Things Fall From the Sky

Things Fall From the Sky by Kevin Brockmeier is a book of eleven short stories. I should probably be writing my first review of something easy to review, like a novel, but this book is just too good to push off for later. I think it;s nice to start my blog with a review of a book by my favorite author.

The thing I like about Kevin Brockmeier is how he uses fantasy. So many of his stories are just a tiny bit magical. For example, The Ceiling is about a family, and how the family reacts when the sky starts literally falling. The Passenger is about an existence that occurs entire on an in-flight airplane. Neither one is particular fantastical, but both have enough otherness to them to have a sense of child-like wonder, as if Brockmeier is saying See how beautiful the world is?

That sense of child-like wonder is really at the heart of Things Fall From the Sky. Even the stories that lack the fantastical elements have it. For example, The House at the End of the World is narrated by a small child, for whom the world is new and interesting, and Space uses an unexpected blackout and the night sky to make you aware of the wonder and beauty of the world.

Reading Kevin Brockmeier always makes me see the world as if it is new again. He makes me aware of the beauty and strageness in everything.

8/8