Abingdon-based Reflex Press grew out of a prize for flash fiction, so naturally enough that’s one of their focuses as a publisher. And here’s a collection of 33 stories in a hundred pages, by Australian writer Catherine McNamara. I really liked one of her stories when I read it at random a few years ago, so it was a pleasure to read her work once again.
As the collection’s title suggests, this is dense and busy fiction, whose characters are often in heightened situations. Here are a few examples:
‘Banking’ sees a woman returning to confront her ex-boyfriend of one week after some money has disappeared from her account, and struggling with the desire that she still feels for him. There’s tension throughout this piece, and it’s only partly resolved by the end.
‘A Forty-Nine-Year-Old Woman Sends Messages to Her Thirty-Two-Year-Old Lover’ is a paragraph of just a few lines capturing an intense feeling of desire that its narrator can’t shake off: “I wait for the thought of your face and body to mean nothing.”
‘The Vineyard’ has a strong central metaphor of a couple replacing their ruined grape plants with new hybrids. Their place is hemmed in, adding to the sense that this is the last chance for their vineyard to recover – just like a relationship on the ropes.
For all that the stories are so short, McNamara’s distinctive voice comes through strongly. This is a collection that stays with you.
Read the story ‘As Simple as Water’.
23rd June 2021 at 11:12 am
Thanks for the link: I read the story online, and thought it very good. Flash fiction can be hit and miss, but this author sounds like the real deal.
23rd June 2021 at 4:39 pm
Hi Simon – I agree, flash fiction isn’t always that distinctive; but McNamara’s definitely is.