Dictionary Stories: Short Fictions and Other Findings

by Jez Burrows

Overview

"Dictionary Stories isn’t just a book for word nerds, but for anyone for whom language and story matter. Everybody will find themselves thoroughly in love with this book."  —Kory Stamper, editor for Merriam-Webster, and author of Word by Word

Everyone has looked up a word in the dictionary. Some of us have even asked for it to be used in a sentence during our 2nd grade spelling bee. But few of us have ever really considered those example sentences: where they come from, how they’re generated…and why in heaven’s name they are so darn weird.

Jez Burrows opened the New Oxford American Dictionary and sat, mystified. Instead of the definition of "study" he was looking for, he found himself drawn to the strangely conspicuous, curiously melodramatic sentence that followed it: "He perched on the edge of the bed, a study in confusion and misery." It read like a tiny piece of fiction on the lam and hiding out in the dictionary—and it wasn’t alone. Was it possible to reunite these fugitive fictions? To combine and remix example sentences to form new works? With this spark and a handful of stories shared online, Dictionary Stories was born.

This genre-bending and wildly inventive collection glows with humor, emotion, and intellect. Effortlessly transcending sentence level, Burrows lights between the profound and the absurd, transporting readers into moments, worlds, and experiences of remarkable variety. Featuring original illustrations by the author, Dictionary Stories is a giddy celebration of the beauty and flexibility of language.

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062652614
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	04/10/2018
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	4.50(w) x 7.12(h) x 0.64(d)

About the Author

Jez Burrows is a British designer, illustrator, and writer. He lives in San Francisco.

Editorial Reviews

★ 02/26/2018
Uproarious and ingenious, Burrows’s debut is more than 150 shorts composed entirely from example sentences taken from 12 different dictionaries. Burrows crafts tense postapocalyptic scenarios, moody noir, fantasy, erotic science fiction, and “the double life of a freelance secret agent.” Stories come in the form of recipes, eulogies, math problems, answering machine messages, cocktail menus, mix tapes, and a coach’s motivational speech to his team. Anything can happen when a sentence needs to account for words like phantasmagoria, meeple, and rock spider, or when a definition includes evocative prose like “He perched on the edge of the bed, a study in confusion and misery,” the jarring “he is, in brief, the embodiment of evil,” or the hilarious “I never believed in love spells or magic until I met this spellcaster.” What sounds like mere novelty turns out to be a revelation in Burrows’s hands, as unlikely sentences generate even more unlikely narratives, oddball feats of lexicography inspire warped story snippets in which lions gossip, zombies intrude on a lackluster date night, and Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe makes a surprise appearance. This volume is a joyful celebration of idiosyncrasy and invention. Agent: Ted Weinstein, Ted Weinstein Literary Management. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

A revelation in remix; a book of joyous recombinations.” — Robin Sloan, New York Times bestselling author of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore

“Dictionary Stories isn’t just a book for word nerds, but for anyone for whom language and story matter. Everybody, A-Z, will find themselves thoroughly in love with this book.” — Kory Stamper, lexicographer and editor for Merriam-Webster, and author of Word by Word

“Jez has long been one of my favorite illustrators, and now he comes up with Dictionary Stories—sentences stolen from dictionaries and pasted together into tiny, delightful narratives. A brilliant literary remix.” — Austin Kleon, New York Times bestselling author of Steal Like an Artist

“Until you read Dictionary Stories, you’ll never understand just how weird the dictionary really is. Jez Burrows’ Dictionary Stories is all of human emotion and experience, handily arranged in alphabetical order” — Erin McKean, former editor of the New Oxford American Dictionary and founder of Wordnik

“Brilliantly, brazenly fun. Like a cabaret for word lovers.” — Sean Michaels, author of Giller Prize-winning novel Us Conductors

“Burrows has a talent for a delightfully askew existentialism… The stories are wickedly short but exquisitely rendered, accompanied by whimsical, minimalist illustrations by the author. A fabulist remix of the English language and a tribute to clever lexicographers everywhere.” — Kirkus Reviews

“[An] entirely original collection… With a deft eye for depth and irony, Burrows plucks seemingly inane phrases…and arranges them into haunting, hilarious, and human minidramas.” — Booklist

“Uproarious and ingenious… What sounds like mere novelty turns out to be a revelation in Burrows’s hands, as unlikely sentences generate even more unlikely narratives. Dictionary Stories is a joyful celebration of idiosyncrasy and invention.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Chaotically engaging...exemplary...majestic.” — KQED

“A serendipitous reading experience...Burrows challenges our ideas of the writing process and unpacks our understanding of what is literary.” — Ploughshares

