Pratt’s My Movie is not a “light” collection; I fondly remember Bob, the Book, apparently an easy/comedy like romance about a book falling in love for another book, but even that one had some committed undertone that the most attentive reader could catch. This is what I found again in My Movie, but in a more important dose. Truth be told, My Movie seems to me more “fantasy” than Bob, the Book, but not since it’s a traditional fantasy novel, but since we are mostly inside the minds of the narrative voices, and those voices are happy, scared, young, old, and all of them give you their perception of the world.

The My Movie of the title without doubt refers to the recurrent element of the “movie” in the short stories, but it’s also a way to explain that what we are “seeing” is the movie of the main characters, their story like in a private screening. Most of the time there is no recollection of the setting or the time, but simple since, when “you” are thinking, you don’t describe the outside world, you “are” in that world, no need to describe it to yourself. So that is the feeling, looking at things through the eyes of who is living them.

Another recurrent point is the past time; some of the story are between the ’70 and ’90, pre-and-during the apex of the AIDS plague, maybe since people before were more innocent, and people after couldn’t forget. AIDS changed the lives of many, and broke the lives of many others, and who survived was never again the same.

So no, you will probably not have the same smile I had while reading Bob, the Book, but you will nevertheless experience something of important, David Pratt’s own movie life.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0983285179/?tag=elimyrevandra-20

Short stories exploring nuanced theme--the sense of how these other guys are the way you're supposed to be, but know you're not, and know that others know you're not; the edges of intimate relationships where our unspeakable secrets are already understood. In many ways, each of these stories circles around something that can't be or merely isn't said, and the effect often is satisfyingly poetic.

But other times it fails, and the repetition of these themes makes you think, "Haven't we been over this before?" The post-modern "Calvin Gets Sucked In" was cute, but fell flat, and the fable of the trees with intertwined roots just seemed clumsy in comparison to "The Island," "Series" and "The Addict."

Good work, but much of it of its time, not offering much that's fresh and different. ( )