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Everything, Then and Since
Whether ferrying slowly across an eastern North Carolina river or reaching out to touch a train that’s not about to stop, the wanderers in these stories yearn for what they can’t quite grasp. It might be what they’ve left behind or what lies ahead, but whatever it is, it won’t leave them alone. Regret and marvel, trouble and love—it’s Everything, Then and Since.
- GenresFiction
112 pages, Paperback
Published November 14, 2017
2 people are currently reading
78 people want to read
About the author
Michael Parker
11 books69 followersMICHAEL PARKER is the author of five novels – Hello Down There, Towns Without Rivers, Virginia Lovers, If You Want Me To Stay, The Watery Part of the World and two collections of stories, The Geographical Cure and Don’t Make Me Stop Now. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in various journals including Five Points, the Georgia Review, The Idaho Review, the Washington Post, the New York Times Magazine, Oxford American, Shenandoah, The Black Warrior Review, Trail Runner and Runner’s World. He has received fellowships in fiction from the North Carolina Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the Hobson Award for Arts and Letters, and the North Carolina Award for Literature. His work has been anthologized in the Pushcart, New Stories from the South and O. Henry Prize Stories anthologies. A graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill and the University of Virginia, he is a Professor in the MFA Writing Program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. His website is www.michaelfparker.com
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
April 12, 2018
Parker is a wonderful discovery for me. Did not know of his work before. Beautiful stories. Two are now in the forthcoming Best Small Fictions 2018, which says more than I can about the quality of his prose. Some simply stunning stories.
July 17, 2020
This is one of my favorite flash fiction/short story collections, and I've read it through twice so far. I love reading it as a reader (just enjoying the stories) and love reading it as a writer (where I'm trying to figure out how Parker constructed such perfect stories).
My favorite story, hands down, is "Never Mind," but they're really all wonderful stories. I also love the variety of settings and characters. Amazing work!
My favorite story, hands down, is "Never Mind," but they're really all wonderful stories. I also love the variety of settings and characters. Amazing work!
December 8, 2017
I'm a fan of Micheal Parker and partial to his work, but this one absolutely floored me.
These are short, even for short stories, but in their scope and sense they read like novels - this book covers more ground in 90 something pages then books that are 400, 500, pages long. The economy of language is so impressive and I feel like this is written with such consideration for the reader - a refusal to waste even a single moment of our time.
I honestly don't know that I've gotten my mind around exactly how good this is book is yet - it will go in my pantheon of all time favorites.
These are short, even for short stories, but in their scope and sense they read like novels - this book covers more ground in 90 something pages then books that are 400, 500, pages long. The economy of language is so impressive and I feel like this is written with such consideration for the reader - a refusal to waste even a single moment of our time.
I honestly don't know that I've gotten my mind around exactly how good this is book is yet - it will go in my pantheon of all time favorites.
September 22, 2018
Clean, fluidly shifting scenes, striking metaphors and settings. My favorite sentence in this collection of stories: “. . . she wanted the doom she’d felt to be blown right through her by the breeze sucked from the sky by the fan” (11).
September 4, 2019
This is the kind of review I dread. The book is by a well-published and applauded writer. The book came beyond highly recommended - it was raved about. So I sat down with great expectations.
So let's do the good part first. This is a collection of flash fiction. Some of these stories are just breathtaking. My very favorite was one called The Frontier, which was full and complete and just lovely, including such sentences as, "He grew so self-conscious he could feel his eyebrows." My second favorite story, Clearly The System Has Failed, has the unlikely combination of geeky brilliant student in a business machines classroom. And my third favorite is only listed as third because it's not a short story - it's a prose poem. My favorite line here: "She held onto that clicker as if it were her first ever doll baby, carved from a corncob by her daddy before the dust kicked up and blew them out of the Panhandle." The "clicker" here is a TV remote.
So there's the lovely. But therein lies the problem. Did you see how I called the last piece a prose poem? Not a short story? Not even a flash fiction story.
So many of these stories were not stories. They left me scratching my head, saying, "Well, okay, what happens next? What is this about?" This is the number 1 problem with flash fiction - writers write'em short, leave off any character development or plot, and call them flash fiction. They're not. They're scenes.
I was at least relieved that when I slid to the acknowledgments page, the stories that weren't stories weren't there. They hadn't been accepted by magazines before the publication of this book. I know why.
