Fragmentations
Embracing the mysteries of being human, Fragmentations is a surreal and evocative short story collection.
Isabella Falconeri’s artful story collection Fragmentations explores the human condition through brief, dreamy sequences.
This eclectic collection includes short scenes, narrative tales, and poetic musings on serious issues. Blending fantasy, horror, and psychological thriller themes, the entries pique the subconscious, tackling complex human issues and emotions. Some focus on the accidental creation and manipulation of religion. “The War Dead” examines the afterlife through the lens of a combat veteran killed in action; “The Story of Death” creates an analogy for how death was introduced into the world.
“The Ranger” is told from a police officer’s perspective as he tries to understand how a girl in his town became evil despite growing up in a loving home. Diving into trauma, “Black and White and Blue” involves a girl on a train who holds a box of nightmares given to her by her mother. The recurrent theme of embracing the mysteries of being human is threaded throughout the entries, which evoke a host of emotional responses related to injustice and the dark side of human nature.
The stories are written in a cryptic and fragmentary style in which the white space between sentences is prevalent. They move between concrete, sensory details and abstractions in an accessible manner, exuding emotive lyricism. Still, minimal context is provided, and some stories hold audiences at a distance, mirroring dream sequences in which answers are often omitted. For example, “Alaska” follows a young woman trapped in a cabin rented to her and her friends by a bartender. She wakes at night to one of her friends screaming and finds that her other friends have left. This leads her to find hidden doors, half-dead Swedes, and paranormal activity. However, the motives and involvement of the insidious bartender, why her friends left without telling her, and other elements remain open ended, resulting in disorientation.
Indeed, the internal development varies from story to story. In “The War Dead” and “The Ranger,” enough information is provided to understand who the characters are, if on a shallow level. However, most stories rest their characterizations in mere glimpses, evading greater arcs or transformations. Further, many plots are unresolved, with entries jumping into the inciting action sans context and then moving along at an engaging pace.
An abstract short story collection, Fragmentations takes a surreal, poetic approach to understanding core human emotions and experiences.
Reviewed by
N.T. McQueen
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
