Vivid Visions: Short Stories of Grief and Memory

Vivid Visions by Seyed Mosayeb Alam: Short Stories of Grief and Memory

Vivid Visions by Seyed Mosayeb Alam is a collection of thirty short stories about love, loss, identity, grief and memory. Horror, as a theme, connects the tales – the horror of losing someone you love, forgetting or being forgotten – but I would be reluctant to call it a collection of horror stories. It feels more accurate categorising them as speculative fiction – with uncanny elements – that explore what it means to be human.

The stories are extremely short. We spend five to nine pages (double-spaced) with each character. Sometimes protagonists’ names are recycled in later stories, and it doesn’t feel as though we are reading about the same character. Such repetitions are jarring. However, the writing style is poetic, contemplative and engaging enough to entice you back into the narrative.

The Memory Auction is a powerful opening story. Alam describes a world where memories are commodities, bought at auction, and experienced by proxy. Hollow Embrace is a trope-driven ghost story. Thrum is a trope-driven transplant story. Leon/Darius’s pursuit of a fantasy life in Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, forces him to confront the horror of reality.

Other stories are more romantic in nature. Love’s Last Dance explores selfless kindness when faced with a loved one’s disintegrating memory. Missed Train features the chance meeting of two strangers and the lingering thoughts of romantic possibilities, while The Old Flame weighs the anchoring power of enduring love against the excitement of reconnecting with an ex.

Glass Murals is one of my favourite stories in this collection. After Leyla enters Tariq’s life, he transforms his grief into art. Here Alam examines the human instinct to close ourselves off after a great loss – the unused tools, gathering dust – versus the healing power of helping our friends and acquaintances – “because it remained open, an endless invitation to remember and to heal.”

Umbrella is an up-beat end to the collection – a very sweet story about a café owner and his wandering umbrellas. Like Glass Murals, it reminds us that people benefit from being around each other, even though our closest connections can lead to pain.

Vivid Visions by Seyed Mosayeb Alam

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Further Reading

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