The difference of a word

"When an asmatic says "I love you," and when an asthmatic says "I love you madly," there's a difference. The difference of a word. A word's a lot. It could be stop, or inhaler. It could even be ambulance."

That's from a short piece called in The Girl on the Fridge by Etgar Keret, (translated from the Hebrew by Miriam Shlesinger and Sondra Silverston). The book has many such short (1-3 pages usually) but clever and creatively written pieces, which serve as savory quick bites - full of the bitterness, sweetness, and the humor in the asynchronous absurdities and idiosyncrasies of life. His stories cleverly bring forth the surprises, disillusions and the disenchantments of life. Scrumptious! (No.. I am not hungry. Just extending the metaphor of quick bites too far, I suppose! :)) The blurbs from various reviews of his work excerpted at the beginning of the book claim his work as incisive, witty, insightful, joyful, moving, cynical, hopeful, wild, weird, exuding a life-changing and life affirming fire and zing, full of overarching sorrow, humorous and with a touch of the absurd, universal and yet utterly bizarre. Its all that and more... just like life.

Etgar's earlier book, Nimrod Flipout has received rave reviews and is now added to my ever-growing list of books to read! You can read the title story here. This review of another story from Nimrod Flipout rings true to me after reading The Girl on the Fridge.

Like most of Keret's work, "Fatso" will make you laugh, then wipe the smile off your face with its calculated manipulation of fear, desire and aggression, and its wistful paean to the insufficiency of human relationships.

Or in his own words, also from the same review:

"Some people write from the brain or the heart. I write from the kishkes," he says cheerfully in accented but flowing English. "Telling a story is the easiest thing. The moment there is an emotion I can name, I can give you 20 stories to choose from. I always start from a sensation, an image, never a plot. For some writers, the act of writing is like construction or engineering, building consciously. For me, it's the exact opposite. The best metaphor is surfing. You go to the ocean, wait for some wave to hit you, and try to keep your balance. You don't have GPS or a map. It's like exploding, and you can't explode slowly."

(kishkes = guts)

Speaking of savory quick bites, hear this episode of This American life, which featured 20 Acts in 60 Minutes; including Keret's work.

Update: Just found out via Keret's website, that the NYT reviewed The Girl on the Fridge earlier this year. And here's a conversation between Keret and another author, who now that I think of it has a similar writing style in reflecting on modern day life, George Saunders.