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Julie Ann Shapiro | |||
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Book ReviewsJen-Zen and the One Shoe Diaries Published in Between the Cracks Review by Kim McDougall "Bradley was influenced at a young age by his free-spirited grandmother. She taught him to see the wonder in details, the color of a bird’s wing, dust floating in the air. She set him up to be a photographer, a job that uses his creativity and quirky nature to good effect. He shoots the usual commercial photos for clients, but indulges his whimsy on photographs of ripples in the lake and lone shoes forgotten by civilization. For Brad, “It wasn’t about the camera. But inspiration that left one feeling parched, going through life wandering around in the desert like a mad man thinking you’re seeing mirages about some oasis that’s just around the corner – you dream it so. And when it appears, you’re so parched you’re afraid of that first sip of water. But still you drink it, knowing maybe it’s your last and you savor the drops on your tongue, rolling them back and forth in your mouth until you’ve memorized how they feel falling down your throat.” (Pg 127) Brad’s grandmother also set him up to fall in love with a girl who is more spirit than human at times. Jen Zen is a poet, with all the images that word connotes. She is nebulous, mysterious and sometimes infuriating. When her mother tells Brad that she’s dead, he discovers only the first mystery about the woman he loves. Jen Zen’s mother is a hard woman, who has no time for her daughter’s eccentricities. She says that her tea leaves make more sense that Jen Zen’s poetry, an attitude that prompts Jen Zen to write (pg 253): Mother’s Sanctified Tea Leaves Jen Zen’s mother chases Brad from the hospital and refuses to let him say goodbye. This lack of closure leaves him restless and unsatisfied. Months later, he is still unable to shake the shadow of Jen Zen and he begins to wonder if she haunts him. Along with her ephemeral presence, the discarded shoes turn Brad into a man on a mission. He is convinced that the piles of shoes mysteriously appearing in a small town have to be connected to Jen Zen. Is she really dead? Is she haunting him? Is he finally going crazy? His camera and his mind won’t rest until he answers these questions. Jen Zen and the One Shoe Diaries is a far-reaching story full of lyrical beauty—a true Between the Cracks novel. It’s part mystery, part poetry. It has elements of magic realism and surrealism. Author Julie Ann Shapiro has a knack for capturing the essence of relationships and all their uncertainties. At times, Brad’s relationships (with Jen Zen, his grandmother, mother and sister) are a comfort. Other times they are a web, ready to ensnare him. In the end, he learns to see life from his own perspective, without the comfort of a camera’s lens to distort it, and he realizes that the challenge of a relationship is what makes it worthwhile. " Published in NewMyths.com Review by Editor Scott Barnes "Although they say that if you leave a million monkeys in a room full of typewriters long enough they will eventually write the entire works of Shakespeare, I can’t imagine that they would come up with Jen-Zen and the One Shoe Diaries. This is a singular book, original in voice, thoughtful in tone. The writing flows across the page like rivulets in a downpour and paints a picture in diagonal flow. Oftentimes the sentences seem to be heading into nonsense but suddenly veer back to surprise and delight. After an hour I got up and smeared Shea butter on my forehead for fear I would wrinkle from all the eyebrow lifting. If you haven’t yet got it, this book is worth reading for the prose alone. So how about the story? As a plot-loving reader (I hardly noticed that the characters of The Da Vinci Code were flat) I generally judge a book by its story. In this case, Brad the photographer is in love with Jen-Zen, a poet. Brad is obsessed with photographing single shoes that he finds abandoned in strange places. The shoes seem to be telling him something beyond mere complaints of athlete’s foot. Jen-Zen has had an accident and is trying to communicate from somewhere beyond. Can Brad use his photographer’s art to rescue his true love? Although the term magic realism is batted about with near indifference to meaning, I recently ran across a definition by Janet Burroway in Writing Fiction: Magic Realism uses the techniques and devices of realism-verisimilitude, ordinary lives and setting, familiar psychology-and introduces events of impossible nature, never leaving the tone and techniques of realism. A perfect definition for Jen-Zen and the One Shoe Diaries. It is interesting - borderline eerie - that while looking for a publisher Julie ran across a real photographer named Randy Hamilton who was making a book of his own called The One Shoe Diaries featuring photos of single shoes. His work can be found at (http://www.oneshoediaries.com). Fortunately the encounter was a positive one and Julie and Randy may pool their resources to promote their respective books. Julie Shapiro is the Debussy of word composition – stretching the limits of prose (and comma use) nearly to the breaking point, but taking the reader along for a wonderful ride in the process. Julie is best known for her flash fiction, and has published dozens of flash stories and taught workshops