A review by panda8882
The Miniature Wife and Other Stories by Manuel Gonzales

4.0

My first read from TheRumpus.net's book club affirmed my decision to join. I joined because (1) I like Cheryl Strayed and therumpus.net likes her (2) I generally like the stuff therumpus.net posts and (3) I wanted to be forced to read stuff I might not otherwise pick. This definitely achieved that objective. I don't think I've read a short story since high school English class. Clearly, I have been missing out. This particular set reads like a set of the author's crazy dreams but he tells them in such a factual way that you become a part of his world, believing that wives can be accidentally shrunk, hijacked planes can circle airports for 20 years and zombies can invade shopping malls. And once you accept those factual scenarios, it allows you to see a 'moral of the story' that you otherwise would have missed and understand that in the grand scheme of things, reality is always a little bit crazy itself too. Loved the way this author wrote. It just made me smile.