Uneven Four
Yann Martel, The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios, 1993
This is a collection of four short stories (in large font, double-spaced, to make the book appear longer than it is) written by Martel before he became famous for his Booker-prize winning novel The Life of Pi. Four short stories that he got published and praised for when he was just starting out as a fiction writer - the kind of collection that fans of the writer might want to check out, but which isn't really an essential read for anyone else.
The first story, which takes the name of the collection, is the best one. It's about two friends who decide to deal with a virus (AIDS) that is killing one of them by playing a storytelling game. The last story, of a grandmother who knows how to build magical mirrors, is also quite good - I read it out loud to my boyfriend and had him in stitches. The other two were alright, but forgettable - one of them was a long structure gimmick that had no meaning; and the other floundered around in the telling of a musician's tale of anonimity and undiscovered genius (maybe how Martel felt about himself before he hit the big time.)