Mementos - A Unique Collection of Short Stories & Flash Fiction - Book 1

Theodore Jerome Cohen's "Mementos" has a different tone to the writing, as it is not as brisk and the stories are more involved and sometimes take two or three turns that make you think and actually go back as I had to do to be sure I had not missed something due to the shifts in the plot.

Cohen is also a very experienced author with numerous titles to his credit, and these short stories are spread over quite a variety of geography and venues and it is a good blend. There's something for everyone.

Several have a local setting in or near Bucks County and some are quite brief at a single page. Some are "flash fiction," written for a contest where the author is given a theme and some direction and a limited amount of time to crank out a narrative. In the first story, "Judgment Day," he was actually given the first and last paragraphs and had to fill in between these bookends and did rather well.

Seeing how he handled these efforts is as interesting as some of the tales themselves.

One move that will grab your interest is the picture at the beginning of each tale that serves as basically the introduction and some of these are quite intriguing and will have you constructing your own opinion of what you will read before you even start reading. The photograph of a young lady with a tattoo of the Tarot Wheel of Fortune on her back definitely exemplifies this.

This book is also recommended, though as should be clear from the comments above it is a little heavier than the more light-hearted material of "Off the Rails," though still very entertaining. If it was a movie, it would be rated PG13 because of the more serious subject matter.

Cohen lives in Langhorne and the book is available on Amazon.

Dick Sakulich has written two books of his own ("Stories From my Working Days" and "More Stories"). He lives in Doylestown and is a member of the Intelligencer and Bucks County Courier Times editorial board. If you know a local author with a recent book, please let him know at newrms@comcast.net.

"Many of us enjoy a set of stories that can be enjoyed as brief, standalone visits to other places and times. Author Theodore Jerome Cohen has written such a set of tales in Mementos: A Unique Collection of Short Stories & Flash Fiction, and with almost forty stories to choose from, there is at least one story for just about any reader. They certainly do vary in theme and location, both in time and space. One "unique" feature of this collection of stories is that each is accompanied by a photo that was used as the prompt for the composition of the story. In Ashley's Revenge, readers witness a series of "romantic" encounters but its ending will bring a chuckle or a gasp. Cynthia introduces a tryst of chance with tragic consequences; Road to Autumn is a sound bite of a story with a famous crooner talking about "serendipity" and songs; Farewell to a Friend is a poignant commentary on a friendship, mostly by correspondence, and how time can still a favorite voice.

Theodore Jerome Cohen is a fine writer. It is difficult to give Mementos complete justice here. The stories are imaginative and complex while still being very readable, even when rendered in the nonstandard dialects of some of the characters. This collection of stories will certainly be one that readers can browse through by title when wanting something to read without having to invest attention and patience in a series of books, particularly if one has just enough time to read a short story or piece of flash fiction. There is an art to creating such quick stories, and this author has mastered it and, indeed, has a talent for it. If readers enjoy this collection, there is more to look forward to because this particular volume is the first of several. Also included in this book is a list of other published works by this author, so if readers want more, they are definitely available."