Measuring the Distance by Robert Scotellaro


Measuring the Distance
Title : Measuring the Distance
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 1421886502
ISBN-10 : 9781421886503
Format Type : Paperback
Number of Pages : 110
Publication : First published August 2, 2012

Robert Scotellaro has published short fiction and poetry in numerous print and online journals and anthologies. He is the author of five literary chapbooks. His most recent collections are Rhapsody of Fallen Objects (Flutter Press 2010) and The Night Sings A Cappella (Big Table Press 2011). He is the recipient of Zone 3's Rainmaker Award in Poetry, and the author of three books for children. Born and raised in Manhattan, he currently lives in San Francisco with his wife and daughter. "Measuring the Distance grabbed me with its first line-"'You can keep the frogs, ' my ex says"-and never let go. I was a thoroughly willing prisoner. These sparkling flash fictions pulse with heart and humor, presenting a vision of life and love that is as skewed as it is realistic-and above all, supremely entertaining. If there's any justice-Are you listening, literature gods?-this gem of a collection will garner the wide readership it so richly deserves." -Tom Hazuka, Editor, Sudden Flash Youth; Flash Fiction; You Have Time for This "I found myself laughing so hard while reading this book that I almost choked to death on a blackened tuna sub. True story.


Measuring the Distance Reviews


  • Stephen Ramey

    If you enjoy minimalist flash with a dose of humor and a splash of black, you will do no better than this book. It's the sort of fiction you find in the Boston Literary Journal and other top shelf literary flash venues. I took it slowly, digesting a few nuggets each day, letting them settle, and I think that's the best way to go. These are deceptively big ideas in small packages with some of the sharpest prose you will find, yet there's also a sense of humility in most of the pieces that I found endearing. Good stuff!

  • Ray Nessly

    Another terrific collection of ultra-short stories by Robert Scotellaro (see also my review of What We Know So Far, by the same author.) There are many, many standouts. In "Uncle L", for example, a ventriloquist struggles to practice his art after suffering a stroke. In only three pages--one of the "longest" stories in this collection--it manages to be both macabre and poignant:
    "Since his stroke, Uncle L talks out of one corner of a droopy mouth that looks as if it were made of wax that had melted, working the controls in Mr. Mumps' back, making his eyes move, his head swing from side to side, his jaw flap."
    Perhaps my very favorite though, is "Crooners In the Web", with a poet at an unemployment office, seeking work to match his skill set. Among the memorable lines: "I was thinking I might find something related, part time. Say, sweeping zeros into freshly dug graves." Many if not most of the other stories in Robert Scotellaro's fine collection are likewise very funny and beautifully written.