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Chimera: Four Stories and a Novelette
How “chimerical” have we allowed our world to become? Have our ego-driven obsessions shut out the magical such-ness of Being? Chimera takes its name from Greek mythology and, across five stories representing different points of modern crises, spins it into a metaphor for what our human experience is becoming.
Written from the perspective of various “identities” comprising the author’s life (Southerner, American expatriate, hip-hop head, millennial, spiritual thinker), Chimera is a compact, eclectic volume of stories that reflects our global crossroads in a style all its own.
Written from the perspective of various “identities” comprising the author’s life (Southerner, American expatriate, hip-hop head, millennial, spiritual thinker), Chimera is a compact, eclectic volume of stories that reflects our global crossroads in a style all its own.
130 pages, Paperback
Published April 3, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 27, 2019
Two and a half stars
July 3, 2017
This fine work of four stories and a novelette - the first of what promises to be an illustrious literary life for Julian Mihdi - introduces the reader to a wide range of colorful, worldly, contemplative and, ultimately, life affirming characters whose stories linger with you long after you close the cover on this short (113 pages) but powerful book.
Mihdi's mastery of the written word, his ability to paint a vivid picture with the perfect word choice, carries the reader along on waves of imagery so alive that these narrative tales often seem to take flight into poetry ("The next morning I awoke from a peaceful rest to the sound of chimes glittering on the surface of a cool breeze. It must have been mid-morning; the heat had begun to lightly flap its wings and soon would gain predatory momentum"). Mihdi breaths life into his characters with language that ideally matches their singular quest for a higher state of being.
The stories themselves take the reader from an antique store in Georgia (owned by a man determined to put his adventurous inner life into a biography), to the streets of Siam (where our guide is a shimmering blue sapphire being with a unicorn horn) to a tiny Malaysian island (where an Italian sailor relays his tale of discovering Hitler still alive - "I met him in 1956...Eleven years after he committed suicide") to the basketball theatre of Washington, D.C.'s Anacostia neighborhood (where the language of the streets and basketball rule) and to a maybe-not-so-future world where we can escape our lives into a fantasy of our own making via technology. Inspirational, funny and thought provoking, they each resonate with a unique sense of discovery and encouragement to adventure further.
While eclectic in nature, this collection of stories all share one common thread: humanity in search of a better self, a balance between ego, humility and spirituality. Through these tales of people who are overcoming themselves, history and their surroundings to find that perfect balance, the reader finds an open door through which to explore their own journey toward that end.
Mihdi's mastery of the written word, his ability to paint a vivid picture with the perfect word choice, carries the reader along on waves of imagery so alive that these narrative tales often seem to take flight into poetry ("The next morning I awoke from a peaceful rest to the sound of chimes glittering on the surface of a cool breeze. It must have been mid-morning; the heat had begun to lightly flap its wings and soon would gain predatory momentum"). Mihdi breaths life into his characters with language that ideally matches their singular quest for a higher state of being.
The stories themselves take the reader from an antique store in Georgia (owned by a man determined to put his adventurous inner life into a biography), to the streets of Siam (where our guide is a shimmering blue sapphire being with a unicorn horn) to a tiny Malaysian island (where an Italian sailor relays his tale of discovering Hitler still alive - "I met him in 1956...Eleven years after he committed suicide") to the basketball theatre of Washington, D.C.'s Anacostia neighborhood (where the language of the streets and basketball rule) and to a maybe-not-so-future world where we can escape our lives into a fantasy of our own making via technology. Inspirational, funny and thought provoking, they each resonate with a unique sense of discovery and encouragement to adventure further.
While eclectic in nature, this collection of stories all share one common thread: humanity in search of a better self, a balance between ego, humility and spirituality. Through these tales of people who are overcoming themselves, history and their surroundings to find that perfect balance, the reader finds an open door through which to explore their own journey toward that end.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews