<\/p>\n
Milagros Green Lavalle<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
For those who grew up in Miami, Florida, they may instantly find themselves back in the Sunshine state with a new perspective of its beaches and canals that snake throughout neighborhoods. Florida children may remember their own encounters with various dangerous reptiles and strange pets, as well as memories of the unbelievable headlines Florida news is known for.\u00a0 From pythons and dog attacks to tractors and cancer, Shane Hinton\u2019s Pinkies<\/em> manages to disturb the reader and yet maintain tranquility behind the absurdity. Hinton surreality makes the reader both cringe and laugh.<\/p>\n Each story is as impactful as the last, making the reader put the book down for a while either from disgust, upset, or wonder. A nice feat.\u00a0 Although the short stories seem to have a biographical base, Hinton\u2019s use of fiction depicts real feelings behind adulthood and fatherhood. The short stories mainly follow Shane Hinton, either as a character or author, in addition to a few stories from the perspective of women.<\/p>\n Some of the most common themes are parenthood, pregnancy and family life. In the first story, \u201cPinkies,\u201d the narrator baits traps with newborn mice to catch the pythons threatening the neighborhood\u2019s young and elderly. Similarly, another family is threatened by cars crashing into their living room, destroying their home and endangering their lives. Oddly enough, these stories are looking for ways to keep the family safe.\u00a0 \u201cRelapse\u201d portrays a couple having trouble starting a family while their dog kills squirrels in the backyard. \u00a0Death is casually discussed in \u201cPets,\u201d after numerous domestic animals pass away. Death is expected to such an extent the narrator and his son guess ahead how each new pet will go. \u201cNever Trust The Weatherman\u201d describes the strange calm which the character felt as a tractor ran over him.<\/p>\n The reader realizes how people today are expected to function or react with civility–quiet and in private– under intense, bizarre, everyday and life threatening circumstances.\u00a0 The stories come together as reactions and awareness and acknowledgement of life\u2019s absurd events.<\/p>\n While death and threat are seen throughout the stories, many of the stories take on the subsets of such events: loneliness, divorce. \u201cSymbiont\u201d is the story of a woman whose vagina holds an old man\u2019s face. Believe me when I say, this one is rather hard to explain.<\/p>\n The best stories include \u201cFour Funerals,\u201d which consists of moments in which four deaths occur: By drowning, a car crash, illness and a dogfight. This story is the single one that does not come off as fictional, and strangely, convincingly biographical.<\/p>\n \u201cAll the Shane Hintons\u201d is another favorite. The story follows Shane Hinton, who is named after the author, who organizes a reunion with all the Shane Hintons he can find. Included is a convicted rapist no one trusts, but still believe he deserves a second chance. Shane Hinton does not trust the other Shane Hintons around his wife and feels unsure of himself. The story explores insecurity in marriage and what it means to share something among strangers.\u00a0 Yes, reading this collection all in one sitting or before bed may result in freaky dreams.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Pinkies<\/em> by Shane Hinton<\/p>\n Pub: Burrow Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Milagros Green Lavalle For those who grew up in Miami, Florida, they may instantly find themselves back in the Sunshine state with a new perspective of its beaches and canals that snake throughout neighborhoods. Florida children may remember their own encounters with various dangerous reptiles and strange pets, as well as memories of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":540,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-written-by"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":6}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/nightowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/nightowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/nightowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/nightowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/540"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/nightowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/nightowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":555,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/nightowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554\/revisions\/555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/nightowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/nightowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/nightowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}