Pipette

by Kim Chinquee

A novel told in flash fiction style. Pipette starts with a woman on a train returning from the ballet, to her dogs, her partner. Trouble at home escalates. The country is on edge. She tries to escape a threatening situation. Then comes a pandemic; our protagonist hangs out with her dogs, manages remote teaching. With leitmotifs of skiing, dogs, trains, waterways, birds, nature, spiritual guides, triathlons, she writes, she teaches, she swims/bikes/runs. The novel dips into her past―trauma, relationships, activities, working in the lab―which pendulums, then finally propels forward.

Genres: Flash Fiction

140 pages, Paperback

Published November 30, 2022

Reviews

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kim Chinquee at her finest. This experimental novel-in-flashes succeeds in compiling countless abbreviated but full moments to create a whole that is richer than the sum of its parts. A fascinating look into the life of a woman trying to navigate her way beyond trauma during a traumatic time, the recent covid pandemic. It's both a sad and triumphant novel, beautifully rendered.

[Babak · Rating 5 out of 5]

A novel of quiet beauty. Though the focus is mainly on the domestic—the narrator runs, bikes, walks her dogs, enters and exits relationships, meets friends, works—there is something that transcends beyond the page and does much more here.

I have been a fan of Chinquee’s short work, but this I think is my favourite of hers.

From the novel:

“Longing. Lounging. Lunging. Hating waking up. Biting my fingernails. Finding a gem of a flower in my yard. Holding my puppy. Hugging my puppy. Picking up my puppy's poop.”

“I've had dreams of animals in lipstick, licking honey, playing etudes on my piano, making fun of my alarm dock.”

[Lydia Gwyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A novel in flash, from the queen of flash fiction, Kim Chinquee’s Pipette is a masterpiece of the form. Chinquee’s prose sings from the page and follows a time in the life of a fifty-something narrator as she deals with both past and present traumas and troubles in the wake of COVID. Each chapter is a delicious sip and at times a gulp into the world of a narrator who finds beauty in the ordinary amidst the challenges and pains in her life and in the world. Written in smart, elegant bursts that beg to be devoured at once, Pipette could easily be a quick read, but this is a book to be savored and read slowly, if only to stay with its narrator just a little while longer.

[Joan Wilking]

Three time Pushcart Prize winner Kim Chinquee has made a name for herself as a premiere stylist of flash fiction. Now she has applied her skill and insight to her first novel, a tale told in small bites. Each bite leads to an expectation of where the next bite will to lead. They all add up to a whole that takes a serpentine ride through the life of a woman in middle age confronting and then navigating painful aspects of her past and present to find herself alone facing the challenges presented by Covid. Former soldier and lab technician turned writer and college professor the protagonist is a driven athlete as well. She pushes herself to the limit of everything she does. In the end she finds herself in small pleasures, a house of her own, and the unconditional companionship of her dogs. In prose as tightly strung as her protagonist. Chinquee tells a many layered story, sometimes sweet, sometimes harrowing, always compelling.

[Jan Stinchcomb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent novel in flash, covering everything (Covid, dogs, housing, love, teaching, writing, travel, fitness, death), told from the POV of a strong single woman.

[Cooper Renner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chinquee has been drawing readers to her precise, concise fictions—as much prose poem as flash fiction—for a couple of decades now, but Pipette is her first novel. A unified tale—the transpiring of a number of months in the narrator’s life, including the difficulties of relationships for 50-somethings, the navigation of Covid both as a “civilian” university professor and as a lab worker in Covid testing, and her delight in the natural world—the novel is structured as a sequence of flash chapters—some only a few sentences, the longest no more than a couple of pages—which move with the clarity and specificity of poems. Jump in!

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had read and loved several of Chinquee’s shorter fiction pieces and was fascinated to see the genre stretched to encompass a novel length work. The result is a stunningly pared down story that elicits the very emotions that evocatively are omitted from the narration. This story strikes me as the debut of a female Hemingway for the twenty-first century.

[Janelle Bailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

56: Pipette by Kim Chinquee

I am honored to have been able to read this just a little earlier than yesterday's release date, and I am extremely excited for Kim and for this book to take off big time!

If you are not familiar with flash fiction, Pipette is a wonderful opportunity to give it a try, as Kim Chinquee is one of its masters! Flash fiction is shorter than a short story, but like a short story it is complete--all character development, plot, tension, and usually a smack of an ending--but all happening in just a paragraph to a few, maybe a handful of paragraphs at most and that many fairly rare. But it isn't about a particular word count or maximum; it simply all happens: in a flash!

This is not by any means Chinquee's first flash fiction publication; she has seven published books under her belt. It is, however, her first novel. While the others are collections of flash fiction, ala a collection of short stories, Pipette is a collection of flash fiction but arranged in a viable chronological order and with--seemingly anyway--the same main character throughout.

