The Fabric Of Tombstones By B.F. Jones
The Fabric of Tombstones is an outstanding collection of interwoven flash-fiction stories. A series of profound, and sometimes hilarious, meditations on suffering and loss, The Fabric of Tombstones weaves together compelling tales of modern life and death. Plucking moments from the lives of jealous homeowners waging an escalating war with their neighbours, to paranoid lovers on the verge of catastrophe, to the old and sick lying in hospital contemplating how they might meet their end. The Fabric Of Tombstones
B.F. Jones ´ 2 Review
Fabric of Tombstones is a delightfully brilliant flash fiction collection from B F Jones. A voice that I’ve read often, what I love about this collection is it collates these various flash pieces that have been published elsewhere with new material which seeing it all together just blows my tiny mind!
Fabric of Tombstones is a brave and unrelenting collection that pulls at the heartstrings until they snap! A debut not to be missed! English Very sarcastic and witty ! English I forgot I had this on my e-reader and dipped into it on one tired night without expectation. It soon got its claws into me and wouldn't release until it was done.
I love these vignettes, with subtle links together, treading on each other's toes as they lead into the shadows. Each tight flash deftly pulls on a range of hard emotions. BF Jones shows great poetic prowess with simplicity in getting much larger notions across, stretching free thought and creativity en-route.
I had the starting imagery from Lynch's 'Blue Velvet' creep into my head as I went. I think that's because I found a surface playfulness and innocence that lead to something much darker and lurid in subtext and conclusion in each.
I loved The Fabric of Tombstones so much I'm going to re-read it to relish all over again. And I can't wait for another book from this author. English
I’ve long been a fan of Jones’ work and this is why.
Some of my favorite stories were:
A Very Polite Town
Vile Creature
Twinkle Twinkle
The Important Meetings That Take Place In Conference Room C
William’s Last Words
The Gateway to Hell
Jones’ writing reminds me of Richard Matheson mixed into a cocktail with Raymond Carver and The Twilight Zone. I’m very much looking forward to her next collection.
FoT is the kind of collection that deserves a second read and then a third and a fourth.
5/5
Highly Recommended English The theme of this collection of 26 flash stories is most certainly death, for each character in this collection of loosely interconnected tales seems visited by the spectre in one form or other. The style of some of the pieces is practically a verse poem. That English isn’t the author’s first language is astounding. I wouldn’t have been able to tell. Due to the nature of flash, there does seem to be a twist or surprise reveal at the end of each story, but that is to be expected with the format.
I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review. English Flash Fiction is not normally my cup of tea, but The Fabric of Tombstones won me over! A stunning collection of interconnected stories that explore themes of coping with loss and death, and yet all done with a deft humour and wry wit that illuminates every scene. I loved some many of the characters in this collection. Even though each story is micro-cosmic, it feels like it contains so much. English About two thirds of the way through ‘The Fabric of Tombstones’ there’s a line – short and sweet though it is – that perhaps sums up what we should expect from B.F Jones’ debut flash fiction collection – ‘All these souls, here momentarily, before going there permanently, trying to get on with their lives and make sense of it all.’
‘The Fabric of Tombstones’ is, without a doubt, a character driven flash fiction collection that feeds off the anxieties and experiences of death (and life) and zeroes in on them acutely. That is what makes flash fiction. Whilst the background to each story we read is no doubt important, nothing quite compares to the characters who exist within those worlds we create. Here, Jones has created an interconnected microcosm of people we know – the next-door neighbour, the gossiping mother at school, the parent who lost a child and the elderly man who is surely about to die. Yet within that familiarity, there is the nuances – the subtleties and implications of actions, and (as someone who loves something off-kilter) the weird and the haunting.
Stacked with 26 tales, ‘The Fabric of Tombstones’ is rich in flash fiction and rich too, in its tapestry of interwoven lives. Characters appear and reappear throughout – either directly, or occasionally through the odd name check and brief illusion to their life (or even their demise – the title of the collection should give you a hint at what’s to come). Death rules in ‘The Fabric of Tombstones’. It bleeds across the pages and ties our characters together and pulls them apart. Cliché though it is, death truly is a certainty (so too are taxes, well, for some of us at least.)
But death – and life – is not the be all and end all for these characters. They exist within the fissures of each, oscillating in and out. In ‘William’s Last Words’ we are treated a man (William) and his last words before the grim reaper takes him – ‘Oh Dear.’ Turns out they weren’t the words he was going for, and in what we assume is the afterlife, they plague him. However, so consumed are we by William’s gripe with himself, that it takes us, and him, a while to realise that perhaps he isn’t dead at all. And that perhaps, he can have a second go at dying, and get the words right this time. Here Jones’ twists the ending, and quite neatly interlaces comical undertones.
The twist of an ending is a technique that Jones’ wields across many of the 26 tales and does so with skill. You think you’re on sure ground, until she goes ahead and pulls the rug. ‘Five Trees’, ‘26’ and ‘Waiting for Death’ all take a snap turn towards the end – ‘Five Trees’ especially and wickedly so. Turns out the wife you think has left you might only be a cellar away.
Talking of people in cellars, elsewhere Jones’ leads us down various uncanny paths. In ‘Pigeon Trouble’ there’s the issue of a narrow chimney and an array of dead pigeons. Strangely enough, the chimney is sealed, begging the delicious question – ‘where did all the pigeons come from?’. In ‘Angel Wing’ we are transported to a house with weird noises. And whilst the premise isn’t anything new – we’ve all read something about a suspected haunted house – Jones’ still delivers, ramping up the tension and knitting in a plot within a plot. Yes, the house is odd, but what about the couple inside it – especially Gemma and her grief for the child she has lost.
It's hard to give airtime to each piece within ‘The Fabric of Tombstones’ – and we’d be here too long (she says, whilst currently in lockdown, with nowhere to go.) But let it be known that there is much to be enjoyed from the 26 flash fictions included. Some have been previously published in various journals such as STORGY Magazine and Cabinet of Heed – and some are brand new for the collection. Yet each follow one another neatly. Cohesion is a masterstroke of a good collection, where each piece compliments one another. Here, that’s not in doubt. And whilst I wish some pieces were longer – but that’s a selfish wish on my part – and some where I get to experience the characters lives a little deeper, ‘The Fabric of Tombstones’ is a wonderful collection that turns and turns, delivering delicate prose and intriguing cast of characters. It also delivers a killer final flash fiction, one that leaves us with a brilliant final line that rounds the collection off in style – ‘And she grabs her scythe, and walks out, slamming the door.’
(Review, by me! from STORGY Magazine)
English B.F. Jones is a writer I discovered via online journals and zones and I've been mesmerized by her stunning poetry and her amusing, insightful short stories. This i arrived a purchasing the above and it is laced with Jones mix of wit and wonder to make a tantalising collection of flash fiction.
The stories all happen in one small English town with characters and incidents referred to in other stories. The tales are a mix of kooky and creepy as the citizens succumb to their fears and desires throughout. Jones is great with a final line that can either twist the knife deeper or flip a story on its head.
Jones is adept at writing characters even in the small space each yarn inhabits and manages to !and then and the town feel real even with the increasing amount of bizarre things going on.
Jones is a wonderful, vibrant writer that often leaves me in awe of her skills. I am more than excited to see where her career takes her next. English
