Flings: Stories

I usually love books of short stories because most provide a glimpse into a different way of life, a new view or perspective on a life issue, or a surprise twist or unforeseen ending that leaves me thrilled and entertained or learning something new. I wish I could say all of the above for this book of twelve short stories but if I did, it would not be true. For unknown reasons, the author focuses on people who have not discovered their true self , neither do they possess a solid foundation of beliefs and values upon which they can rely to build satisfying lives. The dissatisfaction in content of these stories could be due to a generational gap, perhaps because most of the stories are about generation Xers or millennials who seem to have lost their direction in life. They make decision mostly on emotion or haphazardly based on uncertain relationships or hoped for results which have little basis for actuality. I found the author's writing style like the staccato rhythm of a hammer driving a nail into wood at an uneven pace. The value system of some of the characters is shallow and usually lacking a solid foundation. Most of the characters seem to be floundering through life, without a core set life principles upon which they rely There was sense of constant pounding of information, some of it rather interesting but the plot usually developed in a or direction that was not satisfying. There were few real surprises or unforeseen events which made it difficult to read some of stories to the end. Of course, as a reader, you plod through all the intensity and detail, hoping something will turn out for the better in the lives of the characters but in most of the stories it usually does not.To the author's credit, there is a lot of interesting detail to many of the stories, the stories have some direction, although the characters do not always reach their intended destination. The characters are highly unique but we learn of their individuality by the odd decisions they make and the twisted maze into which their lives seem to fall. Sometimes the path they take on the maze of life seems to be without much effort on their part, they are thrown into events via association with friends from the past, and problems just seem to happen. The individuals do not accept the responsibility they had in making decisions nor do they realize that it is their lack of confronting issues which blow their lives fully off course into unexpected places.A brief introduction and synopsis without spoilers follows of the two stories I enjoyed. "Sungold" I found amusing because it started with the manager of a restaurant in South Florida wearing a mushroom suit outfit which is lent out to different franchises of the restaurant chain. The manager and the owner are good friends who trust each other and that is where the problems begin. The story and plot are very well developed. There is a fun plot, interesting characters whose interactions could take off in either of several directions. Most of the waitresses hired to work at the restaurant are predictably cute and near "look a likes" what the manager refers to as "Mellissa/Jessicas". The author describes the owner Ethan as follows: "Ethan is a self-sabotaging trust fund maniac whose folks set him up with this franchise for his thirtieth birthday, mostly , I think so he would have somewhere other than the grounds of the family estate - a former plantation, it could have gone without saying - to play 'In Memory of Elizabeth Reed' at blowout volume a dozen times a day. As long as he keeps his annual losses in the mid five figures they'll keep him in business. ..." It is after the manager interviews and hires " Appolinaira Pavlovna Sungold", known as s "Polina", who is quite a bit different than the usual Melissas/Jessicas, that things get very interesting at the restaurant. They introduce new recipes on the menu and create a sensational trendy and popular restaurant with unexpected fringe benefits. This is one story which leaves the reader *wanting* to read more to see how the author resolves the unexpected twists and turns. The second outstanding story is called, "Carole Alone." It focuses on a retired couple who live in a beautiful new development in South Florida when unexpectedly her husband Gerald dies. Luckily, Carol's son Dennis moved down with his family and live twenty minutes away. Although Carol has friends her own age, she feels adrift in life and engages in a potentially serious habit that could be fatal. One must read the story to learn what this maybe. I was captivated and truly enjoyed only these two stories out of the twelve. I felt luke warm to neutral toward eight stories and disliked two stories entirely. Erika Borsos [pepper flower]

As the title of this collection (also the title of the first story) implies, the main theme running through Justin Taylor's Flings is that of relationships, both sexual and emotional. Friendships, marriages, crushes, and blood relations all come into play in short stories that (for the most part - there are some exceptions) focus on seemingly mundane or commonplace lives and situations, but in doing so clearly demonstrates through characterization and nuance how these events both contribute to and are influenced by the relationships the people create, preserve, abandon, or ignore. Family plays just as important a role as romance does in this collection, as many of the stories deal with the relationships between generations, with divorce and heritage coming into play repeatedly.Some of Taylor's stories are told in a sweeping, biographical narrative that travels through years - even decades - of history, while others walk us almost minute-by-minute through snapshots of daily lives tormented by loss or, even worse, the distance that sometimes divides those close to one another. Alienation and abandonment, obsession and disenchantment, communication and reflection; Taylor's Flings shuffles us through the myriad of forms that relationships can take, and exposes us to a behind-the-scenes showcase of how our connections to others can either wither or bloom.If there is a flaw in this collection, it is the inclusion of the story Sungold. With the exception of Sungold, a brilliantly funny piece that is my personal favorite, the stories in Flings are either subdued or dramatic, and the humor (if any) is at best understated. Stumbling into Sungold four stories into the collection leads one to expect at least one or two other pieces of similar tone and lends to a slight feeling of disappointment upon completion. A great story, but ultimately a rather glaring Odd Man Out.

