Friday, April 7, 2017

C. E. Matthews on Vitasta Raina's Writer's Block

This is a relatively short piece of work and deceptively easy to read, but there is a lot going on here. It brings the reader from intimate conversations to mass civilian casualties, with a wry but not over bearing commentary on it all. "The rest, as they say, is history mixed with smoke and sobs." Reading it, I was left with the impression of being a telepathic riding around in a taxi and picking flashes of the life of a city on the edge. For all that it is short, it is dense with details which you glimpse as you pass, and it is packed with witty observations: "See, most human beings, in my opinion, are playing the lead role in a movie called Their Life." It even manages to squeeze in a modernist version of Rapunzel. The writing moves seamlessly between the real and the lyrical, in a way which convincingly evokes the strange beauty of cities. "It is peculiar, very peculiar, but show me one city, any city that is not made up of various assorted peculiars."
To read more about Writer's Block, please click HERE.

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