Book Review: Let Slip The Dogs of Love

Author: Eugene Kachmarsky
Released: April 2009 by Eloquent Books
Copy Provided by: Author
Summary from GoodReads:

In an urban legend style of storytelling flavored with magical realism, Let Slip the Dogs of Love blends together a thought-provoking collage of mesmeric short stories. It grips your full attention by flinging open, widely, a few infinite portals of perception. It brings an awareness to consider why we feel the things we do. This tapestry of stories reveals the sublime, ridiculous, triumphant and tragic ways in which ordinary people deal with the often extraordinary consequences of their choices and actions. With a rapidly and frequently changing pace and rhythm, taking gentle curves and sudden, unexpected hairpin-turns at full centripetal force, these ironic and karmic accounts tell tales of love, crime, poverty, tragedy, greed and evil in a thoughtful, sometimes playfully humorous, youthful voice. Delve with wonder into the depths that lie beneath the surface of all things in a quiet, sleepy metropolitan suburb.

Normally, I do not read short stories. There is something about them that just never feels finished enough for me. So when I started reading, Let Slip the Dogs of Love, I was a little hesitant. But fear not, I am now happy to say I may be a short story believer.

Kachmarsky's collection has a Twilight Zone vibe with some darkness and edge mixed in. While they do not all relate to each other, there was a cohesiveness to this collection that I really appreciated. Each tale is incredibly creative, and fast paced. I really did not want some of them to end. All in all, I am really pleased with this collection. It showed me a side of short stories that I had yet to be introduced to. I think if more collections were similar to this one, I would definitely be a constant short story reader.