This exciting collection of short stories, by W. E. SELF, is provocative, nuanced, and diverse in theme. The stories are layered snapshots of life. The strong style favors ironies and symbolism, with flashes of offbeat wit. The situations are easily relatable, the experiences sometimes nostalgic, sometimes enlightening. There are sometimes lessons to be learned or revisited. Occasionally the writer narrates, allowing him to bring forth the thought provoking ironies without fanfare. The writer holds that in life fear is the only thing holding you back. “You have to understand that specific limitation. Fear is the only thing that is real. All else is perspective.” Life Stories offers a moral to every story, a caveat of hope or a warning to the wise. Mr. Self’s stories are a jewel box full of ideas like a shiny lure. He’s discovered wonderful tales stolen from a thousand dreams with promises of a happy ending. The reader can almost hear the chorus of “follow the yellow brick road.” The stories are part and parcel of a journey that he had to navigate alone, endure and find his way, while missing a corner of the map. Of course everyone experiences each story from their own point of view, which is sometimes confusing because that which makes us feel good is too often that which should make us feel bad. Perhaps the reader has never been to the steamy jungles of VietNam, known the loneliness of a prison bed, or experienced the desperation waiting at the edge 26 stories up, and the things we do for love. But W. E. pours the reader into the matrix without wasting an emotional drop, and we are reminded that love and life are simply equal.
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