Falling : A novella

by Chris Bruce

1969, Italy. Change is in the air. A year has passed since students and workers took control on the streets of Paris. Young people everywhere now believe they can improvise a new social order.

Adam, a young English art student, runs into Maria Pia, a photographer — little suspecting the profound consequences their meeting will soon have. She believes self-expression can have no limits. What does it mean to be absolutely free? Casually manipulative, she recruits Adam and his two friends — Laura and Danny — to take part in an experiment where all restraints are removed. But the flimsy ties that hold a man together can unravel.

‘Falling’ takes the reader back to a unique time of revolutionary excitement for a psychological drama, at once poignant and comedic, that delves into what truly ‘makes a man’.

80 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 6, 2020

Reviews

[Fin Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Falling is a short novella that, as a reader, you wish to be lengthier and enjoy the richly drawn characters a bit longer. I had to ration it because I knew it was going to be over way too soon. Chris Bruce writes with an assuredness and grasp of vocabulary that immediately leads you to think that he's been writing for decades.

There are so many quotable lines in this short piece of writing a few of which I feel compelled to quote here to demonstrate the richness of the author's writing, lines that stay with you long after you've finished the story:

"As she turned away, she darted me a bruised look, as if I'd betrayed her trust"

'She invited interrogation, yet met the simplest enquiries with the coyness that suggested that she was on the verge of divulging secrets'

'I was the Visigoths entering Rome, I was Atilla before Vienna, I was the rolling stones on the road'

The use of language and metaphor keep you feeling the drugged stupour of the protagonist, Adam, almost as if you are partaking in the intoxication of the evening. The rich use of language draws you in while jangling your senses pulling you relentlessly into Maria Pia's seance and its aftermath.

Chris Bruce displays a wide bohemian knowledge that is convincing and pleasurable to read as well as edifying. A talented author who promises to give us more. I look forward to his first full-length novel; if this serves as a sampler, we all have a lot to look forward to. UNequivocally a five star read.

[Ruby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Falling is a small, but perfectly-formed, work of fiction from Chris Bruce. Set in Italy in 1969, it chronicles the relationships within a group of free-thinking natives and ex-pats who embark on a experimental adventure. Like his protagonist, Adam, the author is an artist and so chapters are punctuated with his bold pen-and-ink drawings. It’s a lovely touch although such is Bruce’s way with words, his descriptive prose paints a vivid picture by itself. He has a knack of putting things in the prefect nutshell – a couple in a failing romance hold conversations ‘prospecting for a way to end things’; dawn is described as ‘Indigo rinsed from the night sky’; that TGIF feeling has the long-awaited weekend ‘unfurled before us like clean white sheets’. It really is a lovely read. My only, inevitable since it’s novella-length, criticism is that there’s not enough of it. Bruce creates such believable characters that, on reaching the end, you feel like new friendships have been nipped in the bud. I can only hope that Adam et al resurface in futures works.

[Sharon Bandhold · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb Story! Fabulous Writing!

It's hard to believe this is the first of Chris Bruce's writings! Phenomenal!! I feel like I was transported back in time, to a lifestyle & culture I was too young to've experienced but have only read about. I am in awe & envy of how well he's able to weave such an irridescent story! The Renaissance man that this writer is has GOT to keep writing - - he's THAT good! ~Sharon Bandhold, Librarian (retired), Plattsburgh (NY) Public Library