Difference between revisions of "Dot Dash"

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| language    = English
 
| language    = English
 
| cover_artist = Christopher Hamilton-Emery
 
| cover_artist = Christopher Hamilton-Emery
| publisher    = [https://www.saltpublishing.com]
+
| publisher    = [https://www.saltpublishing.com Salt Publishing]
 
| pub_date    = 2012
 
| pub_date    = 2012
 
| isbn        = 978-1-84471-882-5
 
| isbn        = 978-1-84471-882-5

Latest revision as of 15:42, 9 June 2022


Dot Dash  
9781844718825.jpg
First edition
Author Jonathan Pinnock
Cover artist Christopher Hamilton-Emery
Language English
Publisher Salt Publishing
Publication date 2012
ISBN 978-1-84471-882-5

Dot Dash is a collection of short stories by Jonathan Pinnock. It is his first collection and was published by Salt Publishing in November 2012.

Blurb

Prepare to enter a world where nothing is ever quite what it seems, where elephants squat in living rooms, plastic ducks fall from the skies and even the rabbits can’t be trusted. The fifty-eight stories in Jonathan Pinnock’s Scott Prize-winning collection Dot Dash show a vivid yet disciplined imagination at work.

These stories, many of which have individually won prizes, are populated by a rich variety of characters, including a tightrope-walking couple with marital issues, a graffiti artist with an agenda and an interviewee who’s about to find out some awkward truths about himself. Very few of them turn out to be completely innocent, and none of them remains unaffected by the experience.

Jonathan Pinnock’s unashamedly entertaining fictions explore what happens when the macabre and the absurd crash headlong into everyday life. As writer Tania Hershman says, he ‘isn’t content to just pull back the curtain, but sets fire to it and chuckles as it blazes’. With this incendiary first collection, he invites readers to pull up a chair and watch the flames rise.

Critical Reception

Dot Dash was released to a tsunami of indifference from the world of criticism. However, eventually the late-lamented Independent on Sunday came up with a four-star review describing the book as

an entertaining collection of grotesque, fantastic, pungent little tales.

Which was nice.

Relevance to the Mathematical Mysteries

Dot Dash contains the story Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions, in which Archie and Pye make their first appearance, along with µ and Mrs Standage, although the latter's story arc is very different to the one in The Truth About Archie and Pye. There's more about this in the Dashipedia.

Trivia

When it was originally submitted to Salt's Scott Prize competition, Dot Dash was entitled dot(.) dash(-). I have no idea why. Fortunately, this was changed prior to publication.