Publisher:
Raider Publishing International
Genre: Literary
Short Stories
Page count:156
Order It: US|International
The Kingstonains is a collection of
short stories that deals with the human condition in its many forms.
The characters in this book are all unique, and they are all
connected through the city of Kingston. Many people live in Kingston
but the characters in this book are special because they all have a
particularly interesting story about them. Jimmy - a hard-working
young man who dreams of one day owning his very own mustang, Sam - a
maturing young boy who questions the existence of Santa Claus,
Navarro - a carpenter who retires early in anticipation of a big
storm, and Charles - a blind man who is waiting for the day when he
can finally see, are a few of the kingstonians presented in this
book.
My Review
This collection
of short stories begins with a story called “The Prince”. While
reading this story I repeatedly felt frustrated, throwing the book
down and exclaiming “Really?!” to whoever was around me at the
time. The main character – Pete - just annoyed the hell out of me.
I just couldn't understand why he was just so stupid! I remember at
the time thinking it wasn't a very promising start to the book. When
the story ended, however, I remember smiling and then babbling on and
on about it. I realized I just loved to hate Pete. His actions were
entertaining and he was well written. And so began my adventure
through The Kingstonians.
“The
Prince” is immediately followed by a story called “The Well”. I
don't want to tell you too much about it because I think it'll be a
better experience if you go in blind. This is probably my favourite
story in the collection. It's gripping, it's moving. It radiates
emotion but is also so dark. The first two stories are so
dramatically different that you have to keep reading just too see
what's going to pop up next.
Thankfully,
the variety continues through out the collection. Some stories make
you laugh (“The Manipulative Woman”), others are completely
heartbreaking (“The Visionary”) and some make you think about
society (“The Vroom”). It's pretty remarkable really, the range
of ideas and styles that are going on in this book. All that being
said, however, they were not all gems. Some were a little corny, and
others needed a little polishing. Not all by any means, but one in
particular made me feel like I was reading a creative writing
assignment. This isn't so much a criticism of the writer, however,
but of the publisher. I think with some stronger editing, or maybe
more selective story placement, these problems may have been avoided.
This was an
interesting and varied collection of stories from a young debut
author. The stories were fun to read and no two were a like. A
feature I very much admire in a short story collection. I generally
don't read collections like this because I tend to sit the book down
after a couple stories and get too distracted to pick it back up
again. This was not the case with The Kingstonians.
I think this is partly because I lived in Kingston Ontario for so
many years and felt a happy nostalgia while reading it. I also went
to Queen's University which is featured prominently in a number of
stories. Sometimes it felt like he was writing about people I
actually knew! But these weren't the only reasons I enjoyed this
collection. The stories were interesting and they often surprised me
(in a good way). I think J.R. Vassallo is a promising author and I
would like to read more of his work in the future.
About the Author
J.R. Vassallo is a Maltese-Canadian
writer, who is currently living in South Korea.
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I avoid collections unless the subject matter or the author is something that I enjoy. (Recently really enjoyed Neil Gaiman's M is for Magic). I think it's great that you found something that you could really connect with, I love that feeling.
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