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I’ve enjoyed following Mandira’s writing journey through her twitter account and litmag publications, so I was thrilled to get a chance to review her novella-in-a-flash.

From the beginning of her composition, Mandira Pattnaik sets the hue for Where We Set Our Easel when she writes, “In surreal vignettes, two years from now, a child between us, we’ll explore the starry sky.” Her novella-in-flash is a series of frames that explore the arc of long-term love. She paints pictures of boy and girl who explore that starry sky as they journey across the canvas from a “walk like naive lovers right through a dream perfection” to a mending of the bones that break in a thousand places.

Mandira poses possibilities and metaphors.

Pattnaik shows us why the novella-in-flash is the form for our time, reflecting our postmodern lives: disjointed, entangled, and based on disparate sets of experiences. It stops and starts recurring themes as it provides a kaleidoscope of imagery in a montage of two lives. She handles language with conciseness and keeps the story in the foreground; she leaves it to the reader to color in the setting and background. To help the reader, Pattnaik weaves a clear thread of story.

Mandira has received numerous award nominations: Pushcart Prize (four times), Best Microfictions (six times), Best of the Net (three times), and Best Small Fictions (twice). Where We Set Our Easel reads up to the high standards she has established for herself. It packs the depth of a novella into eleven flashes. And in doing so, Pattnaik creates a timeless quality for a true love story, rich in possibilities and passion, in an engaging form for our present moment.

You can read my full review at Five South

https://www.fivesouth.net/post/a-review-of-mandira-pattnaik-s-where-we-set-our-easel-by-dave-nash