The other thing that drove me nuts was that this writer never met a comma that he liked. Look at the sentence I gave as an example in my favorite story: "He grew so self-conscious he could feel his eyebrows." Wrong. "He grew so self-conscious COMMA he could feel his eyebrows." Now in this particular story, leaving out the comma didn't change the meaning - I knew what the writer was trying to say. But in innumerable examples, the lack of a comma changed the meaning, requiring the reader to read the sentence several times and in several different versions to figure it out.
So, basically, when this book was good, it was stellar. But when it was bad, it was aggravating because it didn't have to be. I do wish I could have given it 3 1/2 stars, but that didn't seem to be possible.
So let's do the good part first. This is a collection of flash fiction. Some of these stories are just breathtaking. My very favorite was one called The Frontier, which was full and complete and just lovely, including such sentences as, "He grew so self-conscious he could feel his eyebrows." My second favorite story, Clearly The System Has Failed, has the unlikely combination of geeky brilliant student in a business machines classroom. And my third favorite is only listed as third because it's not a short story - it's a prose poem. My favorite line here: "She held onto that clicker as if it were her first ever doll baby, carved from a corncob by her daddy before the dust kicked up and blew them out of the Panhandle." The "clicker" here is a TV remote.
So there's the lovely. But therein lies the problem. Did you see how I called the last piece a prose poem? Not a short story? Not even a flash fiction story.
So many of these stories were not stories. They left me scratching my head, saying, "Well, okay, what happens next? What is this about?" This is the number 1 problem with flash fiction - writers write'em short, leave off any character development or plot, and call them flash fiction. They're not. They're scenes.
I was at least relieved that when I slid to the acknowledgments page, the stories that weren't stories weren't there. They hadn't been accepted by magazines before the publication of this book. I know why.
The other thing that drove me nuts was that this writer never met a comma that he liked. Look at the sentence I gave as an example in my favorite story: "He grew so self-conscious he could feel his eyebrows." Wrong. "He grew so self-conscious COMMA he could feel his eyebrows." Now in this particular story, leaving out the comma didn't change the meaning - I knew what the writer was trying to say. But in innumerable examples, the lack of a comma changed the meaning, requiring the reader to read the sentence several times and in several different versions to figure it out.
So, basically, when this book was good, it was stellar. But when it was bad, it was aggravating because it didn't have to be. I do wish I could have given it 3 1/2 stars, but that didn't seem to be possible.
July 12, 2021
A very enjoyable collection of shorts, most told in some form of very voicey Southern/ Appalachian monologue. We've got all kinds here-- stories where the climax turns on misunderstanding a word or phrase, or stories of coming of age. We've got stories about outsiders new to the place, and stories about those left behind. We've got some that center people who have made bad choices, often around drink, drugs, or sex, and those about older people at the end of their days. Some of them mount short narratives, and some really are just monologues of 500wds or so.
It's a solid collection. I enjoyed reading it a good deal. And like any book of shorts, even one that is very accomplished, as this one is, it was hard not to wear out its welcome before the end of 100pps.
It's a solid collection. I enjoyed reading it a good deal. And like any book of shorts, even one that is very accomplished, as this one is, it was hard not to wear out its welcome before the end of 100pps.
December 19, 2017
I have always really enjoyed short stories and have a great fondness for short short stories... those 2-3 page stories that capture a fleeting glimpse or a stolen second of perspective. Michael Parker does not disappoint in this slim version of people tales. All of his books have interested me and this one can be added to the list. His is a great voice that examines that idea that is hovering just below the surface of events.
September 16, 2017
A rich and sonorous chapbook of short (sometimes very short) pieces by one of our most observant, full-throated, mood-conjuring writers. If you want a sense of where Southern fiction is headed, check this one out. Published by the inventive Bull City Press.
May 24, 2018
This collection of short, short stories packs a punch. Parker does a tremendous job of evoking imagery and rendering characters that are believable and relatable. I'm happy when I find a writer like this, one that reminds me of Wallace Stegner and/or Lydia Peelle.
October 2, 2017
A beautiful collection of short short fiction that is cinematic and visceral and seemingly come from every walk of life. Many of these pieces linger in your head.
June 12, 2019
All the great makings of compelling short fiction, these stories are concise, powerful little nuggets that shine brightly. What an exceptional writer.
November 4, 2019
Every single one of these stories has characters in it. Astounding!
March 9, 2023
some were great
some were good
and some were meh
my favorite was towards the end, “Clearly the System Has Failed” (I would read that one again and again)
some were good
and some were meh
my favorite was towards the end, “Clearly the System Has Failed” (I would read that one again and again)
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews