‘Brace’ is Comma Press’s new anthology of short stories out now. You can get it on Amazon or from Comma Press’s website. I’d recommend this anthology; the skill and subtlety of these stories really makes you think that the art of the short story is very much alive. Each of the fifteen stories lingers with you long after you’ve read it. Many of the stories are subtle and understated. Two of them are horror stories in the true sense.

In Guy Ware’s ‘Witness Protection,’ Guy West has lost his memory. He has created Henry Fielding, a separate identity. When he returns home from hospital, he tries to play the part of Guy West for his wife, but suspects the whole business is a set up, and, looking at photos of himself, his wife and some friends, thinks the photos have been doctored. This is a deeply tantalising story. There are tiny glimpses of two stories of murder lying beneath it, and these flash up from time to time. It is difficult to know what is ‘real’ and what is not.
‘Old Man in a Tracky,’ by Neil McQuillian, is a poignant story of a lonely old man, who has fallen out with his son some time back. He tries to reclaim, for a moment, his life as a younger man. It is because he owns a mobile, [that he scarcely knows how to use], that he finds something out that hurts him further in a phone conversation with a stranger.
Charlotte Allan’s ‘Memoirs of a Boy Genius,’ has to be the strangest story I’ve read for a long time. There are many delightful descriptions in the story, and time moves strangely in it and nothing seems properly in proportion to other things. I liked the contrast between the faux Victorian language in which the piece is written, and the description of the elderly couple dashing through motorway traffic to rescue the main character when he was a baby. Later, creepily, it transpires that the baby’s new mother is absurdly tall and the new father very hairy. At this point, the story really takes on the quality of a fairytale.

In ‘Carousel,’ by Paul De Havilland, the protagonist distances himself from the action and events by referring to himself as ‘you.’ While I’ve read other stories using this device and thought it self-conscious, in ‘Carousel,’ it is well chosen, as it conjures up a powerful sense of isolation. The ending was wonderfully ambiguous.
‘The Doll Factory,’ by Heather Richardson and ‘Lindy,’ by Annie Clarkson, deal with rape. Both stories are truly chilling. The language is controlled and very ‘ordinary,’ which only adds to the horror. In ‘Lindy’ I could not decide if the onlookers were really there or not, and the character study of 15 year-old Lindy was superb. I wanted to reach in and pluck the girl away to safety.
The Doll Factory is a cleverly written story told through letters and psychiatric reports. It makes you feel as if you have broken into someone’s office and are reading secret documents, and there is a moment in it especially for readers who are also writers.

Three stories dealing with poignant but not quite such disturbing subject matter, are ‘Tokes from the Wild’ by Tyler Keevil, ‘Sorry for Disturbing you,’ by Richard Knight, and ‘Mazzy at my Party,’ by Guy Russell. In ‘Tokes from the Wild,’ there is always a sense that something disastrous is about to happen. We follow the main character as he goes into the countryside to do some ‘healthy’ tree planting with a friend, and comes back to the city with a dope smoking habit. In ‘Sorry for Disturbing You,’ a beautifully understated story, a man’s experience with an elderly alcoholic, makes him think about his own life. There is a mysterious odour in this story – I thought about it for a long time, and think I do know what it is. ‘Mazzy at my Party,’ is a sad and funny story about how a young man misses the chance to get the girl he wants because Mariah Carey comes to his party. I am only trusting that Mariah Carey really was at this party.

‘Blue and Yellow,’ by Chris Killen, is an excellent story about jealousy. The story is relentless, Clair knows she should leave her lover, but can’t. This is a beautifully written story with a breathtakingly good sentence early on: ‘She sees herself done in thick oils: a violent white swirl pricked twice with black - dot-dot - and a bitter red dash for the mouth.’
In ‘Obscured by Clouds,’ by Adam Connors, a horribly mistaken group of monks, having found an old sound archive after ‘the Fall’, think the music they discover there is religiously meaningful.
‘The Sanctuary,’ by Jacqueline McCarrick, is a tender story of mourning and longing. As reader, I found myself wanting the dead husband to appear as much as the main character does herself. Something at the end, though, is resolved.

Clare and Eric try to get on with normal life, [‘Clare Counting,’ by Steve Dearden] - they have a baby daughter to take care of. But there’s a feeling all the time of something else lingering behind what is written in this story, and glimpses of it arise. The daughter’s windowless room reflects the sense of not knowing what is to come for Clare and Eric. At the very end, something shocking happens.
The main character in David Rose’s ‘Lector,’ lives in what I see as a chilling authoritarian society in which reading is a dying skill. He makes his living by reading out aloud to people. Local government officials use him as a lector too, and that’s when your blood begins to freeze.
In ‘Looking at the View,’ by Juliet Bates, Elizabeth, who can’t see things clearly anymore, and is searching for space, picks up a boy hitchhiker who doesn’t speak her language. At the end of this story, it is not clear whether Elizabeth goes on or turns back, she is standing at the ‘border’ looking at the view, and the view seems to be a portal.

Becca.

Your review definitely makes me want to buy the anthology, Becca! Very enticing descriptions. n.b. the hyperlinks don't seem to work.

Frances

Oh, I'm rubbish at hyperlinks, did I even put one there? The collection,IMO, treads that tender line between withholding and trust that author puts to reader. So, these stories are confident.
Becca.

Frances,
just google up Brace and or Comma Press.
Becca.