Insects Are Just Like You and Me Except Some of Them Have Wings – Kuzhali Manickavel

Description

Short fiction by Kuzhali Manickavel

A centipede in a shoe, revelations in a shoebox, nosebleeds, exploding women, and a dead mouse named Miraculous populate this collection of thirty-five short stories from one of India’s most original writers.

“Possibly the most intriguing book on the list of thrilling publications from the house of Blaft is a collection of short fiction by Kuzhali Manickavel, Insects are Just Like You and Me Except Some of Them Have Wings. Manickavel (who titled a section of a recent blog post on Indian writing in English “Do not have an unnecessarily complicated name like Kuzhali Manickavel”) writes in English …. The stories in Insects are sometimes as short as half a page and occasionally as long as twelve pages. Many of them do feature insects, or at least insect imagery, and diagrams of insects with witty labels are found throughout the book, such as the one shown here of an earwig representing childhood mythology. It is difficult to think of a way to encapsulate this collection of so many unusual and imaginative stories: other reviewers refer to them as dream-like. I think it better to call them surreal; also: intricate, ironic and frequently hilarious” — Daisy Rockwell, Bookslut

“Not merely lyrical and strange, but also deadpan funny. I can’t shake the feeling that I know this woman, personally—like we hung out at a party or something. But I don’t, and we didn’t. She’s just that good.” — Miranda July