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    Slipping: Stories, Essays, & Other Writing
    Unavailable
    Slipping: Stories, Essays, & Other Writing
    Unavailable
    Slipping: Stories, Essays, & Other Writing
    Ebook271 pages3 hours

    Slipping: Stories, Essays, & Other Writing

    By Lauren Beukes

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    A Punk Lolita fighter-pilot rescues Tokyo from a marauding art installation. A young architect's life is derailed by an inquisitive girl who happens to be a ghost. Loyalty to a favorite product can be addictive when it gets under your skin.

    In her edgy and satiric debut collection, award-winning South African author Lauren Beukes (The Shining Girls) never holds back. Ranging from Johannesburg to outer space, Beukes is a fierce and captivating presence in the literary landscape.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTachyon Publications
    Release dateNov 29, 2016
    ISBN9781616962418
    Unavailable
    Slipping: Stories, Essays, & Other Writing
    Author

    Lauren Beukes

    Lauren Beukes is a writer, TV scriptwriter and journalist. She has an MA in Creative Writing, but she got her real education in ten years of freelance journalism, learning really useful skills like how to pole-dance and make traditional sorghum beer. For the sake of a story, she's jumped out of planes and into shark-infested waters and got to hang out with teen vampires, township vigilantes, AIDS activists and homeless sex workers among other interesting folk.

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    Reviews for Slipping

    4/5

    28 ratings5 reviews

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    • 4/5
      It takes a bit of time to work your way into this collection of short stories (and a few non-fiction pieces at the end). I really didn't know anything about the author when I started, but it soon became clear that South Africa was at the center of almost everything here, and it gives these stories a background and flavor that really sets them apart. When combined with Beukes engaging style and seemingly limitless imagination--SciFi, horror, more conventional fiction, or combinations of genres--it makes for a unique reading experience. Some stories appeal more than others, but there really isn't a dud here. To pick out favorites would be a disservice to other readers. Let me just say that these stories will take you to a different world, whether its somewhere in South Africa or outer space, and you will marvel at the time you spend there.
    • 4/5
      Could zombies be a viable replacement for slave labour? Asking for a certain electronics company. And most clothing manufacturers.

      Slipping is an interesting collection of writing from the brain of Lauren Beukes. From enhanced athletes to bored ghosts, these stories display Lauren's spec-fic interests. There are also a few essays at the end of the collection, one of which explains the personal inspiration behind The Shining Girls; an essay well worth reading.

      I met Lauren at a writers' festival where she was running a workshop on, surprise surprise, writing. I really enjoyed reading the aforementioned The Shining Girls as it was a highly enjoyable mix of crime and spec-fic. So I was looking forward to reading this collection. As with any collection of previously published works, there are highs and lows. For me the highs outweighed the lows, with Slipping, The Green, and Ghost Girl being amongst my favourites. I think the strengths of this collection come from the South African cultural influence to Lauren's writing, which gives far more grittiness to the bleak sci-fi stories than you usually see.

      If you're a spec-fic fan, or a fan of Lauren's writing - and how could you not be? - then you will find some compelling stories in this collection.

      I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
    • 4/5
      Mostly cyberpunkish stories, with a few nonfiction essays on similar themes (living in a globalizing, multicultural South Africa where poverty and violence can either be around every corner or almost invisible). I enjoyed the stories a lot and they would make a great introduction to Beukes; sometimes the cyberpunkish vibe can get wearing in a longer book.
    • 4/5
      ‘You don’t have to name something to understand it.’In Slipping, Beukes takes the modern world and transforms it into something futuristic and near unrecognizable. The title story, Slipping, is about a girl who, following a severe accident, is transformed through technological advances into a racing machine. Smileys, is a strange story about a soldier attempting to extort a woman who sells cooked sheep heads. Pop Tarts, is a story about a reality star and the realization that it’s all nothing but scripted fiction. Unathi Battles the Black Hairballs, is the story about a woman who must save Tokyo (and I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the talking cat). Each of these stories are wildly authentic, vastly entertaining, and a constant focus on the darkness in this world.‘Culture wants to be free. This is not my original thought. But who of us can claim to be truly original? Aren’t we all remixes of every influence we’ve ever come across?’The wide variety of genres cause the stories to lack a certain cohesion like a typical short story anthology might, but it does this collection a disservice to think this is a negative. Instead, each of these stories act as their own palette cleanser from one story to the next and it keeps the reader in a constant state of bewilderment not knowing what type of outlandishness to expect next. I was pleasantly surprised that my favorite part of this collection were the five Non-Fiction pieces included at the end. In these she discusses personal topics such as how she got into journalism, about the research she conducted for her book Zoo City within the inner city of Johannesburg, and some additional insight into why she wrote The Shining Girls, my personal favorite of Beukes, which made me love it even more. She leaves us on a resolute note, with a letter to her five-year-old daughter about the meaning of true beauty.I’ve read (and loved) a few of Beukes’ full length novels and her writing prowess manages to be just as impressive in her short fiction. This obscure collection only proves that her talents are truly expansive and that we have much to look forward from her.‘Every person I speak to gives me a new perspective, a different lens. It’s made my writing more than it would have ever been. And it’s still an excuse to go adventuring.’
    • 3/5
      Lauren Beukes is a white South African journalist and fiction writer, who often uses speculative elements in her stories. Prior to reading Slipping, the only work of her’s I’d read was her novel Zoo City, which had an interesting enough concept that I was willing to try other works by her.Slipping is a collection of shorts stories, flash fiction, and essays, although the fiction predominates. Most of the stories are set in South Africa, and many involve a science fiction element. Overall, the collection has a dark tone, and I’m not sure I can recall a truly happy story in the bunch.When it comes to the fiction, I found myself mostly apathetic. There were some interesting ideas, but I never invested myself in the stories. The only stand out I can think of sticks in the brain for sheer strangeness – “Unathi Battles the Black Hairballs.” It may have been an homage of sorts to Haruki Murakami, although I haven’t read his work so it struck me more as a mash up of all those “Japan is weird” stereotypes.Surprisingly, the two stand out pieces were both non-fiction. “All the Pretty Corpses” tells of a personal friend who was brutally murdered by her boyfriend and looks at the way female bodies are used in crime fiction (this incident also inspired her to write The Shining Girls). The second piece, “On Beauty: A Letter to My Five-Year Old Daughter,” was similarly powerful.I’m not sure if I would generally recommend Slipping. Beyond those two nonfiction pieces, I don’t know what I’ll ultimately remember about it. Perhaps if you’re already a devoted fan you’ll get more out of this than I did.I received an ARC of Slipping from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.Review from The Illustrated Page.