Blog 5 DRS

Richard Currey's Fatal Light is a 'flash fiction' novel of the Vietnam War. This style of writing manifests itself in short, detailed descriptions. In the case of Fatal Light, the chapters fall within the range of half a page to about three or four pages, with each chapter fleshing out a particular event. I feel this style of writing works particularly well for a war story, as it seems logical that memories of war would be short but very detailed experiences. This is comparable to the psychological phenomenon of 'flash bulb memory', in which people have vivid memories of traumatic events in their lives (for instance, everyone can remember where they were when Kennedy was shot or when the towers fell). With this in mind, it is clear how flash fiction benefits the war genre, and consequently Fatal Light.

The nature of flash fiction necessitates that every sentence and word is chosen carefully and serves a purpose. By doing this, Richard Currey is able to tell a story as powerful as any in a fraction of the time. This succinct style of writing accurately portrays the experiences of a soldier, since the life of a soldier is a daily struggle for survival--they live and operate in the moment.

Currey foreshadows how the book will be told in the first chapter. The first chapter tells the reader of an album the narrator's grandfather kept, filled with photographs and newpaper clippings--each containing a story and specific details to go with them. The rest of Fatal Light is told in the same manner, with each chapter effectively amounting to a photograph or headline or caption that pinpoints a specific place and time of an event (or story).