It’s hard to worry about the future when you’re laughing at the hilarious absurdity of daily life.
The days we live go by like slugs eating their way through leaves; everything changes, yet nothing changes, and the years soon accumulate. Who doesn’t read their daily horoscope, searching for guidance about what’s to come, how to live? What is life, but ordinary and special days, time passing, humour, sex, death, and love (making it all bearable)? All these are repeated gestures that run through The Days, a kind of absurdist guidebook made up of ninety unconventional, very short stories collected in three tight sections. This is fiction that thinks, fiction that cuts to the chase, told with Farrant’s trademark humour and acerbic wit. Her miniatures gracefully articulate the contemporary zeitgeist: anxiety about the future coupled with absurd mundanity. Somehow, always, Farrant captures the moments that buoy us up, crystallizing the experiences keeping us from being overwhelmed while calling our attention to overwhelming truths.Let yourself be excited and delighted. Farrant’s artfully spare stories – averaging a couple of paragraphs each – offer enough food for thought (and mood) to keep you going for months. Dip in occasionally to be reminded of the strangeness of us, or read from beginning to end and immerse yourself in a slightly skewed version of reality – one in which people are frank and the world is unforgiving as it shimmers like light on water, sometimes blinding, always dazzling.
Short-listed 2017 Victoria City Book Prize
"Farrant’s work is infused with iconoclastic innovation."
– Globe & Mail
M.A.C. Farrant is the author of sixteen books: thirteen collections of satirical and philosophical short fiction; one novel, The Strange Truth About Us; a novel-length memoir, My Turquoise Years; a book of humorous essays, The Secret Lives of Litterbugs; and the stage adaptation of My Turquoise Years, which premiered at Vancouver’s Arts Club Theatre in 2013.
…sharing an excerpt from M.A.C. Farrant’s The Days , published in 2016, and short-listed in 2017 for …
…of the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize, and The Days, nominated for the City of Victoria Butler Book …
…with Talon. The second book in the trilogy, The Days, was a finalist for the 2017 ReLit Award for …
…Running on Fumes by Christian Guay-Poliquin The Days by M.A.C. Farrant Pound @ Guantánamo by Clint …
…good company on this fine list! M.A.C. Farrant, The Days: Forecasts, Warnings, Advice Kevin Patterson, … the prize in 2014. Our fingers are crossed for The Days! …
…a novel in the process M.A.C. Farrant reads from The Days: Forecasts, Warnings, Advice and loosens some …
…Prose! U Girl by Meredith Quartermain (a novel) The Days: Forecasts, Warnings, Advice by M.A.C. Farrant …
…for coming out last evening for the launch of The Days: Forecasts, Warnings, Advice ($14.95) by M.A.C. …
…her latest collection of miniature fiction, The Days: Forecasts, Warnings, Advice ($14.95); books will …
…publishing a review by Candace Fertile calling The Days: Forecasts, Warnings, Advice “great fun, but it … Then, just yesterday, Publishers Weekly called The Days “a beguiling, quirky delight … Ever-whimsical and … Read the full review online. Order your copy of The Days for $14.95 today! …