A review by jvedjs
Two nurses smoking by David Means

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.0

teetering on a 3.75 rating but i think overall after some digestion, a 4 star rating. this book is like deep diving into one’s stream of consciousness. it is a heavy, meloncholic read. many of the stories were paced in an slow yet steady cresencdo method, where you will not finally get the story until the last 1-2 pages and then thats when it hits you, shatters you, makes your heart sink from the utter grief, sadness, loneliness, confusion, & mental illness the humans in these stories faced. the writing was so absolutely beautiful and written in a way that was sadly nostalgic and somewhat regretful. many of the themes mentioned above seemed to have been nicely encapsulated in the author’s way of writing, it pulled you in as if you’re inside of their brain or right next to them experiencing it too. my favorite stories were- “clementine, carmelita, dog”, “vows”, “the red dot” and “stopping distance” (which was an incredible story, wow). overall, a very good book.