∎ Read Songs for the Deaf stories John Henry Fleming 9780984953851 Books

Songs for the Deaf stories John Henry Fleming 9780984953851 Books

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Songs for the Deaf stories John Henry Fleming 9780984953851 Books

Fans of fabulists such as Russell Edson will thoroughly enjoy John Henry Fleming's collection of off-kilter tales, Songs for the Deaf. These lines from "Weighing of the Heart" sum up Fleming's talent for taking us where we do not expect to go:

[she] asks where I'm headed.
"Generally speaking," I say, "nowhere at all. But I can be persuaded to alter my route."

Route-altering is what these stories are all about. My personal favorite is the title story, "Songs for the Deaf," which takes a whimsical look at the magical powers of a whistle.


Tags : Songs for the Deaf: stories [John Henry Fleming] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <b>Winner of the International Book Award (Short Story Collections) Shortlisted for the CLMP Firecracker Fiction Award</b> A little desert town gets a sexual charge from a crash-landed alien. A dysfunctional family tries to summit Everest with ''discount Sherpas'' and yakloads of emotional baggage. A teen messiah emerges from a game of 3-on-3. The stories in John Henry Fleming's Songs for the Deaf,John Henry Fleming,Songs for the Deaf: stories,Burrow Press,098495385X,Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology,Literary,Short Stories (single author),Short stories.,Literature & Fiction Short Stories,FICTION Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology,FICTION Literary,FICTION Short Stories (single author),Fiction,Fiction - General,FictionLiterary,Short stories

Songs for the Deaf stories John Henry Fleming 9780984953851 Books Reviews

A diverse collection of masterfully told, fabulist stories spinning off of tall tales, as well creating new mythologies of their own.
Some of the stories are a bit of a downer, but in general they're quite good. Well-written, engaging, and for the most part avoid tropes and cliches. I was assigned this for a creative writing class, and I may not have purchased it otherwise. However, having read it, I am glad.
This collection won me over from the very beginning, with the story "Cloud Reader." Absolutely breathtaking in its lyrical prose and subject matter, this story stayed with me long after I turned the last page. As a fellow Burrow Press author I've read with John on several occasions now, and his stories always keep me hooked, ringing fresh and true -- not to mention laugh-out-loud funny. Fleming is a spinner of tall tales, but most of all, a humorist. Take, for instance, "Chomolungma," in which a family climbs Mt. Everest with sherpas and bickers amongst each other the entire time. "The Day of Our Lord's Triumph" will also have you in stitches.

"Have you heard of a fiction writer named John Henry Fleming?" a bartender at the local watering hole asked me just yesterday. An artsy establishment, the service staff are indie-buffs. "My boyfriend was reading his story about 'Our Lord' playing basketball, and couldn't stop laughing. I begged him to let me read it and right away I was laughing too. What a talented writer." I couldn't agree more, and was heartened to hear this "word on the street" about SONGS FOR THE DEAF -- a memorable, funny, and enchanting collection.
I noticed John Henry Fleming's story, Coward, at first in Carve Magazine. Personally, I think it's the best short story of the collection, and to be honest, I'd rate it as one of the best stories of the twenty first century. This is not to say the other stories in the collection are lacking; they are not. It's a dark, humorous collection of stories about lost, despondent characters. In the words of Robert Stone, "I am most interested in the marginalized characters."
You always hear how literary books are stuffy and difficult to read. They are loaded with big words and plots that make you scratch your head and wonder, WTF?
Not this one. Every story in Fleming's "Songs for the Deaf" is entertaining, weird and funny, and they all have wild and surprising endings. I loved reading these stories. They were so well written without drawing attention to the writer. And each story took me on an unexpected journey. I'm talking about stories where a mechanic tries to fix a floating girl; a family climbs Everest as some kind of bizarre bonding experience; a young man in a small midwestern town sings opera non-stop and tries to charm a deaf girl with his singing; and the hysterical "The Day of Our Lord's Triumph," which had me laughing out loud, but which defies all explanation.What else can I say Do yourself a favor and read this book!
Fans of fabulists such as Russell Edson will thoroughly enjoy John Henry Fleming's collection of off-kilter tales, Songs for the Deaf. These lines from "Weighing of the Heart" sum up Fleming's talent for taking us where we do not expect to go

[she] asks where I'm headed.
"Generally speaking," I say, "nowhere at all. But I can be persuaded to alter my route."

Route-altering is what these stories are all about. My personal favorite is the title story, "Songs for the Deaf," which takes a whimsical look at the magical powers of a whistle.