Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Jan 23, 2011 12:53:19 GMT
Stranger Souls by Jim Cherry
Of all the stranger souls I've met
none are stranger than these,
& none stranger than me.
The thing is
all these selves
... are me
Those already familiar with Jim's works know of his dynamic use of imagery and mastery of dialogue.
Those who don't know of Jim's writing need to get with the program. It is perhaps the modern day equivalent of being hip to Kerouac while ‘On The Road’ still lived on an unpublished scroll.
This latest collection of short stories begins in a bar.
It's the same dimly lit, salty smelling working man's bar we all know. But Jim brings it alive for us in ways the alcohol has made us forget.
"I'm down to my last dollar, what should I do? Tip the bartender?
Or get a beer?
New moralities are born everyday, new values hourly..."
After leaving the bar Jim takes us through the eyes of other people we know,
we know them because in each of these souls exists our very own soul,
our very own essence.
Why do we bother to read books in the twenty-first century?
For entertainment?
There are films and video for that now.
Is it just for entertainment? No, it's something more.
Something more than just sloshing along through pages and pages of words.
It's the texture I feel that film and audio does not provide.
After all once a scene in a film is over, even hitting the rewind button does not invoke those same feelings as the written word.
Whereas rereading a certain passage gives us the vicarious feeling that those words are indeed our feelings, our thoughts, our emotions.
Stranger Souls by Jim Cherry is a collection of short stories that implores the reader that these stories are his or her own.
That in fact these words are not Jim's but somehow stolen through the ether
and adopted as his own.
Jim's use of imagery somehow invokes the reader to think that indeed these weird scenes are their own, somehow told via a third disembodied voice.
That somehow this author has crept inside their mind and plastered their experiences to text.
But yet in every chapter lies an unseen, unprovoked ending.
Leaving one to think, "I thought it was going this way, but I never expected that." It's this type of writing that sets Jim's work apart from others.
Buy Jim's book, the interview and conversation with Jim Morrison alone makes it worth the price.
reviewed exclusively for Doors4Scorpywag by Michael White
Of all the stranger souls I've met
none are stranger than these,
& none stranger than me.
The thing is
all these selves
... are me
Those already familiar with Jim's works know of his dynamic use of imagery and mastery of dialogue.
Those who don't know of Jim's writing need to get with the program. It is perhaps the modern day equivalent of being hip to Kerouac while ‘On The Road’ still lived on an unpublished scroll.
This latest collection of short stories begins in a bar.
It's the same dimly lit, salty smelling working man's bar we all know. But Jim brings it alive for us in ways the alcohol has made us forget.
"I'm down to my last dollar, what should I do? Tip the bartender?
Or get a beer?
New moralities are born everyday, new values hourly..."
After leaving the bar Jim takes us through the eyes of other people we know,
we know them because in each of these souls exists our very own soul,
our very own essence.
Why do we bother to read books in the twenty-first century?
For entertainment?
There are films and video for that now.
Is it just for entertainment? No, it's something more.
Something more than just sloshing along through pages and pages of words.
It's the texture I feel that film and audio does not provide.
After all once a scene in a film is over, even hitting the rewind button does not invoke those same feelings as the written word.
Whereas rereading a certain passage gives us the vicarious feeling that those words are indeed our feelings, our thoughts, our emotions.
Stranger Souls by Jim Cherry is a collection of short stories that implores the reader that these stories are his or her own.
That in fact these words are not Jim's but somehow stolen through the ether
and adopted as his own.
Jim's use of imagery somehow invokes the reader to think that indeed these weird scenes are their own, somehow told via a third disembodied voice.
That somehow this author has crept inside their mind and plastered their experiences to text.
But yet in every chapter lies an unseen, unprovoked ending.
Leaving one to think, "I thought it was going this way, but I never expected that." It's this type of writing that sets Jim's work apart from others.
Buy Jim's book, the interview and conversation with Jim Morrison alone makes it worth the price.
reviewed exclusively for Doors4Scorpywag by Michael White