Dictionary Stories

February 1, 2018
An A to Z collection of atmospheric short stories composed entirely of example sentences from dictionaries.Designer and illustrator Burrows turns an artist's eye to these delicate, intricately constructed microfictions. It started, he explains in the introduction, with a single line, culled from the definition of "study" in the New Oxford American Dictionary: "He perched on the edge of the bed, a study in confusion and misery." With rules about the kinds of tiny edits he could make (changing pronouns, adding conjunctions, etc.), he set about assembling short stories from the bones of example sentences. Without forcing them, he achieves a remarkably diverse set of tales, assembling them much as one would a puzzle, finding which pieces fit together and then organizing them under general subject headings such as "apocalypse, the," "gossip," and "optimism." The stories are very funny, as in "Ten Dollars an Hour and Whatever You Want from the Fridge," the only story in the "babysitting" section: "I'll be home before dark. Here's the money I promised you, a fifth of whiskey, a list of forbidden books, and a bulletproof vest. Thanks, I owe you one for this." Many are mere trifles, such as "Bands You Probably Haven't Heard Of" (in the "ego" section). Others are subtly, wryly subversive, as we see in the performance art-perfect "Fifty More Ways to Leave Your Lover" or the acidic "Breakup Side Effects." Burrows also has a talent for a delightfully askew existentialism, as demonstrated by "Famous Last Words" that may include "Do you love me?" but just as blithely might offer, "Can I have the last slice of pizza?" Still others are calls to action, as in the entry titled "Reveille" in the "youth" section: "Keep your wits about you. Run along now. Run atilt at death. Go as fast as you can. Go, by all means. Go before I cry." The stories are wickedly short but exquisitely rendered, accompanied by whimsical, minimalist illustrations by the author.A fabulist remix of the English language and a tribute to clever lexicographers everywhere.

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Starred review from February 26, 2018
Uproarious and ingenious, Burrows’s debut is more than 150 shorts composed entirely from example sentences taken from 12 different dictionaries. Burrows crafts tense postapocalyptic scenarios, moody noir, fantasy, erotic science fiction, and “the double life of a freelance secret agent.” Stories come in the form of recipes, eulogies, math problems, answering machine messages, cocktail menus, mix tapes, and a coach’s motivational speech to his team. Anything can happen when a sentence needs to account for words like phantasmagoria, meeple, and rock spider, or when a definition includes evocative prose like “He perched on the edge of the bed, a study in confusion and misery,” the jarring “he is, in brief, the embodiment of evil,” or the hilarious “I never believed in love spells or magic until I met this spellcaster.” What sounds like mere novelty turns out to be a revelation in Burrows’s hands, as unlikely sentences generate even more unlikely narratives, oddball feats of lexicography inspire warped story snippets in which lions gossip, zombies intrude on a lackluster date night, and Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe makes a surprise appearance. This volume is a joyful celebration of idiosyncrasy and invention. Agent: Ted Weinstein, Ted Weinstein Literary Management.