Chinquee presents to us in this novel main character Elle, who is a bit wounded by a recent break-up. I actually argue that while she may never get back together with him, she is never completely over him either. She just gives him way too much time and attention here for her own good. She gave him more than he gave her.

And while Elle remains hung up on that guy for much of the book--and even though she runs around with, dates, has sex with, and tries several others in her rebounding, I mean recovery--it's only somewhat likely by its end that she is maybe really and truly moving on. As another grown woman who has been wounded, I truly wanted Elle to be better off--stronger and win--and wish him complete good riddance by the novel's end. Oops. That's almost a spoiler. But naw, it's not...not really.

Pipette is also set during the pandemic so addresses all sorts of things we are one day going to forget were all a part of it...or weren't a part of our lives prior...something. That's an enjoyable and relevant reflection included here as well.

Read this great book for yourself, and then let's talk. We'll likely have much more conversation than flash fiction allows!

Way to go, Kim Chinquee! Thanks for putting the flash fiction novel--and your old home stomping grounds--on the map. I'm honored and pleased to have known you long-time!

[Ruly · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a short novel told in flash fictions. Kinda refreshing seeing the writing style, addictive too, like going through tiktok or instastories. But it also kinda feels I’m reading someone’s diary bc it feels really personal. At first we can see that this Elle is a very determined 51 year old woman, she used to serve in the military and worked as a lab technician. She was also an athlete, a professor, and a writer. But on top of all those achievements I think she got underlying problems with men. There were some hints about her being abused by her father and grandfather, maybe her uncle too. And how she casually mentioned that she slept with her uncle right after her aunt’s death. They were just briefly mentioned, tho. But maybe we also see our traumas that way. Especially if we haven’t realized that it was our trauma. Maybe it’s our defense mechanism, to not talk about it so much, not acknowledging it, thinking that it wouldn’t define our life so significantly. This book was set during the pandemic. I like reading a story told from other perspective during the lock down era. It seems so long ago, but it’s only been two years. And the pandemic isn’t really over yet. I’m giving it 3/5⭐️. A fast paced refreshing story. I’ve always dreaded thinking about growing old. But this book just told me that age is just a number, you can still do anything you love at any age, given the determination.

[Len Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pipette is Kim Chinquee’s novel of a fifty-something single woman navigating the life challenges of relationships, career and family history in the age of COVID.

Chinquee, a rock star in the flash fiction world, has published several award-winning collections of flash fiction. The chapters in this novel are flash-like in length and they propel the reader through the story, like scrolling through a Tik Tok feed. It’s hard to put down.

Her prose is spare and clean and the narrative voice is dispassionate, which only makes the story more dramatic, more powerful, more heartbreaking, and ultimately more uplifting.

It is the story of a woman who does not let her fears control her life. It is a story of courage and triumph. Highly recommended.

[Nancy McCabe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started reading this short novel in small bites, since it is structured as a series of flash fiction pieces, but within a few pages didn't want to put it down. The spare and graceful prose captures the rhythm of life during the pandemic and one woman's journey to leave behind a toxic relationship, create a feeling of home during a challenging time, and find meaning in athletic pursuits, writing, teaching, and working for a lab to process Covid tests. I finished this in one day and images and moments from it have continued to stick with me. I find myself intrigued by writing that isn't at all flashy, doesn't call attention to itself or contain large dramatic moments and yet is so affecting and compelling.

[Martin Ott · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel hit me harder than I would have thought over the holidays - a taut novel in flash fiction snippets exploring the road between hurt and optimism. Chinquee's Pipette takes a tool from a lab job and expands its meeting, but everything is more in this author's hands. Small moments bloom and interlock, with questions about what it is to have grown children, to fall in and out of love, to live a creative life while paying the bills. These issues are relevant for most of the Gen Xers I know and I'm grateful to reflect on this before 2024. Looking forward to more of Chinquee's work.

[Rebe · Rating 5 out of 5]

In short bursts of sparse prose, Chinquee recreates the daily routines and rituals of a 50-something-year-old-woman navigating the joys and limits of her body, relationships, family, career and spirit under the twin shadows of COVID and war. Experimental, lyric, hypnotic, and propulsive, each flash chapter slips into place like a piece of colored glass. The result is a kind of literary kaleidoscope, where each scene holds a facet of the beautiful, the ordinary, and the tragic moments that accrue as quietly and powerfully as the days of a life.

[calathea_la_lectora · Rating 3 out of 5]

A flash fiction style novel that captivates you from its beginning lines. We follow a middle aged strong and independent woman who is forced by a sudden breakup to reinvent her life and find happiness within her own self during the pandemic. All the events are depicted in a diary-like form, which makes it a very bingeable read. She is emotionally mature although still healing from trauma, enjoys exercise and has her priorities crystal clear.

Overall, it was a very good reading experience.

I would like to express my gratitude towards the author, her team and NetGalley for the opportunity of enjoying this ARC ahead of time.