Dictionary stories : short fictions and other findings

Author

Jez Burrows

Call Number

• FICTION BURR (CEN)

Edition

First edition.

Publication Information

New York, NY : Harper Perennial, [2018]

Physical Description

xl, 208 pages ; 19 cm

Summary

One day while looking up a word in the New Oxford American Dictionary, Burrows was stopped in his tracks by an example sentence that seemed like a tiny piece of fiction which had wandered out of another book and settled down in the dictionary. Now he has created a collection of very short stories-- some barely one page long-- composed entirely of example sentences from various dictionaries. Genre-bending and wildly inventive, they create a giddy celebration of the originality, flexibility, and beauty of narrative.

Contents

• John
• You have five new messages
• Fawns
• The barrens
• Seven sisters
• Portrait of the artist as a stubborn old fool
• Hunter
• Ten dollars and hour and whatever you want from the fridge
• Genesis 1
• The Lord's Prayer, from memory
• Dinah
• The cursing of Gregory Hardware
• Harry Potter and the once-in-a-lifetime business opportunity in Southern California
• Recipe
• Why I cannot attend your baby shower
• Why you are no longer invited to our baby shower
• cults.
• The last toast
• Date night of the living dead
• Exes, an incomplete list
• Eulogy
• Worst picnic ever
• Curtains
• Dutch's last agony
• Customers who bought this item also bought
• The damndest thing
• Diane smoked jive
• The king's escape
• Mary and Beth
• Sample problems: intermediate matematics for poets
• Bands you probaby haven't heard of
• So many people to thank
• Personal assistant
• Your humble server
• Some vast assemblage
• Safe house
• Young monarch
• Genesis 1 (reprise).

• 97-over par
• Our descent
• Sorry, wrong door
• Argument over Jupiter
• Cousin Madelyn
• Barbara
• To do
• July 8
• Confessional
• Instructions for assembly
• Check
• How to play
• A brief conversation between two friends who are also lions
• Early drafts for the five stages of grief
• Good grief
• My apologies
• Cabin fever dream
• Breakup side effects
• Haunting the docents
• Absolute certainty
• Silver birches
• What he is
• Roses
• Noir I
• A fistful of feathers
• All you can eat
• Mother lode
• The night in question
• William
• John and Victor (and Catherine)
• Toby
• The accused
• Another animated description of Mr. Maps
• Apples
• Fantasy adolescent
• Straight from the horse's mouth
• Corsican coast interrogation.

• Very good boy
• Your new friend
• Dowpour
• Joshua and Nicolai
• An extraordinary woman
• Maria
• Spellcaster
• Seasonal craft cocktails
• Ruth
• Base camp
• Noir II
• Shvitz
• This mixtape is terrible
• This mixtape is worse
• Creatures of the Atlantic Ocean commentary (take 3)
• Seasick
• A walk
• Directions
• Detonator
• I was
• How easy
• Red
• Fine, if you will keep asking about it, a complete list of everything inside the locked room on the third floor, which, yes, sometimes leaks an oil-like substance and occasionally sounds like a murder of crows molesting a harpsichord
• Holy smoke
• Apology in C-sharp minor
• Chin up
• The other hand
• The life of Carlos
• Robin.

• The greatest story never told
• House white
• Speed dates
• Table for one
• Adrian
• Rachel
• Haiku #1
• Madame Eva
• And another thing
• Undertow
• Norman
• Murmuration
• Famous last words
• Poor John
• The Ten Commandments, from memory
• West Adams, 11 p.m.
• He said
• She said
• Fifty more ways to leave your lover
• Grace
• Crime scene
• Root and branch
• Captain
• Fair dismissal
• Review are in
• How to win friends and influence people
• Visiting hours
• Pep talk - A short British argument
• Keynote
• Your dream
• News at eleven
• Hamlet: a book report
• Intermission
• Maggie
• The usual suspect
• Either/or
• Haiku #2
• Manhole
• Onward, seaward - Going to Istanbul
• Attention, passengers
• Whatever floats your boat.

• Vanishing point
• Rains
• Something to be glad about
• Tasting notes
• Researching Lycaon Pictus, or the African wild dog
• This guy
• The sting
• Orlando, FL
• Reveille
• Under this roof
• My true love gave to me
• Guided meditation
• Miranda.