Karate Chop : Book Review


Book Review

 

Title: Karate Chop

Author: Dorothy Nors

Genre: Short stories/ Translation (Danish)

 

 Karate Chop is a collection of 15 short stories that captures the mundanity of everyday life. These are lives of ordinary individuals which oscillate between reality and imagination. 

 

The stories are set in Copenhagen and revolve around various Danish people You have two men who plan to kill each other’s dogs, a woman whose thoughts flutter on a recent occurrence, a woman who finds solace in a graveyard, a depressed actress finding an escape by the sea, a man who reinvents himself to become a Buddhist and a woman finding proximity with a heron. 

 

The characters in these stories clearly experience loneliness and thrive on their imaginations to break the monotony in their lives. They appear to enjoy their solitude and eccentricities. The author gives an insight on how people deal with traumas in several ways. She gets into the characters’ hearts eliciting mixed reactions from the readers. While the stories appear brief, there is a lot packed in them. Through her lucid style of writing, she  draws the readers into the strange world of the characters. There also exists is a tinge of oddness, darkness and quirkiness in both the plots and characterization.

Karate Chop is one of a kind. Engaging, queer and compelling. Some of the stories stay with you, evoke several thoughts, sparks discussions. Nevertheless an interesting read overall. 

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