Thursday, March 8, 2012

Excuse Me, Where is the Exit? / Stella Deleuze



"... those numerous chuckles accumulate."


Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Humor/Short Story

Approximate word count: 25-30,000 words

Availability
Kindle US:
YES UK: YES Nook: NO Smashwords: NO Paper: NO
Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

Stella Deleuze and her pet iguana, Zorro, live in London. Most mornings find her typing away on her laptop, writing her own material, or providing developmental edits for other authors… but only after downing several mugs of tea. Deleuze also has two novels available. For more, visit her website.

Description:

A collection of sixteen comical short stories about everyday life.

Appraisal:

Murphy rules in this collection, which has fun with the minor miscues and mishaps that happen in everyday life. While it sometimes seems that everything that can go wrong, does , they are all normal kinds of problems. Some are unique to women (either one of those things that wouldn’t bother most men, or that a man would never encounter). If you haven’t experienced most of these things, you’ll know someone who has.

Humor requires a tough balancing act. A typical approach is to exaggerate in some way. Depict the stupid or clumsy as stupider or clumsier. Make everything bigger than life (just a little over-the-top), yet recognizable as true to life. Deleuze’s exaggeration comes, not in the events that go wrong, but in the sheer number of tiny mishaps that accumulate. It’s a more subtle humor than the over-the-top bigger, badder, or sillier. You might not have many laugh-out-loud guffaws, but you’ll still find the stories funny (as long as they aren’t happening to you), as those numerous chuckles accumulate.

FYI:

Uses UK slang and spelling conventions.

Format/Typo Issues:

A small number of typos and other proofing errors.

Rating: **** Four stars

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you, guys. Stumbled over this.

Quick note: The mentioned issues have been fixed since I sent you the last version yonks ago. And because I know that that version was HORRIBLE, you get a bit kiss because you've been super generous by saying a 'small number'.

Thank you again.

Stella

BooksAndPals said...

It was right on the edge, Stella. That they are fixed is good to hear.

Joansz said...

Sounds like my kind of book--I love humor.

Joansz said...

I just read a sample on Amazon and the most interesting aspect for me was that the stories are written in the second person. Although it works,it is most unusual.

Anonymous said...

Thank you, Joan.

It's my favourite POV to write. I think it's the best for this kind of stories as everyone has either experienced the same or knows someone who has.