Let Me Think is a meticulous selection of short stories by one of the preeminent chroniclers of the American absurd. Now, some of the stories do the afore mentioned things, but the ones that don’t, the stories that try, and poke and prod at what a narrative can be – how short can a story be – how many words are needed to create an emotional pay off? THAT was the excitement of reading this collection – it was different, and it was refreshing without feeling labored to be different.A new collection of short fiction by the author of the cult classic Pieces for the Left Hand The pieces don’t follow the hero cycle, or have a hook in the first line, or even try to tie up the narrative with a button. In the end, the collection was enjoyable and entertaining, but what I was left with, and made me the happiest, was that this was a book by a writer who is trying to find new ways to tell a story. It is a format that is brutal in its simplicity, but Lennon makes it an effective tool for storytelling. Yet, the best example of this tone is the story “Subject Verb” which is told in that very simple sentence structure just a subject and a verb. The “cottage” stories do take on an adult tone, but they also lean into a slight thread of absurdism, or maybe fanciful is the better word to use. That’s not to say that the none of the stories take on a serious tone, as some do, but experimentation is happening here as well. Witty, this guy’s witty, and the sense of playfulness and fun comes right through. The first two pieces, “Girls” followed by “Boys” showed that Lennon has a sense of humor, and likes to play with the form of a short story. I liked Lennon’s writing right from the beginning of the collection. Again, no proof of that, but I couldn’t shake that idea. And I can’t prove it, but with the book being broken into five parts, I had the weird feeling that each section was to represent one of the five stages of grief. The other thing that reoccurs in the collection is the theme of unhappy marriages.

There are two reoccurring stories one about a marriage, and another about a cottage in the woods.

The collection is made up of flash pieces and short stories, broken up into five sections. I was going in blind, but sometimes it’s good to be surprised. I knew it was a collection of short stories, but other than that, I knew nothing about the author or any previous works. And my reading list is actually a wish list on my Amazon account.

I am embarrassed to say that I have no idea how Let Me Think by J Robert Lennon made it on my reading list.

Let Me Think by J. Robert Lennon