Forty Birthdays - Jason G. Long - ★★★★.¼

AUTHOR: Jason G. Long

GENRE: Short Story Collection

PUBLICATION DATE: September 1, 2020

RATING: 4.25 stars.

Just look at the cover of this book! Who could resist? But that's not the reason I chose to read it.

I've been a short story fan for many years now. I really enjoy how well-written short stories can create such an impact within a few pages. Additionally, the title and blurb stated that the stories in this book revolve around birthdays. There are forty stories in the book, each dealing with one birthday starting from age zero and each set in a different city/country. That novelty factor was intriguing enough for me to go for this book.

So, does the book deliver on its potential? To a great extent, yes. The 40 stories vary in length, each requiring between 2 to 10 minutes for reading, and are mostly unrelated to each other. (Except for 2 stories that have been connected inconspicuously.) The plots give a quick glimpse into the life of the protagonist on his/her birthday and move on, leaving you to ponder on what would have happened afterwards.

Because they are set around progressive birthdays, you get to see the age-wise changes in the human thought process. So you have a five year old who wants to play in the bouncy castle against the wishes of her mother while a seventeen year old is worrying about a driving test. A twenty eight year old is fed up of dealing with irate customers in his hotel job and a thirty five year old bride wonders if she's marrying for love or settling. The various places in which the stories are set also add to the appeal of the book by giving a peek into the local culture. (India & Pakistan make an appearance too!)

You would assume that stories with birthdays as a theme would be happy stories. But many of the stories don't fit in the "happy" mould at all.

You would also assume that most stories would have the birthday as the central event around which the story revolves. But in many cases, the birthday is just incidental to the plot.

Why are both these factors important? If you decide to pick up this book for a nice, light-reading experience (especially taking into account the scrumptious cover pic and the "birthday" factor), you may not enjoy it as much. The stories are more like slice-of-life narratives. So while some are genuinely joyful stories, others are poignant, distressing, and sometimes, even befuddling. Some of the stories have philosophical undertones too. Thus each story sparks a different emotion in your mind and you need a little break to recover and retrospect before moving on to the next one.

Jason Long proves himself to be a capable raconteur. He doesn't shy away from sudden and open endings. It's nice to see a comparatively newer author taking such a unique, risky approach to short storytelling.

Pick this up if you want a book with varied, atypical stories that don't follow any specific theme or genre. But if you are in the mood for a fun book, keep this in reserve for a more sombre day. Also, I'd recommend that you not read all the stories in one go. Savour the book over a few days so that each story gets a chance to stay in your mind. Not all the stories are equally good (as is the case with any anthology) but this collection has enough good ones to merit a read.

I received this book from BookSirens for free in exchange for an unbiased review and whatever I've expressed in this review is my honest opinion.