| | Five Green Bananas |  | Authors: Alice Anderson, Wendy Christopher, Kate Fuscoe, T. W. Garland, Claire Hardiman, Alanna Irving, James Johnson, Karen Lancaster, Glynnis Morgan, Ann Newbegin
Publisher: Scriblist Ltd
Category: Book
Buy New: £9.98
Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 1620626
Media: Paperback
Pages: 262
ISBN: 0955872502
EAN: 9780955872501
ASIN: 0955872502
Publication Date: April 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served.
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| Customer Reviews:
Everybody's a winner June 22, 2008
My interest in this collection of short stories was piqued long before I knew what the stories were about or whether they were any good. Knowing how interesting and illuminating Wikipedia entries and other such collaboratively written texts can be, I wondered whether the apparent virtues of collaborative writing would translate well beyond facts and into the realm of fiction. Would short stories whose chapters were written by different authors actually be coherent enough to move a plot and do it well? Would the quality of the writing be consistently good enough across chapters and stories to keep the interest of a discerning reader like me? Having read the stories (indeed, having read a couple of them two or three times for the sheer fun of it), I must say 'yes' in answer to both questions. I have been to the Scriblist.com website and I have read about how the stories came to be. And yet, in a very real sense, I don't know how they did it - how did they manage to produce such a fantastic collection of stories?
The competition and collaborative writing process seem to have honed the works of undoubtedly talented novice authors into a collection of thoroughly engaging reads. The stories range from the enjoyable (e.g. How do you solve a problem like Maria?) to the heartbreaking (The Witness) and the thoroughly sublime (The Kabul Case). They address themes across the board, from developmental disability to postcolonial racism to domestic violence to ageism, all in the most thought-provoking and stimulating of ways. By and large, they show expert development of plot and character and a surprising depth of voice. In reading them, I felt transported, moved. The Kabul Case was my favourite, not least because of its fast pace and complex plot, wrapped up with an absolutely exhilirating ending. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Hollywood had come looking for the film rights to that one.
The authors who contributed to each of the book's stories are already winners, having won rounds of online competition to get their chapters published. But I can't help feeling that the real winners here are we readers who get to enjoy these stories again and again. To lovers of short stories or those who are open to becoming them, I recommend Five Green Bananas. We should all look forward to future works by these talented authors and to the next Scriblist book.
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