Review of THE SHELL GAME: WRITERS PLAY WITH BORROWED FORMS Ed. by Kim Adrian

The Shell Game: Writers Play with Borrowed Forms by Kim Adrian

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

How do you accurately put into words the staggering awe and jaw-dropping emotion provoked by reading a Rubik’s cube? Or a recipe? Much less lines of computer code? The impact of the words and messages grow in scale in the “shells” the authors selected. And you find yourself lost in the sentence structures and forms.

These aren’t my first hermit crab essays, though they represent the first collection. And while I understood such pieces of literary work could take on ANY form, so many of these choices charged my imagination. Crossword puzzles? Board games? Abecedarians? (Okay, so I needed to look up the definition of that one when I saw it in the contents) You’re trapped within these forms, finding every story perfectly rational.

Why wouldn’t quilting instructions carry a story? How could you not see the reality behind math equations? Lifting your head from the book, your view of the world gains a fresh perspective. Nothing looks the same anymore. Your life unfolds through the forms, games, crafts, and recipes you touch every day.

And for a writer, it opens the door to endless possibilities. Ms. Adrian assembled a stunning collection of talent. And I can’t thank each of them enough for this introduction to an astounding art form.

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