Review: Catching the Barramundi by Rebecca Burns

Title: Catching the Barramundi
Author: Rebecca Burns
Format: Ebook
Publisher: Odyssey Books
Publish Date: November 19, 2012
Source: I received a copy from the author; however, this did not affect my review.

Why You're Reading This Book:

• You like short stories.
• You like vivid characters.

 What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "Sudden, shattering moments of realization; creeping, gradual self-awareness - Catching the Barramundi is a collection of contemporary short stories charting the dichotomous processes of reassessment and reflection. A lonely widow living in the Australian Outback has an unexpected encounter with a visiting scientist; an ice-hockey star returns to the site of his home town, now razed to the ground; a grieving husband recalls incidents from his married life - the characters in each tale experience moments of introspection and self-scrutiny, quite out of step with their daily lives."

My Two Cents:

"Catching the Barramundi" is a really good collection of short stories. All of the stories in this collection are very different from each other but if I had to choose one theme for this collection, it would be the exploration of human nature and all of its ups and downs. There are the good things in life, the bad things in life, the times that make you think, the times that make you happy to be alive, and the times that make you wish things were a little different. I'm still slowly beginning to explore short stories and I can definitely recommend this book to others who would like to do the same.

I'm not always good with open ended endings. I usually like closure and with these stories, you don't always get a neat, gift-wrapped ending but it works because then you're left thinking and pondering about the characters and about the stories. That pondering that stays with you after these stories makes it work.

Most of the stories were pretty good. One story that especially stuck out for me was one entitled, "Loving Enid," which sort of goes through the whole course of a relationship. That story definitely made me feel a whole bunch of different emotions (I so love when a story or a book can make me feel a lot of different things)!

I definitely recommend this one!