Backstories

Dreamers, singers, heroes and killers, they can dazzle with their beauty or their talent or their unmitigated evil, yet inside themselves they are as frail and desperate as the rest of us. But can you see them? Can you unravel the truth? These are people you know, but not as you know them. Peel back the mask and see.

Title: Backstories

Author: Simon Van der Velde

Genre: Short Stories / Flash Fiction

Paperback:  118 pages

Publication Date: 03/24/2021

Publisher: Smoke and Mirrors Press

Language: English

ISBN 13: 978-1838296407

ISBN 10: 1838296409

My Review

Backstories is an eclectic collection of flash fiction / short stories both intriguing and poignant. Featuring situational fragments of the lives of famous and infamous persons throughout history, Van der Velde not so much ‘tells’ but rather ‘shows’ the readers a backstory that is most evoking. Sometimes tragic, sometimes puzzling - nothing stays untouched or is taboo.

With a striking combination of elemental needs/nurture in all humankind and the clashing of societal norms, Van der Velde adjusts each story in tone and style to address the incomprehensible tragedies and struggles set into character in layers and of persons of all walks of life.

In "Guitar," a young Jewish boy is pushed around on the schoolyard for his small size and almost misses his birthday that brings unforeseen change into his life:

“Back then it was character building. That was what they called it, while he sat alone on the Brooklyn Bridge and watched the rain fall and the steam-ships churn through the dirty water. He was still there when darkness turned the water from brown through black, to silver in the moonlight, beckoning to him with promises of a better world. The kid might have jumped, that night before his thirteenth birthday.”

"Past Time," is the story of a young man who learns an early lesson as a child, when his day starts in the morning as a kid and ends as a grown-up by supper time:

“The boys were throwin em, laughin and foolin, but seemed like them apples was landing awful close to us. And they were big boys. Big to us anyways. And they was white.”

One of the most harrowing stories to me was "Wicked Child," as a young and highly gifted boy of twelve is seized by the sight of his mother washing her naked body and it leaves him changed and wildly alive…until he is caught:

“Yes, he is her favorite, but this is different. A flash of new and thrilling intimacy. He stares hungrily into that square of mirror desperate for her eyes to meet his, terrified that they might.”

The greatest focal point in many of the stories is the young age of the characters - an age when events are most impacting and transformative to a person and who they may become thereof. What decisions will they make? What have they gone through? How have they persevered? And who could this be? It begs to question, how will the next generation be impacted and taught?

Backstories is geared towards the older reader in my opinion, as Van der Velde has set each of the shorts up to be hinting at a well-known figure from history throughout today. Some of them I figured out, some of them I didn’t. Some of them, I was simply shocked by, not even trying to imagine who it could have been or who that someone was that this happened to. One thing is for sure, Van der Velde has the incredible gift to craft with skillful intent. His deliverance and applications are precise and sharp. They invite us to ponder and reflect on our own experiences, choices, and boundaries.

If you enjoy mysteries and venturing to the depths of human emotions while encountering a wide array of life-defining moments, then this collection might be for you!

Happy Reading!

I received a copy of this novel from the author in exchange for a voluntary review.

All opinions are my own. Thank you!