Staff Review: The Octopus Has Three Hearts

Title/Author: The Octopus Has Three Hearts - Rachel Rose

Genre(s): Literary Fiction, Short Stories, Women’s Stories

In this Giller longlisted collection of short stories Rose manages to capture just what it means to be good people subjected to bad situations. This collection functions as a study  on "bad people", people making poor decisions, and those that are affected by them both. Rose's prose is poetic and pungent, with each story offering a new perspective on how people respond to elements of fear, anger, jealousy, and the unknown.

Reviewed by: Shelby

Staff Review: The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

Title/Author: The Book of Laughter and Forgetting - Milan Kundera

Genre(s): Literary Fiction, Short Stories, Modern Classics

In 7 short stories, Kundera talks about the horror of forgotten history. My personal favourite short story is "Lost Letters (Part 4)", in which the protagonist Tamina struggles to remember her deceased husband and her hometown, Prague. The "Lost Letters" were her only connection left  with this place. Readers go through this mental turmoil with her and together with the author, we lament the tragedy of the Czech and the loss of history. "The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against  forgetting."

Reviewed by: Ingrid

Staff Review: Laughable Loves

Title/Author: Laughable Loves - Milan Kundera

Genre(s): Literary Fiction, Short Stories, Humour

If you sometimes find Kundera's books too heavy, this book will be a change of flavour. Also with 7 short stories, Kundera humourously write about erotic relationships between the characters, the sort of mind games that lovers play, the facade we put on when we try to  impress someone and how sometimes we end up looking like a clown. This book is also Kundera's last book written in Czech and this is his last connection with his hometown, Prague. It is quite a transformation to see how the author gradually comes to terms with the Czech history from a humour-point-of-view.

Reviewed by: Ingrid

Staff Review: The Pump

Title/Author: The Pump - Sydney Warner Brooman

Genre(s): Short Stories, Magical Realism, LGBTQ+

Brooman's debut collection of short stories reads like a mixture of magical realism, horror, and Southern Ontario Gothic. Each story adds to the terrifying world of The Pump - a small Ontario town that has become so polluted by local factories that its entire ecosystem has become completely disturbed. Together Brooman's stories entwine to rope you further into each character's unsettling tale, with prose haunting and elegant. The world that Brooman creates is the real highlight of this debut. Dare to enter the corrupted life of The Pump at your own risk.

Reviewed by: Shelby