The Man, The Restaurant, and the Eiffel Tower', 'Spiders', 'The Astronaut', and 'The Woman, the Letter, the Mirror, and the Door'. Ben Loory is an intriguing writer. I'll be seeking out more of his work, definitely.
http://www.latimes.com/books/la-ca-jc...

[Kyle Muntz · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's a strange kind of magic in these stories. I'm not clear if it's better than Loory's first collection (which is one of my favorites), but it's just as readable, and it's still incredible how Loory does so much in such a small space.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read and a breath of fresh air from those more serious novels.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

fun, unique, silly, nonsensical. like a bunch of goofy dream sequences.

[Leon · Rating 5 out of 5]

With deceptively plain language and within just a few pages a story, Loory paints little universes in which a little magic and imagination overrule everyday reality. Easy to read, hard to forget.

[Juliane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE Ben Loorys short stories! And this one did not disappoint. I just wish there were more books from him.

[Jayde Meng · Rating 4 out of 5]

I LOVED this collection. Favorites include: The Sloth, The Porpoise, The Dragon, The Ocean Next Door, The Writer, and The Lemon Tree. But my absolute favorite has to be The Squid Who Fell In Love With the Sun. Some of Ben Loory's stories can make you feel empty after reading them, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but my favorite ones were the ones that made me feel full. They remind me of Raymond Carver's poem Happiness, or the Fairyland series by Catherynne M. Valente.
Loory writes with everything. Beautifully written, with the maximum amount of hope and emotion injected into every word. The basic style is simplistic and minimalist, but the stories always make you think a lot. There's a lot of different topics covered and many characters, so it's hard to generalize about the book and make certain judgements when every story is so different.
The one thing I might change about this series is to have some of the stories include more finality. It gets tiring to read this book in one go when most of the stories require a lot of interpretation because of their open-endedness. In my opinion, the best way to enjoy this book is to read it slowly, perhaps a story today, to let each one really sink in and enjoy it fully. But it's SO hard to restrain yourself when every so often you come upon the really REALLY good ones and you want to find another one like it. I can't wait for the next of Loory's stories!