throughout Southern California. In working the short shorts, she has mastered the craft of creating mood and imagery using scant words." *** Published in Great New Books That Are A Must Read Shoes and Love: New Mystery Novel Is an Enthralling Read - Jen-Zen and the One Shoe Diaries "Staring at the phone, Brad wished he turned the ringer off, but that meant living in the memories and saying hello to Jen-Zen. Getting dumped would have been easier. No one prepared him for the other. Whoever thought about those things in their late twenties?" So begins the new novel by award-winning authorJulie Ann Shapiro. This is a modern Cinderella story filled with love, lost shoes, and whimsy. But this is not your typical love story, not by far. Meet Brad Lynberry, a successful photographer, who is haunted by the memory of Jen-Zen, a poet, and the connection he feels to her while photographing shoes. Brad finds himself first fascinated then obsessed with shoes - but only lost shoes! Is Brad haunted, driven by artistic inspiration, or is he going off the deep end? But this novel is not just about shoes, it is filled with mystery as well. For while lost shoes keep popping up in mysterious ways, time is running out. Brad must unravel the mysteries of the shoes and Jen-Zen’s poetic riddles or go mad trying. *** Virtual Blog Tours - Jen-Zen and the One Shoe Diaries Featured at Media Mensch, Great New Books That Are A Must Read, Emerge New Authors Search Light Publishing, and Romance with Shiela Stewart. *** Jen-Zen and The One Shoe Diaries is published by SynergEbooks in both trade paperback, ebook and CD-Rom formats. It's also available from Amazon, Fictionwise and other distributors. Flashes of the Other World Published in Eccletica Magazine - February 2007 Review by Kajsa Wiberg Flashes of the Other World is an intriguing collection of short stories and one-act, to-the-point flash fiction covering everything from dark family secrets and death to lovers transforming into dinosaurs and mental patients making a meal out of their mothers' closets. On the more down-to-earth side, the stories explore relationships and what makes them work or rather, not work. In "The Hats," traumas of the past concealed in different types of headgear are brought to light during a memorial service, whereas in "Stickiness," the tragedy of an alcoholic father is told in the context of gum, making it very genuine, very sad, and very odd all at once. Several of the stories deal with the dynamics of the often problematic mother/daughter relationship. "Looking Glass" is a poignant saga about a mother's attempt to hide her lacking self-esteem under layers of makeup, and her daughter's revolt against this behavior. We share paths with these two dissimilar characters for many years—from the beginning of the conflict and as the tension builds up. At one point, the mother is so blinded by her insecurity that when she goes bald, she actually wishes it were cancer and chemo-based hair loss, because at least then it could grow back. It's intimidating, beautiful, and a theme that rings very true in the superficial society of today. "Circles of Gala" is a flash on the same subject, in which the conflict materializes as a missing outfit for a gala event. Contrasting these two is "The Old Woman in the Dream," where no one understands the grandmother better than her own kin does. It captures all our fears about death, loss, and letting go, and leaves us with a sense of relief and inevitability as—through the workings of the granddaughter—the old woman is finally set free. Julie Ann Shapiro takes on the popular topic of love and hate and the closeness between the two in several cases, but always with a funky and original twist. "The Wicked, Bitter Shell," about how a girl's addiction to Internet sex turns her boyfriend into a possible murderer, holds so much anger and heartache, it physically hurts to read it. On a similar theme, "Itchy Feet" tells us about a relationship that between romantic dinners, garden parties and social events could have been perfect, had it not been for the boyfriend's shoe fetish. The story of how Trevor's perverted obsession and Clara's itchy feet pull them apart is downright hilarious. The emotions provoked by Ms. Shapiro's fiction are all over the board. For example, few readings have cracked me up the way "Blue Moon No Carbs" did. It's my guess it was written a couple of years ago, when even cookies came as lo-carb and carbohydrates were staged as enemies and squashed in TV commercials. In this, say, extension of the lo-carb trend, buying carbohydrates is outlawed. When the heroine makes a desperate attempt to check out bread, chips, pizza and pasta, she is fought not only by a frustrated (read carb-deprived) cashier, but starving fellow shoppers as well, who would do anything including go to jail for a nice loaf of bread and a bag of Cheetos. To the contrary, "Not Cold, Not Hot" is a true tearjerker. It's not as strange as the others; neither is there trauma. At the heart of it there's rather a growing sadness, an emptiness, and most painful of all, acceptance. It's the story of a wife mourning her husband and understanding that the life they used to share has inevitably come to an end. "The Wisps of Shadows" stands on its own as the only real creepy tale among a multitude of bizarre, witty, sad, and cheering ones. A loving father's attempts to be supportive of