"Shining with originality, emotion, humour and humanity, these five stories showcase the potency of short-form fiction."
Dazzlingly diverse, the five short stories included in Thomas Morris’ Open Up are united by themes of feeling dislocated in a strange, unsettling world. Each of them tingling with tenderness and truths, these stories have the power to flip your heart, make you think and make you feel more alive. In a word, Open Up is magic.
The opener, Wales, fizzes with the power of hope (and football) against a backdrop of poverty. Ahead of attending his first big match, a boy tells himself, “If Wales win tonight, everything will turn out okay.” There’s magic being among a crowd of supporters, singing as one: “WALES! WALES! He is screaming, he is letting something go.” But, while Gareth has a good feeling about the upcoming European Championship, his dad tries to teach him a life lesson: “you’re better off not expecting much, or you’ll only be disappointed.” Gareth puts Dad in his place, though, and turns out to be right, even as the rest of his life takes a downturn. Poignant stuff.
Meanwhile, Aberkariad is an utterly bizarre, unexpectedly affecting story of love, loss, coming-of-age, and the cycles and meaning of life from the perspective of a family of sea horses. Wise, witty and wildly imaginative, I loved it.
With the remaining three stories relating the cliff-hanger-tastic story of “short-arse” Big Mike, an indecisive young man haunted by his past while on holiday with his girlfriend, and a vampire forum moderator treating himself to fangs for his birthday, Open Up adds up to being an enthrallingly varied collection. Morris’ writing is sublimely fresh, and his ideas open up new ways of seeing the world.
| Primary Genre | General Fiction |
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