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<p style="margin:0cm 0cm 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;" lang="en-ca" xml:lang="en-ca">Title: <strong>Tales of Ordinary Sadness</strong></span></p> <p></p> <p style="margin:0cm 0cm 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;" lang="en-ca" xml:lang="en-ca">Author:<span> </span>N.A. Randall</span></p> <p></p> <p style="text-indent:36pt;margin:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;" lang="en-ca" xml:lang="en-ca">Let’s be realistic.<span> </span>Not everything in life is rainbows, baby bunnies and fairy tale happy endings.<span> </span>There is a lot of sadness, cruelty and misfortune in the world, which we all experience to a certain degree at some point in our lives.<span> </span>In <em>Tales of Ordinary Sadness</em>, N.A. Randall chooses not to fall into the commonality of the happy ending, but instead to have the reader contemplate the sadness that many people experience.<span> </span>To this end, he shocks and startles us with a collection of fourteen stories in which the main characters strive to find happiness, only to be left with sadness and devastation.<span> </span>We are thrown into a world of vulnerable characters who must survive the effects of violent rape, humiliation, bitterness, sadness, rejection, physical abuse, bullying, and even murder.</span></p> <p></p> <p style="text-indent:36pt;margin:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;" lang="en-ca" xml:lang="en-ca">To write an effective short story, the author must make the main character particularly memorable and must dive straight into a single conflict or a significant emotional milestone in the person’s life.<span> </span>Some think that to end the story effectively, the author should have a resolution that leaves the reader with a sense of satisfaction.<span> </span>However, others believe that the writer of short fiction wants to produce some kind of emotional response from the reader, be it anger, shock, surprise or even happiness.<span> </span>An abrupt ending with no explanation, for instance, does leave the reader startled and intensely curious.<span> </span>In each of Randall’s stories, we definitely jump very quickly into a traumatic event in the main character’s life, and each tale races along to a climax after which it abruptly falls off the edge of a cliff.<span> </span>There was never a resolution or conclusion in any of the stories.<span> </span>Most of the time I was left thinking:<span> </span>“what the heck just happened?”<span> </span>In one sense, I would have preferred a conclusion to each story; however, they certainly did produce an immediate response from me.</span></p> <p></p><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;" lang="en-ca" xml:lang="en-ca"><span>If, immediately after reading these stories, I was asked for my response to them in one word, I would have said “random”.<span> </span>However, Randall is an intriguing writer who kept me entranced from start to finish.<span> </span>His writing style is bold, intense, disturbing, thought provoking, and very descriptive, with strong imagery.<span> </span></span></span> <p style="text-indent:36pt;margin:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;" lang="en-ca" xml:lang="en-ca">Although I found many of the stories disturbing and actually quite depressing, they certainly evoked a curiosity in me that left me pondering life after each story was done.<span> </span>This collection was certainly a different read for me, and I would recommend it if you wish to explore the realities of human nature in our world today.</span></p> <p></p> <p style="text-indent:36pt;margin:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span class="normal-c1"><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;" lang="en-ca" xml:lang="en-ca">N.A. Randall has taken time out from work to concentrate solely on his writing. Besides the short story collection, <em>Tales of Ordinary Sadness, </em>he is the author of the unpublished novels, <em>A Red Sky in Morning</em> and <em>The Communization of Delusion</em>, and a volume of poetry <em>The Careless Loves of a Casual Nazi</em>.</span></span><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;" lang="en-ca" xml:lang="en-ca"></span></p> <p></p> <p style="text-indent:36pt;margin:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;" lang="en-ca" xml:lang="en-ca"></span></p><br /><p style="margin:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;" lang="en-ca" xml:lang="en-ca">Reviewer:<span> </span>Cindy Taylor, Allbooks Review.</span></p> <p></p> <p style="margin:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;" lang="en-ca" xml:lang="en-ca">Title:<span> </span>Tales of Ordinary Sadness</span></p> <p></p> <p style="margin:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;" lang="en-ca" xml:lang="en-ca">Author: N.A. Randall</span></p> <p></p> <p style="margin:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;" lang="en-ca" xml:lang="en-ca">Publisher:<span> </span>MA2BOOKS</span></p> <p></p> <p style="margin:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;" lang="en-ca" xml:lang="en-ca">Format: ebook<span> </span></span></p> <p></p> <p style="margin:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;" lang="en-ca" xml:lang="en-ca"><span> </span>July, 2010</span></p> <p></p>