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 Overall, I think most readers would find that they could relate well to the situations presented in the plots and the characters, yet find that the stories are different from most they’ve encountered. For this reason, I think many people will find this collection of short stories an enjoyable read.
Reviewed by Sheri Harper
Rancho Wierdo
by Laura Chester
Bootstrap Productions
ISBN: 978-9779975-9-6, 15 December 2008, Paperback
Laura Chester’s collection of short stories titled Rancho Wierdo gets its title from a number of stories with a western setting and story plots that are unusual. Artist Haeri Yoo’s drawings compliment it well, having a mixture of cartoon characters with an emotional coloring and style to them that are entirely unique. I found the collection quite entertaining.
My favorite story of the seventeen provided is “La Tortuga” because it was the most memorable, probably because most women can relate to a story where they buy themselves the dream vacation that turns nightmarish. La Tortuga is sweet because the story turns itself on its head by making the rather self-centered character realize what she values isn’t what she expected.
Most of the stories have interesting characters. In “Curse of the Forced Flower”, the reader meets the sweetest house sitter a person can find in the form of Nga, a woman that loses her sense of perspective in a startling way. In the “Spoon” the hired tennis player Rashid who doesn’t speak a word, becomes a man’s favorite companion. In “The Trap”, Kim is the jealous girlfriend in a tough relationship. All of the characters in the stories play off each other to change into another person in believable ways.
Yet the stories don’t have typical plots. In “True or Untrue Grit”, Grit is the Indian spirit that shows up to torture a home owner that has spent considerable time and effort building a home in Arizona, only to find that the toilets are causing trouble with the environment. The spirit and the home and the owner change hands and become real and not in unusual ways.
Another story, “The Art of Kissing” uses a book on kissing etiquette provided to the heroine’s teenage sons to add subtext to a story of imagined lust and loneliness in a single mother that is touching. “Toy” and “The Survival of the Violet Girls” explore character voice in unusual ways. In “Sulphur: Art and Money” the plot is one about jealousy and revenge that is interesting because of the metaphor used.
Overall, I think most readers would find that they could relate well to the situations presented in the plots and the characters, yet find that the stories are different from most they’ve encountered. For this reason, I think many people will find this collection of short stories an enjoyable read.
About the reviewer: Sheri Fresonke Harper is a poet and writer. She's been published in many small journals and is working on her second science fiction novel. See www.sfharper.com
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