I think it's possible to write stories about terrible things without the reader feeling bludgeoned. The problem I have with these stories is that they are relentless in a way that I believe should be preserved for non-fiction or for visual representation of factual events. The blurb on the back of the Penguin edition claims that this collection "offers us a pageant of horrors, as haunting as the photos of Abu Ghraib..." but I say, look at the photos of Abu Ghraib instead. Fiction, language itself, implies logic and order, where even the most nihilistic writing is an act of faith.

A short story collection that I think succeeded in documenting terrible things, without sinking under its own weight, is [b:Kolyma Tales|109812|Kolyma Tales|Varlam Shalamov|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348611733s/109812.jpg|105834] by [a:Varlam Shalamov|63552|Varlam Shalamov|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1222952456p2/63552.jpg]. ( )

These stories left me with a feeling of cultural inaccessibility. The writing is strong and the characters engaging but within each tale is a violence and surreal turn that would leave me uneasy or simply confused.

I suspect that this is the intent, and that it may in fact scratch the surface of what it must be like to live in a region that since ancient times: has been invaded; involved in internecine wars; is regularly subject to internal political, religious, and tribal skirmishes. It's gotta be disorienting for the impoverished living in an oil rich nation and regardless of status, I imagine life for many probably is marred by violence and surreal turns of events.

The sense of dis-ease is perhaps what Blasim is targeting. If so, bulls-eye. The stories I felt I best understood: "The Nightmares of Carlos Fuentes" and "The Reality and the Record." Most intrigued by: "The Corpse Exhibition", "The Thousand and One Knives", and "The Song of the Goats". Most WTF: "The Green Zone Rabbit". Most compelling: "Iraqi Christ". ( )

Cannot get into it. Not my cup of tea ( )

How to even begin to talk about these stories? Many have said they are brutal, and of course they are brutal. In these stories, war and violent conflict is background noise. It is usually not even worth mentioning who the current war or conflict is with, let alone which side was the aggressor and what their motivations. War is. Death is. Now how do you make sense of it?

Many of these stories are about storytelling. In the title story, a secret organization tells stories with publicly displayed corpses. (At times, this story seems an apt frame for the rest.) In "An Army Newspaper," an editor wins acclaim after publishing a dead soldier's stories as his own, only to be driven into paranoia and madness when the stories keep coming. In "The Song of the Goats," a radio show comes to record war stories -- contestants line up and compete, each bragging that theirs is the most heartbreaking.

I found the collection as a whole pretty bleak, as expected. Some stories ripped my heart out, while a few fell a little flat. Perhaps my favorite story is "A Thousand and One Knives." It is the story of a group of people who discover they all have mysterious power -- they can make knives disappear. Then they find someone who can make them reappear. It's such a strange little story, but it runs the gamut of horrible brutality, mystery, and moments of grace and hope. The last being elements definitely not present in all of the stories, however limited they may be even in this one.

Recommended to fans of dark fiction, to people who seek to understand what life is like where death has been made cheap. ( )

The writing is brutal and graphic - indicative of the regions' turmoil. Slivers of life and light shining through trying to find meaning in it all. ( )