Portraits in the Dark: A Collection of Short Stories by Nancy O. Greene
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(Paperback)
- Pub. Date: August 2006
- 78pp
- Sales Rank: 659,762
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Product Details
- Pub. Date: August 2006
- Publisher: iUniverse, Incorporated
- Format: Paperback, 78pp
- Sales Rank: 659,762
- ISBN-13: 9780595392803
- ISBN: 0595392806
Synopsis
"He calls my name. I still remember my name. But my thoughts are receding and I'm becoming unclear of much of the details of my life, like a crystal ball filling with soot. They're all leaving me. The distant past was first to go-my childhood, what my school looked like, what I looked like, my family, my friends-all being absorbed into this death that swallows me. There are flashes of things before they disappear, though. Hand-me-down clothes two sizes too big, falling off of my skinny arms and legs. My hair growing long and awkward in places due to home haircuts. Then flash again. Gone. Flash. And then there's college, now at the forefront. Where I met my wife, Ella. I had friends, whose names are now lost to me, but she is there. Special, different. Beautiful. One of the rich riding through college on parents' money, but she's not like the other women, or even like me." - from the short story "The Affair"
Portraits in the Dark is a collection of nine tales that delve into the darker side of human existence. From a lonely man succumbing to the wiles of a mysterious female to a young woman confronted with her own possible insanity, this compilation holds stories that range from the literary to the traditionally macabre.
Customer Reviews
Portraits in the Dark: A Collection of Short Storiesby Anonymous
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January 28, 2007: Nancy O. Greene's short stories collection certainly lives up to its title. The nine stories are varied in form, style, and content, but all are dark and psychologically complex and full of vivid imagery the suck the reader into the murkiest depths of the human psyche. Some stories ('A Guy Named Pierce') are more expiremental, while others take on a 'fantasy' element ('Fine Print' and 'The Artificact'), while one in particular ('The Descent of Man') seems oddly out of place in the otherwise fine ensemble of tales. Greene is at her best when she really gets deep inside her characters' heads. 'The Affair' is a shockingly effective little piece that puts a new spin on the old 'obsessive husband' story. Greene shows a deeply moving and humanist side with her 'Darkened Sky' that gives us a 'day-in-the-life' slice of a troubled young girl dealing with her harsh surroundings and lack of options in life. Greene shines brightest when she laces her talent for introspective first-person narration with an acerbic wit in the delightfully grotesque one-woman show of bitterness and madness entitled 'Down the Rabbit Hole.' Greene's collection is a slim volume that can be easily devoured in one or two sittings, but won't soon be forgotten.
Portraits in the Dark: A Collection of Short Storiesby Anonymous
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September 10, 2006: I couldn't put this book down. It's short so it's easy to read on a weekend. I read it during the day but some of the stories are truly macabre so just for fun I re-read those at night. It was recommended by a friend and I was skeptical but I really enjoyed it. My favorite stories from the collection are The Affair, Down the Rabbit Hole, The Artifact, and The End. The other stories are fantastic too but these grabbed me.
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