An Anthology of Borrowed Premises, Stolen Settings, Purloined Plots and Appropriated Characters

Edited by William Walsh

Ampersand Books, $17.95

This is a book that’s good fun. The tagline says it all: collected fictions that steal a page from, or lend the re-purposed nod to TV, literature, pop music, cultural icons, fairytales and such, compiled and edited by William Walsh, author of Questionstruck and seasoned pro in his own right at taking something borrowed and making it new. Pastiche is one thing; innovation – and lots of it – is what you’ll find here.

The anthology opens wisely with Matt Bell’s brilliant homage to one of Nintendo’s most beloved games. “Mario’s Three Lives,” exemplifies the project by plunking us down (glazy-eyed with munchies in Amy W’s patchouli thick basement, anyone?) before our lonely, seeking plumber who “eats with his ass. He kills with his ass. His ass is a multipurpose tool. Why do I have a mouth, he thinks, if I never speak or eat with it? He wonders if it’s this way for everyone but there is nobody to ask.” We eavesdrop on Mario waxing philosophic, grappling with his absence of free will. “He dies until he runs out of lives and then he waits for God to say Continue.” The omnipotent joystick falls from hand; that plumber? We become him.

From there, like the best of choose-your-own-adventures, you can hop around as you wish. With 32 selections (many of which have been previously published), the TOC reads as a Who’s Who of the indie lit world, offering work so radically different in terms of structure and voice that each proves surprising, clever, and engaging. Molly Gaudry and Heather Fowler spin twists on iconic short stories (Gaudry’s “Down at the Dinghy” delivers a distillation of Salinger, Fowler’s “A&P, Come again” revisits Updike from the girls’ perspective.)  Alicia Gifford recasts the gang from “I Love Lucy” as ravenous, VD-ridden adulterers. Corey Mesler exposes an Arthurian plot to kidnap Stonehenge in bawdy dialogue. Kathleen Rooney and Lily Hoang thoughtfully rework the book of Ruth, subverting Ruth’s legendary pledge: “Wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried” – with “she would come to regret this decision almost immediately.” Michael Martone transports Borges to Indiana only to reappear in John Maday’s postmodern riff on the author (and authorial ownership) that echoes the anthology’s overarching ideas on construction, appropriation, dissemination, and storytelling.

For laughs, flip to Shya Scanlon’s “Tropic of Candor.”  This spring I had the serendipitous thrill of hearing Scanlon read his internet chat between a virginal Henry Miller and his girlfriend, Tania, and it is as hilarious performed as it is experienced on the page:

“3:11 AM Henry: I swear to you, Tania, that when we finally fuck it’s going to completely destroy both of us. It’s going to shake the world and rattle all the dying, gold bones on Wall Street.

Tania: [is away]”

Tim Jones-Yelvington’s “Law & Order: Viewers Like Us” is another comedic highlight.  The piece imagines a series spin-off based on this central premise: “In the criminal justice system, there are the police who investigate crimes, and the viewers who watch television shows about their investigations. These are the stories of viewers like us.” Regardless of whether you follow Law & Order you’ll appreciate this smart send-up of pop culture and how we consume it while at the same time – bonus! – becoming hooked like the best of TV junkies on Simon’s sordid family drama that rises from the script.

With no shortage of diversity – there’s even a visual spread of the Mona Lisa – this collection will engage anyone with a taste for refreshing, energetic prose and stylish smart winks. For me, the pieces that proved most lasting were those that reached past their thieved material and through the page to connect the reader to a wholly new, fully realized story. Roxane Gay delivers her usual wallop in a flawless flash on “Alias: The Complete Series,” the ending of which will make your heart throb “bright and good and strong” in your own ears. Jim Ruland’s Jack and Jill could not be farther from the land of Mother Goose, in Amsterdam, where they become sex workers, and where sure enough, they wear, tear, until they break, both individually, and as a couple. Curtis Smith builds a universal tale of love and alienation around his rubber-suited Godzilla in “Real, True-Life Story of Godzilla”:

“He hadn’t anticipated the weight of the suit, the smothering effect of isolation and the moist, curling warmth of his trapped breath. He was cocooned, adrift in a black world, even his sense of touch robbed. Standing perfectly still, he listened to the rhythm of his nervous heart and wondered what pathetic turn his life had just taken.”