“They’re absolutely addicting, and that is the highest praise I can bestow on this work—it is one task to bring good stories to people. It is another to bring a new game, a new form, a new diversion of the field. Burrows’ burrows are just that, and if you, or your friends, are the sort who love words and playing with them, you should seek out a copy of this fine new book.” — The Seattle Review of Books

“Dictionary Stories is a giddy celebration of the wild, elastic potential of language.” — McSweeny’s

“The most original book to be published in quite some time.” — San Jose Mercury News

“An ingenious addition to literary exploration.” — San Francisco Chronicle

“A brilliant, inventive book.” — Psych Central

“You’ll find everything from two-sentence short stories to a list of bands you probably haven’t heard of. We’ve never read anything quite like it.” — HelloGiggles

From the Publisher

Chaotically engaging...exemplary...majestic.

KQED

Jez has long been one of my favorite illustrators, and now he comes up with Dictionary Stories—sentences stolen from dictionaries and pasted together into tiny, delightful narratives. A brilliant literary remix.

Austin Kleon

Dictionary Stories isn’t just a book for word nerds, but for anyone for whom language and story matter. Everybody, A-Z, will find themselves thoroughly in love with this book.

Kory Stamper

Until you read Dictionary Stories, you’ll never understand just how weird the dictionary really is. Jez Burrows’ Dictionary Stories is all of human emotion and experience, handily arranged in alphabetical order

Erin McKean

A revelation in remix; a book of joyous recombinations.

Robin Sloan

[An] entirely original collection… With a deft eye for depth and irony, Burrows plucks seemingly inane phrases…and arranges them into haunting, hilarious, and human minidramas.

Booklist

Brilliantly, brazenly fun. Like a cabaret for word lovers.

Sean Michaels

A serendipitous reading experience...Burrows challenges our ideas of the writing process and unpacks our understanding of what is literary.

Ploughshares

They’re absolutely addicting, and that is the highest praise I can bestow on this work—it is one task to bring good stories to people. It is another to bring a new game, a new form, a new diversion of the field. Burrows’ burrows are just that, and if you, or your friends, are the sort who love words and playing with them, you should seek out a copy of this fine new book.

The Seattle Review of Books

An ingenious addition to literary exploration.

San Francisco Chronicle

Dictionary Stories is a giddy celebration of the wild, elastic potential of language.

McSweeny’s

The most original book to be published in quite some time.

San Jose Mercury News

A brilliant, inventive book.

Psych Central

You’ll find everything from two-sentence short stories to a list of bands you probably haven’t heard of. We’ve never read anything quite like it.

HelloGiggles

An ingenious addition to literary exploration.

San Francisco Chronicle

[An] entirely original collection… With a deft eye for depth and irony, Burrows plucks seemingly inane phrases…and arranges them into haunting, hilarious, and human minidramas.

Booklist

2018-01-28
An A to Z collection of atmospheric short stories composed entirely of example sentences from dictionaries.Designer and illustrator Burrows turns an artist's eye to these delicate, intricately constructed microfictions. It started, he explains in the introduction, with a single line, culled from the definition of "study" in the New Oxford American Dictionary: "He perched on the edge of the bed, a study in confusion and misery." With rules about the kinds of tiny edits he could make (changing pronouns, adding conjunctions, etc.), he set about assembling short stories from the bones of example sentences. Without forcing them, he achieves a remarkably diverse set of tales, assembling them much as one would a puzzle, finding which pieces fit together and then organizing them under general subject headings such as "apocalypse, the," "gossip," and "optimism." The stories are very funny, as in "Ten Dollars an Hour and Whatever You Want from the Fridge," the only story in the "babysitting" section: "I'll be home before dark. Here's the money I promised you, a fifth of whiskey, a list of forbidden books, and a bulletproof vest. Thanks, I owe you one for this." Many are mere trifles, such as "Bands You Probably Haven't Heard Of" (in the "ego" section). Others are subtly, wryly subversive, as we see in the performance art-perfect "Fifty More Ways to Leave Your Lover" or the acidic "Breakup Side Effects." Burrows also has a talent for a delightfully askew existentialism, as demonstrated by "Famous Last Words" that may include "Do you love me?" but just as blithely might offer, "Can I have the last slice of pizza?" Still others are calls to action, as in the entry titled "Reveille" in the "youth" section: "Keep your wits about you. Run along now. Run atilt at death. Go as fast as you can. Go, by all means. Go before I cry." The stories are wickedly short but exquisitely rendered, accompanied by whimsical, minimalist illustrations by the author.A fabulist remix of the English language and a tribute to clever lexicographers everywhere.

Kirkus Reviews