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Winter Strangers
Winter strangers did not get what they expected. Winter strangers are not in full bloom. They are in the right place at the wrong time or the wrong place at the right time or the wrong place at the wrong time.
The short stories in Winter Strangers examine dynamics of barrenness and thwarted or misrecognised satisfactions. Attempts to give or receive succour founder in the spaces of contemporary alienation where the figures that populate this book contend with the manufacturing and vitiation of their desires. A search for pleasure begins: pleasure at home, online, in work, in the body, in thought and speech, in vision and language. Winter Strangers makes contact with its reader where such pleasures reckon with loneliness and make no compromise.
The short stories in Winter Strangers examine dynamics of barrenness and thwarted or misrecognised satisfactions. Attempts to give or receive succour founder in the spaces of contemporary alienation where the figures that populate this book contend with the manufacturing and vitiation of their desires. A search for pleasure begins: pleasure at home, online, in work, in the body, in thought and speech, in vision and language. Winter Strangers makes contact with its reader where such pleasures reckon with loneliness and make no compromise.
- GenresShort Stories
82 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2019
16 people want to read
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 6, 2021
Strangers in the Night
Review of the Ma Bibliothèque paperback edition (2019)
[3 rating, average rating of the 8 stories being 3.25 out of 5]
After some initial reservation, I ended up really enjoying Isobel Wohl's debut novel Cold New Climate which was also the premiere release of new publisher Weatherglass Books. Weatherglass had commissioned the novel based on its reading of Wohl's only other work, the short story collection Winter Strangers, so I decided to investigate that as well.
Strangers was a bit of a harder entry point. Several of the stories didn't leave much of an impression at all, and if I hadn't taken notes along the way I would have been hard pressed after a few days to say that they were about. Liars left the strongest impression due to its rather bizarre circumstances. Most of the stories were very meticulous about describing actions and observations which left the impression that was the main characteristic of Wohl's style.
1. Gels ** Not a great start. Basically this is a description of the demeaning check-in procedures of modern day air travel with the title word referring to the ban on carrying canisters of liquids or gels.
2. Urticaria, or, The Hypochondriac *** Jeremy is suffering from some sort of skin rash. He consults a doctor who prescribes standard remedies. His wife Lucinda works in a morgue. The word urticaria is the medical term for the condition usually called 'hives'. This story includes the title tie-in when Jeremy buys tulips for Lucinda and describes them as "winter strangers."
3. Diagrammatic ** A woman uncovers a drawing under a floorboard and obsesses about it.
4. Liars ***** Favourite story so far. A town celebrates the feast day of the patron saint of Liars by lying to each other all day. A man finds an abandoned girl and attempts to turn her in to the police who don't believe him, saying that he is taking his lying too far. He adopts the girl instead.
5. Mission Revival **** A woman travels by airplane to her father's cremation and returns home. She observes some absurd and rude antics on the plane.
6. Very Small Ferns **** A woman is on a bus tour which visits a 'storybook house'. She later meets up with a blind date with a man who wears a gimp mask. This one was quite bizarre, but funny in its own way.
7. Your New Reptile **** A couple go to dinner with friends and discover they have a new pet iguana, a Tokay gecko. This one was rather absurdly funny.
8. Orders ** Not a great end. Basically fantasizing about Real Housewives homes while lying on a hilltop. Just a 1-page story though (spread over 2 pages).
Review of the Ma Bibliothèque paperback edition (2019)
[3 rating, average rating of the 8 stories being 3.25 out of 5]
After some initial reservation, I ended up really enjoying Isobel Wohl's debut novel Cold New Climate which was also the premiere release of new publisher Weatherglass Books. Weatherglass had commissioned the novel based on its reading of Wohl's only other work, the short story collection Winter Strangers, so I decided to investigate that as well.
Strangers was a bit of a harder entry point. Several of the stories didn't leave much of an impression at all, and if I hadn't taken notes along the way I would have been hard pressed after a few days to say that they were about. Liars left the strongest impression due to its rather bizarre circumstances. Most of the stories were very meticulous about describing actions and observations which left the impression that was the main characteristic of Wohl's style.
1. Gels ** Not a great start. Basically this is a description of the demeaning check-in procedures of modern day air travel with the title word referring to the ban on carrying canisters of liquids or gels.
2. Urticaria, or, The Hypochondriac *** Jeremy is suffering from some sort of skin rash. He consults a doctor who prescribes standard remedies. His wife Lucinda works in a morgue. The word urticaria is the medical term for the condition usually called 'hives'. This story includes the title tie-in when Jeremy buys tulips for Lucinda and describes them as "winter strangers."
3. Diagrammatic ** A woman uncovers a drawing under a floorboard and obsesses about it.
4. Liars ***** Favourite story so far. A town celebrates the feast day of the patron saint of Liars by lying to each other all day. A man finds an abandoned girl and attempts to turn her in to the police who don't believe him, saying that he is taking his lying too far. He adopts the girl instead.
5. Mission Revival **** A woman travels by airplane to her father's cremation and returns home. She observes some absurd and rude antics on the plane.
6. Very Small Ferns **** A woman is on a bus tour which visits a 'storybook house'. She later meets up with a blind date with a man who wears a gimp mask. This one was quite bizarre, but funny in its own way.
7. Your New Reptile **** A couple go to dinner with friends and discover they have a new pet iguana, a Tokay gecko. This one was rather absurdly funny.
8. Orders ** Not a great end. Basically fantasizing about Real Housewives homes while lying on a hilltop. Just a 1-page story though (spread over 2 pages).
Displaying 1 of 1 review