Tales of falling and Flying, seemed to sound like an interesting read. While I can not say I truly enjoyed the book, it was far from being a boring read .
The book consists of many short stories, each story is interesting enough but
I felt as I was continuously " left hanging" after each one. I wanted more, not so much of an ending - just more.

It took me about three stories to find the rhythm of Ben Loory's cooky, brilliant, weird, wonderful writing style - then I stopped questioning what was happening and just went where his imagination took me - and I adored this. This collection of very short short stories reads unlike any I have read before and I absolutely, totally loved it. I sped through it in two sittings and then was a bit mad at myself because I made it end so soon - but the stories were so addictive! Thankfully he has written another short story collection that I will have to check out sooner rather than later.

Ben Loory tells stories reminiscent of fairy tales and fables but always with a twist. His anthropomorphic animals are a joy to read about and reminded me of my favourite stories as a child. He trusts his reader to just follow him and go with it and he absolutely managed to enthrall me. His stories are beyond weird but still somehow grounded in something humane and real even though they are super short and quick.

As I am finding out, I like short stories with a bit of weirdness and magic in them and these fit the bill perfectly. And when they are as exquisitely rendered as these are, then I am a very happy reader.

Ben Loory’s collection Tales of Falling and Flying falls into that category of “just not for me” books, meaning this will be a relatively brief take on the collection. It’s the sort of writing where I can see where some people would enjoy it, can note the author’s talent, can acknowledge the wit and bright originality, but overall it just doesn’t do it for me. In this case, it begins with my being a tough audience for short stories, as I tend to prefer full, rich immersion in story and character—aspects too often lacking in most stories I’ve found. Loory’s tales double-down on this as they’re all pretty short, not quite Lydia Davis short but nearly: almost 40 stories in just over 200 pages. So it’s basically in and out and on to the next.

That’s not to say some of these stories don’t have concepts or endings that you might linger over. A few do have a nice punch to them at moments, and some sneak up on you with a surprising level of depth or insight. And as noted, there’s a lot of creativity here in terms of premises: a sloth going off to find a job, a squid trying to fly to the sun, a pair of aliens whose First Contact is with an ostrich, and so on. And Loory’s stories veer off from these clever premises in often surprising ways (none of which I’ll detail so as to save the surprise). But while they were enjoyable enough, and clever, cute at times, funny at others, and as mentioned had the occasional “let me think more about that” moment, none really struck me or grabbed me in narratively, the style/language never really startled me (I didn’t highlight any lines), and they had a bit of a sameness to them despite the out-there concepts. To be fair, one would probably go a long way toward ameliorating that last issue simply by not reading the collection straight through as I did. Still, I can’t say that I’ll remember any of these stories for any length of time beyond the funny set-ups in a few of them.

If you’re a fan of minimalism, Davis, or absurdism, then you might want to pick this up and check out the first few stories in the store or library to see what you think. If you’re a fan of writers like George Saunders or Steven Millhauser (as I am), and think you might like their stories greatly streamlined and a bit lighter (as I did not), you also might want to give a shot. I found these to be lesser tales (though I’d be interested in reading a longer story by Loory), but I can see how others might thoroughly enjoy them, if not all at once.

I really enjoyed reading this collection of short, witty, sometimes silly fables. They're cleverly written, colorful, and deliver quite the punch for their length. From dark and despairing to upliftingly charming, this book has a little bit of everything and it was pure pleasure to read it.