Kentucky Is Wider and Other Short Stories

Jon Roket

Singer and writer Jon Roket's first book is a very small, beautifully-printed hardback that is what it says it is, no more and no less. The four short stories in this collection (of which, ironically, Kentucky Is Wider is not one) are actually related collections of pieces of what is known today as “flash fiction,” those hundred- to thousand-word pieces that are the fictive version of short poems. They are flanked by two other standalone pieces of flash fiction (of which Kentucky Is Wider is one).

Roket's work, to be short about it, shows great promise. Informed by the ghosts of both dada and V. I. Lenin, but never completely kowtowing to either, Roket's mind takes him off on odd little side journeys where the only thing that matters is sound. And this is a wonderful thing, and makes the collection (which, to the best of my knowledge, can only be gotten from his website, www.jonroket.com, at present) worth reading by itself. But when you mull on some of these little sound-composition phrases, you realize they are invested with all kinds of different meanings that do make sense within the context of the work, and that is a wonderful thing. Roket gives us stories that approximate the best of what poetry is supposed to do, but without using poetic language. It's hard to describe; read for yourself.

Very recommended. Can't wait to see what he comes up with next.