his son's occult fetishes end up costing him his life. On the opposite end of the spectrum, one finds "Bio Clock and Nutty Photos", the story of a lonely 37-year old woman with an insistent biological clock who becomes obsessed with a doll. In her eyes, the doll comes alive, as a child - something amazing. It changes her entire world. Unfortunately, no one is willing to share the joy with her. They all think she has lost her mind, worry about her and toward the end even refuse to acknowledge her. Then there's a twist in the plot and the ending is as surprising as it is satisfying. Though Julie Ann Shapiro does a great job of adding new touches to popular themes, she also doesn't hesitate to throw herself into the unknown. Don't be surprised if you encounter creatures of the forest, sandmen, talking whipped cream and insane obsessions between the covers of her book. "Don't Mix Carrots and Peas" is an adorable interpretation of the old saying, which gives it a whole new meaning. In this story, a child overhears a pea and carrot fight for space in the refrigerator bin, and later plan an escape attempt. In "The Antennae," a woman transforms into a snail during Mass, petrifying her children. Also on this theme, "Dinosaur Kisses" is an out-of-the-ordinary Valentine's saga. The main characteristics are all there: the bubble bath, the lovers, the chocolate, and the champagne. But what's striking about it is that the boyfriend—rather than the usual Don Juan—is a dinosaur, and the sinking into the bathub for the girlfriend is not an invitation to sex, but to become a creature of the past, too. Another theme present in many of the stories is sanity vs. insanity. Many of Shapiro's characters live in the borderland between the two, a borderland I found surprisingly enticing. "Lunch Not the Typical Fare" is a shockingly real-feeling description of a man's culinary cravings for clothes. In fact, the whole chomping-on-sweaters-and-pants is so vivid, one is left to wonder whether the author did some research on the subject. "Identity Unfolding" is equally fascinating in that it starts out as your usual espresso fiction, but from there it only gets darker and darker. Ultimately, it ends up very far from where it began. Between the heartbreak, misunderstandings, craziness and surrealism, Julie Ann Shapiro has blended in some fantastic descriptions, funky yet easy-to-relate to characters, and genius plot twists. I feel like I entered 40 different worlds in her book, and I didn't want to leave any of them. Published in Void Magazine - September 2006 Review by Rachel Edelman Shapiro’s short-short story collection offers just what the title promises: glimpses into mysterious worlds where whipped cream and graham crackers have conversations, and death is always one breath away. Some of her shorter pieces double as peculiar little poems; others are more developed and explore what it’s like to become something beyond human and discover new abilities, responsibilities and fears. I noticed a sinister bend in the subject matter, but Shapiro balances the dark with the fanciful, transporting her dreams into mini-realities.
Published in Long Story Short - September 2006 Review by Meridith Gresher “Flashes of the Other World” by Julie Ann Shapiro offers an original, often dark, and reliably quirky band of strolling players, human and inanimate, quick to perform her brand of magical realism, surrealism, and theatre of the absurd. This collection opens with an other worldly encounter with the story, Vacant Tub. A simple ritual a bath and tub are literally turned on their sides and used as a medium for a ghost boy to communicate with his father. Further into the collection, Ms. Shapiro sorts a painful mother-daughter relationship with the help of a deceased poodle in Looking Glass, a particularly poignant work, while in Dream Turtles a woman questions whether a dream is just a dream. Personal identity is a returning theme in disparate work. Whipped Fumery dissects a character’s conversation with an all-seeing can of whipped creamery enacting its heavenly master plan. In Bio Clock and Nutty Photo, a woman obsessed with having a child transfers her obsession to a doll, whereas in Antennae a wife and mother gets acerbically transformed into a slug. Ms. Shapiro draws their portraits in an unflinching manner. Connection is a significant leitmotif. Finding it, losing it, and longing for it. Public nudity, that proverbial nightmare for many a dreamer, is explored with charm as members of the opposite sex get naked in Thunder Buns. Itchy Feet and a shoe fetish ensure the shoe doesn’t fit for every couple in an updated Cinderella story while a woman fears her husband’s fidelity is Not Cold Not Hot. Though difficult to choose, my favorite work is Dragonfly, which documents the lengths a man spirals once bucked from the corporate fast track desperate to return to a child-like state and quite sure enough baby powder can get him there. In The Hats, Ms. Shapiro explores family secrets: “I believed magic lived under the family’s hats. I always tried to remove everyone’s hats anxious to see a hidden marble, a gold coin, or a note written in invisible ink.” “Flashes of the Other World” leaves this reader anxious formore from Ms. Shapiro wonderful prose magic. "Flashes of the Other World" is distributed by Digital Pulp Publishing.
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