The Fall of Icarus (The Elevator, The Fall of Icarus, and The Girl)
By NR Bates
5/5
()
About this ebook
THE FALL OF ICARUS (THE ELEVATOR, THE FALL OF ICARUS, AND THE GIRL). Three interconnected short-stories set in Paris explore the issue of choice, survival and transformation. In the first story, a young man on his first business trip is waylaid by an aberrant elevator. In the pivotal tale, a young scientist re-imagines the Greek myth of Icarus and his fall to earth. In the final story, a young woman who cannot recall her own name relates the fantastical tale of a girl who can fly.
NR Bates
I am fortunate to share my life with my wife, and seven cats and one dog. British by birth, and Canadian by naturalization, I alternate between the UK, Canada and islands in the mid-Atlantic. I am an oceanographer by training, and my scientific research has focused on understanding the biological, chemical and physical processes that control carbon dioxide in the ocean and ocean acidification. I have published over one hundred and twenty scientific papers and contributed to policy documents including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessments.
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Reviews for The Fall of Icarus (The Elevator, The Fall of Icarus, and The Girl)
1 rating1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Fall of Icarus offers three interlinked short stories sharing the locale, flavor, and focus of Paris and tell of falls, flights, and endurance in the lives of three very different individuals. All this is done in a production well below a hundred pages: an amazing achievement, given that so much is imparted using so little space.
In 'The Elevator', Ianos becomes trapped in a shabby, tiny old French elevator and when the doors finally open, something magical changes his life and introduces him to a Paris of loss and possibility. How many times will he embark on that journey? A surreal saga captures reader interest.
'The Fall of Icarus' is also about flights: this one injecting the allegory of a mythical son who ignored direction and traveled too close to the sun into the life of one who chose to "…follow a middle way—not too bright, not too foolish, and not too confident. I succumbed, and I did not excel in any way. Perhaps without realizing it, I followed this path as a means of real escape and not the imagining of escape by taking flight."
It, too, is replete with the possibilities introduced by the unexpected experience which defies preset notions and logic.
'The Girl' features a protagonist even more lost (she can't remember her own name, but she is immersed in recording the stories and words of others - to the point of lacking of her own life). Can an unexpected tale introduce her to new choices and experiences?
All three stories excel in a sense of wonder and feature delightful twists and contemplative scenarios all immersed in Parisian atmosphere and powerfully surreal moments. Readers with a special affinity for the short story format who want to see atmosphere and psychology works flavored with a tinge of the eerie will delight in these well-done literary pieces.