Stories About Returning (Where are you from? number 3)
gutwrench press
http://www.gutwrenchpress.com/
Stories About Returning is a haunting yet beautiful mini-zine filled with snippets from various times and places of returning. Rather than short and sweet, they have an air of short and bittersweet. As someone who is far away from where I was born, it made me feel a little strange and wistful.
I do like ‘snippet of life’ things like this, but I also admit that they have to be done right to hold any interest. For me, this zine does them right. There’s enough to make me curious but to leave me sitting amongst my own feelings as well.
There were some beautiful lines in there as well, this one being my favourite:
“…and I was home and a stranger at once.”
This zine came with an unexpected bonus that I nearly missed. The funny thing is that I’ve taken a peek inside so many one-page folded mini-zines to see if there is anything hidden inside, and the time I don’t think to do that is the time I almost miss the note to take a peek inside…
Yes, that’s right. When you unfold this zine, you can fold it the opposite way and get a whole new zine out of it – Stories About Leaving. While a neat touch in and of itself, the stories about leaving relate at times to stories about returning. I think that’s a clever way to do things.
I think you’ll know if this sort of zine will strike a chord with you.