Ah, Sweet Mystery of Youth


Thinking about postmodern short story writers, (Barthelme, Calvino, and so on), I'm hard pressed to come up with any who have given more than passing thought to childhood. Barthelme did in a few exceptional stories, but always from the vaguely disapproving or disappointed point of view of an adult. That's where this wonderful collection comes in. Adults are of no consequence. Instead, we learn that all children apparently start out as post modernists, absurdists, and Dadaists, and then become less interesting as they mature.

This book will reward you on at least three levels. As you read you will encounter individual lines of exquisite grace and clarity; they will stop you in your reading so that you can pause and admire the author's craft. In a larger sense, you will encounter a few stories and story arcs that will capture your imagination. In the largest sense the overall impression of the book will leave you a little off balance, but in a good way.

Read it in bits and pieces; it's like an elegant box of chocolates. I'm pretty sure the words "innocence" and "terror" and maybe "William Blake" should have appeared in this review.

(Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

The Lightning Jar is a hallucinogenic trip into childhood. All the loneliness and imaginative play that comes from it is at the heart of this collection. The stories encourage the reader to experience the landscape of the stories as if they were children again - with a child's logic and guileless belief in a magical world.
The Lightning Jar often had me shaking my head, but I enjoyed visiting the topsy turvy worlds of the characters.

I suspect The Lightning Jar is one of these books that can be revisited years down the line and there will be something that was missed the first time around. A book about childhood that's not for children, I thoroughly enjoyed this one; touching, imaginative, as well as entertaining, and all wrapped up in a blanket of nostalgia.

Recommended.

Pretty bizzare and VERY symbolic/ vaguely abstract and allegoric, kinda too much for me, but still inventive and interesting. I liked it, I think it took me back to seeing the world through a kid's eyes.

I loved this book! It was poetic, moving, and entertaining at the same time.
It was like being child again reliving again through the book.
It was a wonderful experience.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to University of Iowa Press and Netgalley for this ARC