The Unauthorized Biography of Michele Bachmann (and other stories) [Kindle Edition]

I took this collection (and my Kindle) with me to the gym recently. I was intending to warm up on the treadmill before heading out on my long run, but I ended up completing my miles and this collection in one long session on the treadmill in the corner of my gym. Initially, I was just going to read "The Phreaks," but then I had to read "On the Tenth Day, I Kept It Down," and then, as the miles piled up, so did the stories, and so, too, did my admiration for this writer.

Brosky's collection of short stories showcases an impressive range of voices, situations, and locales, but he is careful not to let his technique overwhelm his narratives. Many of his stories have a "timely" element to them - Darfur, workplace layoffs, a non-fiction essay on Amazon.com, the collection's title references Michele Bachmann - but Brosky doesn't rely on news items to make his writing relevant. It is the narrators, themselves, who carry each story. This can be a risky move, since some of Brosky's narrators are quite prickly, but it's one I'm glad he took.

Though the collection should be read as a whole - it even has intermissions which became literal water breaks for me (my legs thank you, Ken Brosky) - there were a few stories that hit me more personally. The "Dodge County Trilogy" was a favorite of mine. I recently moved from Milwaukee, Wisconsin after having lived there for six years, and these three stories were hugely evocative of both the state itself, but also some of the people that I knew while living in the area. The trilogy brought me right back to the dark and the cold and the boredom and the beer and the winter malaise that can come from living in one of the northernmost states. Brosky also nails the little details: the diners, the flat farmlands, full-sugar Coca-Cola drinking(!!!). "One in Six," the final story in the trilogy, is particularly good, as Brosky proves that male friendships can be written with both curse words *and* emotional depth.

The title story in the collection was a welcome surprise. The narrator of "The Unauthorized Biography of Michele Bachmann" has nuanced view of marriage and infidelity that I didn't expect he'd have. Again, it was a good example of the Brosky's narrative range and depth.

Finally, "Positivity Squares" was a particularly resonant story for me. In his introduction, Brosky mentions that he names the hero of the story "Mike" after one of his favorite customers, who has since died of cancer. The story is funny and angry, resigned and ironic, but there's love there, too. I think it's Brosky's best and the perfect way to end the collection. It's the one I've read repeatedly.

So, yes, you want to buy this book, and not just because Brosky somehow figured out how to vote for both Barack Obama AND John McCain.

I'm not usually much into short stories. I think it can be really difficult to tell a great story in a small amount of space and time. I sometimes find myself dissatisfied about what is able told under such constraint. I definitely did not have a problem with that in Brosky's book. He tells good stories quickly.

This book covers a variety of topics and has tons of different characters in each of short stories within this book. The various characters of the book are what really stood out for me. Brosky does a great job of using the limited amount of space that you have in a short story to really draw a good picture for the reader of who the character is and what they are like. This can be incredibly difficult to do in a very small amount of space.

One of the stories that I enjoyed most in this book is Apocalypse Wow. It's literally about the Apocalypse happening and one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse stopping by an indie coffee shop for a bit of coffee (hey, apparently even demons need a cup to get going when they're faced with tough work like ending the world. It's a hard job but someone has to do it).

There's also a hilarious essay about Amazon, the crazy products you can find on it, and the crazy (crazier?) user reviews that struck me as very funny. Have you ever read any of the user reviews for some of the more... uh... off the beaten path products? Pure humor.

Just a warning: if you don't like rough language, this book may not be for you. While the language (in my opinion) is not excessive, it's there and may not be for some readers.

The Unauthorized Biography of Michele Bachmann (and other stories) is an excellent example of the power of the short story form, and I challenge anyone who thinks that short stories aren't as involving as a novel to read these. The stories are gutsy. The writing is brilliant and the similar themes and characters give unity to the collection. This is why I prefer collections to anthologies. No matter how vasty different each story may be, the author's style pervades the work and their voice shines through each story. By the end of the book, the author's perspective has made its mark on you.

I usually read fantasy, but these stories were starkly real. Brosky takes powerful subject matter and treats it with skill and honesty. The stories are more character orientated than action focused, and the internal monologues allow us to go deeply into the characters. Although there are ten different stories, the characters (all men) were very similar in each story. Some might consider this a negative, but I liked it, because it gave me the chance to delve deeply into that kind of headspace.

"The Phreaks" - A fairly light starter to the collection, this is an enjoyable story about phone hackers with different perspectives on what they do. One has an innocent view; the systems are there, let's see if we can play with it. The other's attitude is more spiteful. He wants to bring down the phone company. If you broke it down, you could say it was a kind of good versus evil story. The detail in the information was astounding and I suspect that hours of research must have gone into this story.

"On The Tenth Day, I Kept It Down" - The second story throws us in the deep end with a challenging story about a white man lost in Darfur. He searches refugee camps for a little boy, and all around him are the results of tribal warfare, a high proportion of people living with severed limbs and the smell of burning bodies as yet another village falls to murder, rape, pillaging and burning. The circumstances are shocking and though it's a downer, for me this is the best story, because it throws us into the middle of the moral and emotional dilemmas inherent in the situation, and the author's compassion shines through.

Even though they are likely to be raped by the same men that burned their homes and murdered or mutilated their neighbours, the women in the camps are the ones who go out to collect firewood. Why? Because if the men go, they're likely to be murdered. This is the reality for these people. It engages your heart and provokes you to think deeply. I loved the story as much as I hated that it was true.

"Apocalypse Wow!" - This is a delightful, satirical look at the idea of the Apocalypse and God's relationship to man. It could also have been called the takeaway at the end of the world. Famine rides up on his horse to the drive through for a coffee and tells the workers to stay there because he's coming back for more. So long as they stay indoors they are safe from the horsemen that are destroying the world. The story follows the reactions of the staff to the ending of their world and their conversations with Famine while he's drinking his coffee - he's just doing what God told him to do and doesn't know much about what's going on.

"The Third Pile" + "Deer Tales" + "One in Six" -These three are told by the same narrator, a young man who is trying to work out what to do with his life. There's a bit of fun in these but the undertone is always serious.

"Intermission" - The idea of an intermission was a lot of fun. I really liked just the fact that it was there.

"Amazon.com" - This was different and a lot of fun, a look at how something crazy that may or may not exist can make it big on Amazon's rating system.

"Altered Beast" - I don't remember this one. I'm not sure why. I guess it was the one that interested me the least.

"I Can't Just Turn it Off" - This one is about a veteran who had returned from Iraq without a leg and searches for it in the dead of night.. A wonderfully sensitive and powerful story about how ingrained the experiences of war are in the veterans psyche. Apparently it's based on a true story too, which makes it even more amazing. This, like the second story, is a one that everyone should read, just so you understand what it's like.

"The Unauthorized Biography of Michele Bachmann" - An enjoyable story about an interesting character. I would have liked a little more romance between the main characters and it should probably have a warning sticker for hardline Christians.

"Positivity Squares" -I loved this story about workers at a company who was big on training it's workers to be positive at the same time as they were laying off workers. It was funny and poignant at the same time, the best kind of humour.

I'll end this review with an excerpt from the blurb because it summarises the collection very well.

If there's one theme running through all of the stories, it's survival. Every character approaches this theme in a different way. For the couple stuck inside a coffee shop during the Apocalypse, "survival" means getting through the next hour. For the middle-aged man who fears he might be downsized, it means going out on your own terms.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who appreciates good writing. I give it 5 stars.