Review of Fact Check and More Probing Tales

[Maduabuchi Okwiya N Eze]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Fact Check and More Probing Tales" by James Hanna.]

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5 out of 5 stars

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Fact Check and More Probing Tales is a collection of twenty-two short stories written by James Hanna. The stories explore some real issues of life, especially as they concern personal evolution, career experimentation, dangerous lifestyles, and marital compatibility, among others. The stories are largely influenced by the author's personal experiences as well as his wealth of knowledge and experience as a worker in a correctional facility.

The first thing I loved while reading this book was the author's confidence and sincerity in handling the issues explored in it. He dug into the hearts of the characters, revealing the purest and darkest aspects of their human nature. For example, through Pa, Toby Dawes's father, we see why religion cannot change some people's behavior. Through Brandi, we see that even prostitutes have ambitions and noble intentions.

The word choices made in writing these short stories were interesting. I liked Hanna's artistic switch of language types to reflect the social status of each character. There were occasional shifts between formal and informal language. The author artistically used incorrect verb forms in some conversations to help readers better appreciate the nature of the discourse.

I think the author succeeded in using dialogue to develop the characters and give them a classy touch without having to trouble himself with heavy descriptions. Readers will learn everything they need to know about any character through what they say or what others say about them. We see this play out between Mary and her husband, Hemmings and Geegax, Officer Dobbins and Toby, and Brandi and Toby, among others. This book was exceptionally well edited. I did not find any objective grammatical errors in it.

I found the themes explored in these stories edifying. For example, the story titled "A Diamond as Big as a Black-Eyed Pea" (page 187) should help readers appreciate the difference between reality and religious fantasy. I was excited by some elements of suspense in the stories. An example can be seen in Geegax's last letter to Hemmings.

The conversations between Hemmings, a worker in a correctional facility, and Geegax, a pedophile serving his term there, were interesting and educational. I came to know, for instance, about the character in The Scarlet Letter named Hester Prynne and what she represented. I couldn't help admiring Geegax's display of confidence and commitment to his passion despite his weird behavior.

I don't have any negative concerns about this book. Hence, I am glad to rate it five out of five stars because of the above positive points. There is no reason to remove any stars from the rating. Anybody interested in reading raw stories about crime, prostitution, marital compatibility, religious fantasy, and career experimentation, among others, will enjoy this book.

Some stories in this book contain sexual scenes and heavy use of profanities. Readers sensitive to these issues should please take note. However, I think the sex scenes and profanities are inescapable, given the nature of the themes explored in this book. I think the author was just doing his job as a writer. We have to know things as they are if we are to witness any positive change.

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Fact Check and More Probing Tales
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[Ogunkoya Mayowa]

Collection of short stories that explore some real-life issues and how they concern personal evolution, marital compatibility, etc. The author's word choices were interesting and the story themes were edifying. Thanks for the great review.

[Amy Luman]

Short stories are usually not my favorite, but I do think this is different. Apparently, the use of conversations enhances them. I’ll try to ignore the sex, it makes me very uncomfortable.

[Grace Elkana]

It's one thing to put together funny tales. To make them educational is a different kettle of fish. The author did quite well in this regard.

[Chinenye Achilike]

Sounds like I good combination of life-issue stories. However, I want to know more about what the author wrote concerning religious fantasy and career experimentation.

[Grace Lee Rose]

Marital compatibility is a vital subject to be discussed. The other topics the author wrote about are all important. It's good to know he outlined them in a well arranged form. You carried out a good analysis of the book.

[CrossK]

Wow, what a wonderful review l commend the author for taking his time to write about his personal experience and also talking about marital compatibility, dangerous lifestyle that is a vital subject now, so kudos to the author.nice review