Idgie Says:
Surreal, interesting, quick snapshot vignettes as Ian the goldfish falls past various windows on his way to landing like a pancake all over the New York City sidewalk.
Each chapter is a new character as Ian flies by, sharing quick little details about each new face.
I love the chapter titles - they are as interesting as the characters themselves. Examples:
"In which Jimenez finds that, like choosing to live with a leaky sink, loneliness is a choice."
"In which the evil seductress Faye judges a cloacal kiss to be an insufficient source of pleasure." (Oh my!)
And what happens to poor Ian when he finally hits the first floor? Well, you might be surprised.
Also, a cute sidenote to the book is that as you flip through the chapters, the little fish graphic on each page falls a little farther down.
Also, a cute sidenote to the book is that as you flip through the chapters, the little fish graphic on each page falls a little farther down.
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A goldfish named Ian is falling from the 27th-floor balcony on which
his fishbowl sits. He's longed for adventure, so when the opportunity
arises, he escapes from his bowl, clears the balcony railing and finds
himself airborne. Plummeting toward the street below, Ian witnesses the
lives of the Seville on Roxy residents.
There's the handsome grad student, his girlfriend, and his mistress; the construction worker who feels trapped by a secret; the building's super who feels invisible and alone; the pregnant woman on bed rest who craves a forbidden ice cream sandwich; the shut-in for whom dirty talk, and quiche, are a way of life; and home-schooled Herman, a boy who thinks he can travel through time. Though they share time and space, they have something even more important in common: each faces a decision that will affect the course of their lives. Within the walls of the Seville are stories of love, new life, and death, of facing the ugly truth of who one has been and the beautiful truth of who one can become.
Sometimes taking a risk is the only way to move forward with our lives. As Ian the goldfish knows, "An entire life devoted to a fishbowl will make one die an old fish with not one adventure had."
In the tradition of Garth Stein's The Art of Racing in the Rain and Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City, Bradley Somer's Fishbowl is at turns funny and heartbreaking.
There's the handsome grad student, his girlfriend, and his mistress; the construction worker who feels trapped by a secret; the building's super who feels invisible and alone; the pregnant woman on bed rest who craves a forbidden ice cream sandwich; the shut-in for whom dirty talk, and quiche, are a way of life; and home-schooled Herman, a boy who thinks he can travel through time. Though they share time and space, they have something even more important in common: each faces a decision that will affect the course of their lives. Within the walls of the Seville are stories of love, new life, and death, of facing the ugly truth of who one has been and the beautiful truth of who one can become.
Sometimes taking a risk is the only way to move forward with our lives. As Ian the goldfish knows, "An entire life devoted to a fishbowl will make one die an old fish with not one adventure had."
In the tradition of Garth Stein's The Art of Racing in the Rain and Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City, Bradley Somer's Fishbowl is at turns funny and heartbreaking.