Family dinner somehow becomes more mundane after Uncle Colin does a fatal face plant into the plum pudding. A lonely old widower sits at home and participates in conversations he records whilst riding the bus. Curled up like a comma, a woman lies in bed and remembers the exclamation-mark man her partner once was.
These brief, vivid glimpses into the lives of others lay bare the ugliness and absurdity - but also the beauty - of existence. In his flash fictions Gary Duncan explores what it means to be human with insight, compassion and humour.
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[He was James when they met, before he became Jim and then Big Jim (SNAP)](Vagabond Voices, 21 March 2017, 152 pages, paperback, borrowed from my library)
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This is my first time reading the author.
I thoroughly enjoyed each and every tiny little story in this collection. Flash fiction can be hard to pull off. Its short length doesn't mean it's easy. Quite the opposite.
Duncan gets is right every time.
One of the most enjoyable things is the diversity of the stories in this collection. The characters and situation are wide ranging. Every page offers a surprise and no two stories are the same. Some stories are funny, others sad and moving, a few were chilly and many things in between.
My favourites stories were Black And Blue, The Woods, Safe, In The Event Of A Zombie Apocalypse, The Fourth Wife, Uncle Colin, While She Sleeps, Rapeseed, Heavy Lifting and My Wife Left Me.
You're Not Supposed To Cry is a fantastic little collection of little delights.