This book is a collection of short stories. Characters are of all ages and their stories are set in Florida, Pacific Northwest, Denver and even Hong Kong. It is a modern day look at what relationships are like these days. There are young people, finishing up their college days in a small college town. Everyone seems to be hooked up and set for the next big step, be in career or marriage until the unexpected happens. It just goes to show that things never happen according to plan.I loved the story called Saint Wade. Divorced man, trying to find a way for a new start in life starts relationship with young divorcee with a child from her previous relationship. As his girlfriend works every shift available, he readily helps out with baby sitting the child. And as the relationship with his girlfriend slowly disintegrates, he holds on to the little girls with his dear life. It is as if the child is his only lease on life. I also like the story called "Happy Valley" set in Hong Kong, where a young woman visits her divorced father who has his business there after her mother's new marriage takes places and she takes off to Majorca for a honeymoon with her new husband. IT is during her visit to her father that she comes to terms of how unpredictable life is and how sometimes things we blame our parents for, come back with a force of a boomerang.There is a longing in each story. Each character is somehow cheated from the true meaning of love. It is almost as if they have to settle for the second best or stay by themselves. Year and decades can pass in between lovers seeing each other again. And it is almost as if that time was necessary for them to grow and understand that soul mates are hard to find and once you get close to someone it is worth fighting for it. Because the alternative is self imposed exile and eternal loneliness that can only be covered up by incessant work that only fills the void of time but brings no consolation.

Up front, I'll just say I'm not the correct demographic for the themes in these stories by Justin Taylor in this collection of 12 stories aptly entitled, Flings. My personal youth was misspent in the 1980s, and in comparison to the times we live in today, it was a simpler era. We had a lot of the same problems that are universal to people of certain ages but we weren't as self-absorbed and entitled as the youth are today because we grew up with parents who were raised in the hardship of the Great Depression and, well, things were just different. As you may guess by the title of the collection, the book is largely about relationships - young, hip, fairly intelligent inhabitants who jump from relationship to relationship, kind of floating through life, unfulfilled and self-absorbed. Although the middle-aged do make an appearance or two in the collection, these are just cameos.The author's prose is good. He knows the craft and how to tell a story. One thing in particular is his ability to write believable and realistic dialog, which, by itself, deserves applause. That said, the stories, when viewed as a whole, feel a little bit uniform and formulaic. Yes, the stories are interesting and engaging. Some stories had to be read entirely in one sitting because you couldn't put them down. But at the end of it all, I couldn't relate to the whole - they were just stories about a generation of young adults who take it all (by all I mean life) so casually - the drugs and alcohol and sex and music (I hate Phish, by the way) and the themes become tiresome after a while. That said, for the right demographic, this collection is likely brilliant and spot on.I think the big takeaway with this collection is to watch this author mature and grow because I think there's a real masterpiece in him waiting to come out. This collection is the hors' oeuvres course. I think a five-star entrée is on the way.

Many of the stories in this collection seem to exist in a netherworld that I don't think most of us can relate to---a world of academic pretentiousness, casual sex and lots of drugs and alcohol. The characters seem almost interchangeable. In the first story, the title story "Flings", I had to constantly check back to see which of the characters were being referred to. "A Night Out" and "Poets" also seem to be in this world, and I often wonder when I read this kind of writing if the authors have any idea how few of us actually live in that world.However, there are several stories that broke out of this mold and showed that Justin Taylor can write well. My favorite was "Carol, Alone", about a retired schoolteacher in Florida living out a life that no longer seems to have meaning for her, and taking an extreme step to deal with the emptiness. I also liked "Saint Wade", about a romance in a very low end apartment house, and how a child can renew and complicate relationships. I was surprised by how well Taylor could break out of the mode of the young city academic and write about very different people.There's a lot of promise here, and I wish I liked the stories better overall, but I just didn't. There were touches here and there I loved, like talking about a person's "golden birthday"---the year they turn the day of the month they were born on, like turning 23 on the 23rd of a month, and some parts of "Mike's Song", about a divorcing father taking his adult kids to a Phish concert, showed a real touch for understanding family dynamics. But overall, I felt like by mostly writing about people living in a world of awash young posers, the author was wasting his talents.