I liked the majority of the stories in this collection, however I think it would be better as an audio book as they were all originally written to be read out loud.

There is a lot of reasonably good stuff here, and this was a fun and quick read, but I couldn't help but think that something is lost when one reads something that was crafted as a performance piece for a public and interactive space. I enjoyed this, sure, but I think that you get more bang for your storytime listening to recordings from second story, or from The Moth than reading them.

Review based on ARC.

Unfortunately for me, the title story was the first story, and I didn't like it. I imagine if you liked that story, then the whole book is set up for you. But for me, it was kind of going nowhere, kind of depressing, kind of just blah. I've heard so many of that story, from so many perspectives, and this one fell flat for me. I say unfortunately because it made me avoid reading (altogether) for a while, because I didn't want more of "that."

When I finally DID pick the book back up and bear down to geterdone, I was very pleasantly surprised. No, I did not love all the stories - I felt that some were self-gratifying.. "look how RAW I am" kind of tone. But on the whole, there was a lot of good stories, a lot of good telling, and some pretty good writing.

I particularly liked Push Kick Coast because it accomplished the "raw," harsh reality, without being so self-aware. It was just. So. Well. Done. Loved it.

And Why I Hate Strawberries... Well, I hated the story because of why she hates strawberries, but it was well told and I appreciated her courage.

Overall, I was pleased with the opportunity, but it felt a bit weighty to be put all together like that... I know that not all of the stories were sad, but they were all dark, weighty, lessoned.

I also enjoyed being brought back to Chicago -- having lived there for about a decade, the stories brought me back to my first adult home, and I enjoyed the nostalgia.

Overall, 3 1/2 stars because some were just excellent, some were okay, and a couple were really blasé. (if you would like the full review, including a reaction-blurb of each individual story, see my blog at http://theirstoriesmythoughts.blogspot.com/) ( )

Briefly Knocked Unconscious By a Low-Flying Duck has a fantastic premise of stories that are told aloud to an audience, which are real events in the storytellers' lives. The introduction to the book has a wonderful take on the age-old question, "What is real?" I was immediately drawn to this book, which used stories as ways for people to connect, and ways for people to find themselves in stories from other lives.

What followed was a series of 23 stories from many different walks of life, and my enjoyment of the stories was almost as varied. The first story, the book's namesake, is a powerful story, as is the closing story. While some stories are powerful, though, others fall flat in self-pity or regret from which nothing was learned. A woman describes her family as co-conspirators in her grandfather's chronic molestation of children, but there is no sense that the storyteller has learned anything or grown in any way. Many of the stories have sad endings with a very powerful note, such as "Push, Kick, Coast," or "Super K," but many of the stories have endings that are attempts to be powerful moments, but just fizzle out, such as "Xena, Cardboard Princess."

I think where the book suffers most is 1) in its language. I'm generalizing when I say this, but these stories largely do not read like stories that are told aloud. They read like stories that are READ aloud, which to me takes away a good deal of sincerity for the storyteller. 2) There was a distracting level of typos, which i hope are fixed by the next printing.

I was extremely excited about this book, and several of the stories were exactly what I was hoping the whole book would be. ( )

In the past year or so, I've been exposed to the pleasures of live storytelling. I've been listening to podcasts from This American Life, a radio show produced by Chicago Public Media that features stories around a weekly theme; The Moth, a nonprofit storytelling radio station & live theater group; and about three weeks ago, was lucky enough to see a master storyteller live, Carmen Agra Deedy. These experiences all reinforced how different listening to a storyteller is than reading a story.

Briefly Knocked Unconscious by a Low-Flying Duck is an amazing collection of short stories. If I hadn't had the experience of listening to storytellers, I would have given this book 5 stars. The stories are captivating and reflect raw experiences that are absolutely gripping. But I kept wanting to hear them told live, because I knew the live performances would be that much more real. They would have moved me to gasping laughter or tears rather than chuckles and a slight lump in my throat. In fact, I had heard two of the stories before ("Foundationanalyis" and "Dirty Dancing," probably through This American Life), and those stories were more vivid because I remembered the oral telling of it.

Every story in the book is worth reading. In the presentation I went to with Ms. Deedy, she explained the best thing a writer can do is to tell and retell his or her stories out loud, because that is how to hone the timing, plot, and details of the story. It is clear that these stories went through that polishing process.

Fair warning: one of the stories ("A Prostitute Comparison" by Molly Each), while enjoyable, is quite graphic, and will leave an indelible X-rated image burned into your brain that is not pleasant. ( )