Bunny Man's Bridge (for kindle) A Short Story Collection
Bunny Man's Bridge (for kindle) A Short Story Collection
Independent Press Award WINNER for Best Short Story Collection - 2017
Silver Medal WINNER Best Short Story Collection E-Lit Awards - 2018
FINALIST for BEST SHORT STORY COLLECTION - Next Generation Indie Book Awards 2018
FIVE STAR REVIEW from Readers' Favorite
These stories are old and young at once: old in that they were written almost twenty years ago, but also young, as they were written by the author as a young man. They are an examination of a childhood come to a close and a imagining of what adulthood might look like in a new century.
Bunny Man’s Bridge wanders from the tragic to the comic, where the magical thinking of children collides with the gritty reality of adults. Characters such as Daniel and Sidney reoccur from one story to the next, coping with their own wounds, dreams, and disillusionments. They are accompanied by a series of characters familiar in American literature: the working man; the aspiring woman; the frontier hero; the entrepreneur; the immigrant; the artist; conmen; strippers; saints and sinners. St. Paul, Satan, and God himself all make appearances.
Neill explores the dark intersection of youthful exuberance and responsible adulthood—a place where love and adventure, the sacred and profane all seem destined to collide. Transcendence or insanity could lurk behind the next bend and the atmosphere shivers with the potential and anxiety of a country shaking off its past to move into another millennium. The stories remind us just what a heady ride young adulthood is and what, collectively, might lie before us.
Poised at such a threshold, individuals and a country hold their breath.
Reviewed by Arya Fomonyuy for Readers' Favorite
Bunny Man's Bridge: A Short Story Collection by Ted Neill is a gorgeous collection of stories that forces the reader to confront the realities of humanity, starting with an introduction that makes powerful references to an asylum. The author then quickly moves on to offer fascinating and moving memories of childhood. In this collection, the reader witnesses strong moments of coming of age, the pain of being human, of growing up with dreams ... only to find out that dreams do not always get us to where we want to be and that justice doesn't always prevail. Readers are introduced to compelling characters like Sidney and Daniel, strong characters with depth, each facing their own challenges. It is also interesting to notice the dichotomy the author creates between the world of adolescents and adults.
As one reads from chapter to chapter and from one story to the next, one is painfully aware of the joys and pains of their youth, of the fragility of life, and of the fact that life sometimes surprises us in ways we could never imagine. Ted Neill recreates a world that most adult readers have known and that young readers are familiar with, the world we long to inhabit and that scares us at the same time, and it takes a lot of skill to evoke the kinds of sentiments that this book arouses in readers. The style is unique and the economy of prose and precision is impeccable. Bunny Man's Bridge: A Short Story Collection features great storytelling skills, great themes, and plot structures that keep readers turning the pages from story to story. It is a work that both entertains readers and reminds them of their humanity.