Book Review: Meredith Alling's Sing the Song

My book reviews tend to be a little unorthodox. I used to write book reviews for some various venues over the years. It wasn't super satisfying work... as much as I enjoyed the idea of making people aware of a really good book. The displeasure came from working with editors who had a very specific idea of what a book review should be. It was tedious going back and forth (but maybe I just wasn't a very good book reviewer, I don't know). It just felt like the review had to go through so many damn rounds of rewrites.

It turned me off from writing book reviews to be honest.

But now, with an active blog... well, I'm the editor, and I write the reviews any damn way I want.

Yes, I'm feeling sassy today.

About a month ago, I finished Meredith Alling's book of flash fiction entitled Sing the Song.

The short review? If you're curious about flash fiction, how it functions, and what it should do... well, you should buy this book. Alling is a master of the craft. Much could be learned. Of course, you won't necessarily end up being Alling. You can't. You shouldn't. You're you. You'll write flash fiction pieces inspired by your own ideas.

Sing the Song is more than simply a study guide for how flash fiction should function. Alling brings a unique aesthetic as to the kinds of topics flash fiction (or any fiction) can tackle. As Kathy Fish remarks in her blurb for the book, "Meredith Alling made the world look different for a time. Sharper, funnier, and alive. All by the power of these stories." I can't say it better than that... or in any way that emphasizes any better the veracity of Fish's words. Fish is a master fiction writer too, so it doesn't surprise me that she writes a helluva blurb.

(Now see, a book review editor would say, "You can't just crib Fish's words. That's lazy. You should say something. Maybe you could say the prose is "gorgeous" or "breathtaking" or it "sparkles." To which I would say, "Fuck you, book review editor, if I use those words, I'm just cribbing every other book reviewer who uses those throw away, hyperbolized words in lieu of saying something meaningful.")

So, you want that? You want a world that looks different for a time? Is sharper? Is funnier? Is alive? (you know, like Kathy Fish says?) Then buy this book... you really should.

Okay, so I can hear that inner book review editor saying, "And you gotta get some quotes in there from the book."

That I agree with, but don't tell me what to do. I was going to do that without you, inner book review editor. Go work on your relationship with your estranged father or whatever made you such a know-it-all asshole.

Sing the Song comes out of the gate hard... like just swinging for the fences with the flash story, "Other Babies." It uses an approach that I've seen before in flash fiction (a story that amounts to a list), but it's doing it in a way that makes the world look different. ("Hey, you're cribbing Kathy Fish again!" I clear my throat, "Well, hey, inner book review editor, go back and reread my profanity from above. Here's a hint, it rhymes with Luck Too."

So, "Other Babies" is this list about babies... different kinds of babies. Other babies. It's pretty damn wild and creative and exhibits gorgeous prose (damn it, I did it.)

Here's an excerpt:

"Other babies have four television screens positioned around their heads for total saturation. The outside world ceases to exist. These babies make friends with the pink cat. They think of stumps as seats. They aren't curious about anything. They don't ask any questions at all. Other babies are leaf dwellers. They prefer the dirt and they cocoon themselves in the leaves. They bite a breathing hole through their leaf wrap. The darkness is welcome; no eye holes. Their bodies turn cold and tight, and then they bloom. Other babies hang on rear windshield wipers until a member of a driving family says, 'There's a baby back there, on the wipers.' They pull over and pry the baby's fingers from the wipers; a surprisingly tight grip. Then they brush the flies and grime from its body and decide to love it. Other babies can smell when meat is perfectly cooked. They let out a violent bark, like a seizure-sensing dog sensing a seizure. Ready the fork and the spoon. These babies end up kitchen companions, propped on the counter, maybe strapped to a cupboard with a bungee cord."

("Ok, that quote is just too long," the inner book review editor says. "Hey, inner book review editor... again, see the F.U. above)

Here's what I'm saying... read that passage above again. Think of the mind at work behind that story, behind those sentences. That mind, with the prose power to match, wrote a book with 26 other flash fiction stories in it. I think you should want that. That's kind of the end of my review and, in short, I'm saying buy this book, read this book, celebrate small presses and flash fiction through your purchase of this book.

Buy it directly through the press: here

Or you can go to Amazonopoly... whatever it takes.

How did I come across this book? Well, as I've mentioned in previous posts, when I submit a manuscript to a small press, I usually buy a book from their catalog. To feather my nest and improve my chances? Not really (maybe a little)... but no, to support them in the way I'm asking, through my submission, for them to maybe support me.

Did the Future Tense editors like my book? No, they didn't. They sent it back to me via other babies... carrier pigeon babies that ate the pages of my manuscript and then shit them all over the roof of my house, rectangular blotches of baby shit the color of bird shit all over my shingles that won't come off even with the strongest cleaner that the one-armed woman at Tractor Supply Company told me to buy.

So, that's to say, this is a completely unbiased review. If I were a different person (had I been born some other baby, like say a Vindictive Baby, I could have purposely, but inaccurately, wrote a terrible review out of some petty vengeance.)

That's silly though. If you're going to send your work out for publication, you grow thick skin. You shrug off the rejections just like you take the acceptances with a grain of salt.

Alling wrote a great book. Future Tense chose, wisely, to publish it.

And, I'm saying, without bias or benefit to me that you should get your hands on a copy.

If you find my book reviews enlightening or illuminating, please consider purchasing a copy of my new book of short stories, The Neighborhood Division. (along with getting the damn book I just reviewed).

From the Publisher (preferred): here

From Amazon: here

Book Trailer: here