Our Children Are Not Our Children edition by Kevin Brennan Literature Fiction eBooks
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Poet Kahlil Gibran has said, Your children are not your children. In this collection of short-shorts, Kevin Brennan (Parts Unknown) turns that simple idea on its head with five case studies in bad parenting. From a father who won’t pull over to let his boy pee on the roadside to a couple who unwisely lock their twin toddlers in a closet all day while they’re at work, these parents embody the adage that it takes a village -- to save innocent kids from idiots like them!
Our Children Are Not Our Children edition by Kevin Brennan Literature Fiction eBooks
I don't normally read short shorts, especially fiction. I'm more of an I'm-in-it-for-the-long-haul type of reader. Yet the tone of "Our Children Are Not Our Children" tugged at me from the first lines:"Dad, I have to go to the bathroom.
You just went to the bathroom forty-four miles ago.
Yeah, but we had orange soda and all and the bumps in the road are making me have to go again."
The writing is crisp, direct and identifiable, and though we don't want to admit it, most of us have been the whining child or the stern parent at different phases of our lives.
Yet what gives this collection strength is the fact that it never stoops to sentimentality or explanation (i.e., dense paragraphs of introspection). Brennan offers up slices of selfish and self-centered people doing a bad job of parenting with a compilation of the average American life. He slices this juxtaposition up bare and unadorned, in all of its honesty and backlash and awful, subdued conflicts. We might not like these characters but we know them. We work with them, sit beside them in church. We are them, in one respect or another. And while most of us don't lock our twins in the closet while we're at work, we do unconsciously lock away their dreams and desires, their passions and angers.
From a girl with bad teeth to a father who leaves for a doomed mountain climbing trip, these stories resonate with the power of the inevitable, the unsaid; the unmentionable.
And good example is found in "Overexposure," where Brennan writes:
"The Naked Man thought of his nakedness not as an affront but as a gift, an honor, a feast."
Indeed, these five stories are a feast. Eat them with something sweet and heavy, and enjoy.
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Our Children Are Not Our Children edition by Kevin Brennan Literature Fiction eBooks Reviews
Four enjoyable shorts. These stories are food for thought. Well wriiten Mr. Brennan!
Pretty good quick easy read. Definitely the do NOTS of parenting. Though I expected it to be longer it was ok.
If you're a fan of short, biting fiction, this collection is for you. The five short stories are Insightful and provocative, and they shine flashes of light into the dark and dank corners of everyday life. I was exhilarated and troubled at the same time by the characters and the predicaments they found themselves in. While the author clearly has his finger on the pulse of everyday life, the characters he writes are both clueless and relatable in a bizarre and sometime macabre way. Kevin Brennan is a story-telling talent, and I'm hooked—I hope he's crafting more wonderful stories to share, as I can't wait to read them.
These stories are well-written and really grabbed me. I enjoyed both this and his "In No Particular Order" short story collections very much. He has a great deal of insight into the human condition.
I was curious about this collection of short stories since I enjoy the author's blog and I am a huge fan of Khalil Gibran, the poet whose work the title of this book comes from. They were very well written and sadly, all could have been pulled from current headlines. This is not a feel-good read, but one that certainly sticks in your head as I have been thinking about these stories for days now. Whenever an author leaves me pondering and having conversations with myself about the content of their stories, I think they have done their job. A connection has been made.
Kevin Brennan has compiled and published five short stories that hover a magnifying glass over the family unit. Sure, it's been done before, but the magic is in the execution. Brennan provides just enough focus to show us the good and the bad without burning the subjects to a crisp.
Each story rings with truth, folks. Every single one of them unleashed a memory of a parent or child I've known during my 36 years on this planet. My favorite story was Overexposure. It reminded me of a lot of certain hippies-turned-parents that lived in my rural town, imparting their views on freedom and latitude to their children.
My only disappointment was that there weren't more bite-sized tales to munch on. I know that sounds lame, but I could find no fault with the stories themselves. Perhaps Kevin will grace us with a second volume.
In the meantime, brook no delay and grab this quick read for only 99 pennies. Do it because it's a good representation of the short story craft.
In this powerful collection of stories, Kevin Brennan, an accomplished writer, has penned a strident cry from the heart of moral outrage at the neglect and abuse children suffer at the hands of those closest to them and charged with their nurturing and care. So forceful is his presentation that I honestly often found them painful and difficult to read, for as a group the stories comprise an absolutely searing indictment of our time's careless self-centered parenting and the government entities that fail to protect them as well.
Our Children Are Not Our Children is essentially a series of heart-rending tableaux and vignettes of children in impossible situations. At the risk of repeating myself, I must say that, frankly, I often had to put the book down midway in a story to wipe away tears and take a break from the relentless drumbeat of sins committed against these helpless voiceless innocents.
Kevin Brennan is a fine writer and I'm with him without reservation in condemning the destructive lack of attention--or badly focused attention--of many distracted parents today. But what I would have liked to see in these stories is more hope, more of a story arc that directs concerned readers to practical remedies to the tragic situations he so graphically depicts.
Brennan is a writer to watch. He has a great deal to say to us today about an awful ongoing moral catastrophe in our society in which the most vulnerable members, our very future, are sacrificial victims.
I don't normally read short shorts, especially fiction. I'm more of an I'm-in-it-for-the-long-haul type of reader. Yet the tone of "Our Children Are Not Our Children" tugged at me from the first lines
"Dad, I have to go to the bathroom.
You just went to the bathroom forty-four miles ago.
Yeah, but we had orange soda and all and the bumps in the road are making me have to go again."
The writing is crisp, direct and identifiable, and though we don't want to admit it, most of us have been the whining child or the stern parent at different phases of our lives.
Yet what gives this collection strength is the fact that it never stoops to sentimentality or explanation (i.e., dense paragraphs of introspection). Brennan offers up slices of selfish and self-centered people doing a bad job of parenting with a compilation of the average American life. He slices this juxtaposition up bare and unadorned, in all of its honesty and backlash and awful, subdued conflicts. We might not like these characters but we know them. We work with them, sit beside them in church. We are them, in one respect or another. And while most of us don't lock our twins in the closet while we're at work, we do unconsciously lock away their dreams and desires, their passions and angers.
From a girl with bad teeth to a father who leaves for a doomed mountain climbing trip, these stories resonate with the power of the inevitable, the unsaid; the unmentionable.
And good example is found in "Overexposure," where Brennan writes
"The Naked Man thought of his nakedness not as an affront but as a gift, an honor, a feast."
Indeed, these five stories are a feast. Eat them with something sweet and heavy, and enjoy.
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