Fredric Brown
The first time I ever read one of his works, I was in junior high and the book was called Martians, Go Home—where little green men out of the imagination of a failed author appear on Earth, driving everyone crazy by their silly attitude. Weird? Yes, weird, like many of Brown’s stories, from the knee-slapping funny ones to the disturbingly somber atmosphere instillated in the others. Weird, but so pleasant to read.
At the time, I probably was a little too young to really appreciate this book. Fast-forward to high-school, when I picked one of his collections of short stories. At the very moment I was putting the book down, I realized that I liked this author, and that what I preferred above all were his endings. Each time I finished reading one of his short stories, I had one of these “I should’ve known it’d end like this!” jolts. They’re surprising, somewhat amusing, somewhat bittersweet, somewhat even more than that.
It’s not only about science-fiction (he wrote in the mystery genre, too).. It’s about his writing as a whole, about his way of taking everyday people and situations, wondering “what if?...”, and firing off the pen and paper (today we’d probably say “the laptop”) to give them a much unexpected turn. Granted, not all of his works are of even quality, and the fact that he wrote in two different genres (science-fiction and mystery) may make it a little hard to fully dive into either of them, if one is a “categorizing reader”, that is.
For whoever wants to search around, there are plenty of websites describing his life and works more in depth. However, I’m going to primary link to a few of his short stories. They’re indeed very short, not necessarily his most known ones, yet they’re already a good way to familiarize oneself with what is to be expected from his other works.
Y Tags: authors | books | stories | science-fiction
August 24th, 2005 19:19
That is a very good review of this author. I was not aware of him before, but now I’ll definitely check him out. Thanks for the heads up. Great post.
August 24th, 2005 21:36
You’re welcome! I myself discovered him totally by chance, at the time, and I’m glad I did. I should probably post reviews/recommendations more often, too; there are so many authors and books to talk about, after all.
August 25th, 2005 16:27
I’ve not heard of him, but I’ll look out for the name next time I visit the library. Thanks for the info.
August 25th, 2005 16:56
He’s not very known, from what I could see—well, let’s say he’s known by a certain public, but not widely.
A funny anecdote I’ve just remembered: in the town I used to live in, there’s a comics/manga/books store which name directly comes from one of his books (namely “Nightmares and Geezenstacks”). The store’s name is the French translation of geezenstacks. Interesting, given that Brown isn’t that well known.
August 24th, 2006 20:42
If anyone would care to see an index of the writings of Fredric Brown, just his books published in English with his by-line, drop an email to paccassi@candw.lc and it will be sent. No charge. The lc in the address is for St. Lucia, an island in the Caribbean.
The file is on a Word 2000 document.
Today is 25 august 2006.