Monday
Editor's Note: The following chapbook analysis & review contains two sections, one that gives a synopsis of each story's plot and themes and one that reviews the chapbook. The first section includes spoilers, so someone who hasn't yet read the chapbook might want to skip to the second section by clicking here.
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Author: Sherrie Flick
Title: I Call This Flirting
Publisher: Flume Press
Year: 2004
Awards: 2003-2004 Fiction Chapbook Contest
# of Pages: 46
# of Stories: 34
# of Sections: 4
# of Stories/Each: 4-12
Section I: “You can have your cake and eat it too.” (11 stories)
Section II: “If you would be loved, love and be lovable.” (7 stories)
Section III: “You will become more passionate and determined about your convictions.” (12 stories)
Section IV:(4 stories)
Table of Contents with page-lengths and summary of content/themes
- "The Way You See It" (1.14) A woman leaving behind her town & man. Love, longing, moving in.
- "You Have a Car" (1.5) Confused woman searching for herself. Sexuality, journey.
- "Screen Door" (.75) Woman has a memory lapse. Time, recollection, memory.
- "The Paperboy" (1.3) Woman seduces the paper boy. Collector, first time, seduction.
- "On the Rocks" (.33) Man drinks scotch, but woman sees it as a façade for missing a friend. Grief, obstacles.
- "7:23 P.M." (.66) All ready with no place to go. Mental checklist.
- "Sleep 1969 "(.5) Baby owl ready to spread its wings. Mothers & sons.
- "This Was It "(.25) Woman is with a guy, then not. Distance, returning to daily life.
- Back (.5) Time goes backwards, woman wishes she could re-write history. Do-overs, regret, change.
- "Locusts" (.33) Woman wants to kick her man out—hopes locusts take his belongings. Endings, leaving.
- "What If the Locusts Returned?" (.33) A woman waiting on a man. Waiting.
- "Flight" (.33) Remembering flying a kite as a child. Encounter, Childhood, Recollection.
- "Birds in Relation to Other Things" (.66) Woman lets birds come into her home. Self-concern, pity, sharing.
- "This Is What I Want" (.75) A woman waiting for a signal from a man. Patience, Longing.
- "Snowed In" (1.0) A monotonous relationship and the angst that surrounds it. Stale love, life.
- "House" (.33) A woman watches & listens to the world. Abandonment, running away.
- "This Is the Beginning of Time" (.5) A woman waiting for something to change. Moving on.
- "Untitled Late Night" (.2) Narrator believes change doesn’t exist. Regret, change.
- "Silent Chickens" (.25) A woman takes comfort in the noise of tapping chickens. Comfort, OCD.
- "Untitled Early Evening" (.2) People lose control. Passage of time.
- "Digging" (.5) A woman digging potatoes thinks about her heritage. Family, abandonment.
- "Full Moon" (.25) A postpartum mother enjoys her coffee. Taking care of self, needs.
- "Oklahoma Men" (.66) The life of Oklahoma men. Time change, life’s journey.
- "Czechoslovakia" (.5) Woman remembers a teenage romance. Nostalgia.
- "Untitled Sad Story" (.25) Narrator recalls a brief moment. Encounter, recollection.
- "Nebraska Men" (.5) Description of Nebraska men. Stepford men, monotony.
- "Crickets" (.25) Crickets jumping on the sidewalk. Fate, life.
- "Las Vegas Women" (.5) The lives of Las Vegas women. Monotony, Groups, Clubs.
- "Gypsy Caravan, Suburbia" (.3) Woman sees the gypsies out her window. Longing, seeing what you can’t have.
- "Pittsburgh Women" (.5) Woman spreads coins. Repetition, OCD.
- "Love Story" (.75) Filling up with love. Love, observations.
- "Back Porch" (.5) Man & woman in a new relationship. First kiss, rebounding, opening up.
- "Everything Here" (.5) Woman wants to achieve the greatness of life. Future, anticipation.
- "And Then" (.75) Couple revisiting their love—seeing each other for the first time. Old love, rekindled love.
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Sherrie Flick’s I Call This Flirting, a 46-page chapbook of flash fiction , is an intimate collection detailing grief, abandonment, memory, love, and longing. She chose to construct her stories in predominately very close first person, often the “I” speaking directly to “you” the reader. This close perspective will pull you into the fictional worlds Flick has created, and it speaks to the book's title. And while I enjoyed many of the stories in this collection, it is the intimate voice found in Flick’s writing that I found most appealing.
The book is divided into four sections. Each begins with a fortune cookie quotation. The first section—“You can have your cake and eat it too”—is comprised of eleven flash pieces. In the second story “You Have A Car,” the narrator is confused, searching for herself, her sexuality, and possibly even life. It is a perfect example of Flick’s use of intimate prose:
You wonder where the days have gone. You wonder what hours you sleep – you wonder how you’ve let so much confusion into your life.
Flick forces you into the lives and minds of her characters, making it impossible not to feel compassion. In “Sleep 1969” the lives of a baby owl and a child are paralleled, each in their own way, about to take flight—another example of her penetrating language:
Touching the frozen panes of glass with your thin fingers – perhaps it was the cold making it real forever—the owl, hooting. You, there in a rustle of hand-me-down pajamas, sheets blankets, thoughts—not knowing this moment would never really end.
The second section’s cookie fortune—“If you would be loved, love and be lovable”—details how one must give to receive. My favorite story in this section is “This Is What I Want,” in which a woman sits in her apartment by her window with her cat, waiting for a signal from a man. It is a story of longing that epitomizes the entire section, again told in first person:
Here where the timid knock at the door means no real thing, means no real person has come to call when I open it, means just an old house that has things to say I cannot hear, cannot understand—or refuse to.
“You will become passionate and determined about your convictions”—this third fortune contains stories of determination, of looking back, and of recognition. They read like ruminations, especially in “Digging” and “Untitled Sad Story.” In the latter, of micro-fiction length, Flick once again tugs at you through the use of close perspective:
It was then. You said, ‘Me too.’ And our eyes met – a soft stare without the crusty, crumbling layers of meaning.
The fourth and final section of the book begins with the fortune “Beware of what you want. You may get it" and is made up of four stories detailing a hopeful view on love, life, and the future. In the “Back Porch,” the story of a first kiss, Flick allows you to become more than just an observer through a keyhole. Once again, she invites you to become a part of the scene:
And what I remember is you, sitting on the crooked steps beside my crooked back porch chair. You leaning toward me and asking, “Can I kiss you?”
Sherrie Flick will no doubt leave you feeling more like a participant than an observer as you read through her stories about connections and longing, about love and abandonment, and about life and nostalgia. I Call This Flirting is a journey well worth taking.
About the Author
Anne Converse Willkomm began writing shortly after the death of her mother. In 2004, she was named a semi-finalist in the William Faulkner Creative Writing Competition Novel-in-Progress category for her fictionalized account of her mother's life. Later in 2006, the completed manuscript Unfinished Business was also named a semi-finalist. Her work has appeared in Sibyl Magazine and in the anthology Memoirs of Meanness. She has just completed a novel, Promises We Keep, set in Boston and the Appalachian Mountains. She is currently working on a YA adventure novel dealing with grief, The Gift. Also, Anne has written a full-length play chronicling the devastating effects of Alzheimer's—Declining. She lives in Bryn Mawr with her husband, three children, their dog, and two cats.
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