This story speaks to us all with possibly my favorite line in the book – and one that resonates with the project: “Maybe filling empty spaces is the one, true international language.” Although nothing in this anthology started as empty, all this stuff subsumed by our mass cultural warehouse – household legends and myths, David Lynch, Madonna and ABBA! – takes on a quality of emptiness, of slates written upon until black, then blank, which make them particularly ripe for retelling. In the same way that nothing is original (we’ve all heard those seven plots), it takes an artist to make fresh prints, to fill the void with humanity – which is exactly what these fine writers have done.

*

~Sara Lippmann is a writer living in Brooklyn. Follow her on twitter at ….~

Akashic Books

237 Pages, $15.95

Editor: Kathleen George

When it comes to anthologies of fiction, one usually finds one or two decent tales worthy of note while the rest is completely forgettable. Pittsburgh Noir is not one of those.  The latest in Akashic Books’ award-winning Noir series, Pittsburgh Noir (2011, 237 pages) takes us to western-PA’s renowned metropolis and a cast of characters from all walks of life and eras, as well as a plethora of neighborhoods from around the Steel City. As with the publisher’s other books in the string, we have over a dozen short stories to indulge. Many stories conjure up the dank soot that once coated Pittsburgh’s blue collar based streets and skyscrapers, while others probe into the white collar malaise that now permeates its pristine shops and walkways. Nevertheless, it is proven once again that every place still has a dark underbelly worth exposing. Whether searching for sheer entertainment or ugly truths, you will find what you are looking for in this substantial selection.

If anyone has spent time in Pittsburgh, you will immediately recall the many neighborhoods, such as Squirrel Hill, Fox Chapel and Homewood that surround the cement center and pepper the collection. Better still, a cross section of the multi-cultural rainbow is also represented, leaving us with a body of work that inadvertently does its best to define a city once seen as the urban cornerstone for white Appalachia. But rest assured, the city’s coveted sport’s teams are referred to less than half a dozen times, allowing their obligatory mention to seemingly fall by the wayside. Instead, we are left with angry wives, disillusioned husbands, questionable witnesses to crime and even a coming of age tale like no other. Most importantly, even though the anthology is a strong tapestry of tales, a half-dozen pieces of fiction truly rise above the rest – and make it difficult to nail down a favorite:

“Still Air,” a solid inner-city crime drama, is delivered with the riveting word mastery of poet Terrance Hayes. Masterfully written, the pace is solid with an undercurrent of suspense that permeates the tale.

Nancy Martin sets a dreary tone in “Pray for Rain” that would make the darker side of the Coen brothers proud. Taking place at the docks along the Allegheny River, a sordid story emerges from the tumult of the floodwaters.

Kathleen George, the anthology’s editor, brings us “Intruder” – a classic noir tale with seasoned and semi-acerbic homicide detectives on the case. George brings us enough grit and drama to rival any one-hour crime show on television.

Rebecca Drake will get you with “Loaded” as she exposes the new Victorian era that encompasses not only Pittsburgh’s suburbia, but the United States as a whole. This is where more than one dark secret ferments behind a manicured lawn and flip-top mailbox.

Remember how weird life became once you hit puberty? Compare your story to Carlos Antonio Delgado’s well-crafted “Far Beneath” – and dare to find any similarities in this suburban anecdote that will till the soil of your mind.

Reminiscent of the late, great Ellen Miller, Aubrey Hirsch’s “Cheater” is the bizarre twist on “Looking for Mr. Goodbar.” And of all the tales, since this one resonates on so many levels, it is hoped that Hirsch will expand upon this unsettling yet intriguing character study regarding her lost yet driven heroine.

Granted, some tales do not even come close to being noir, let alone the gray-shaded definition of neo-noir. Traditionally, noir refers to film and involves an anti-hero solving a crime. As for neo-noir, in fiction form anyway, it seems to be any story that exploits a dark tone. In lieu of definitions and arguing over what makes a noir based story, most in this collection are excellent and are delivered beautifully, bringing us wonderful vignettes of a city and her people we can either relate to on some level, or simply appreciate – or both.

Comparing this anthology to the first in the series, Brooklyn Noir, this latest incarnation is a much stronger read with far greater depth and variety. Yet, even with so many scintillating tales and extremely talented authors, one can only wonder why George led off the pack with Lila Schaara’s lackluster “Atom Smasher” that took forever to get started. Furthermore, Stuart O’Nan’s “Duplex” and Kathryn Miller Haines’ “Homecoming” are almost immature in their execution and lack of complexity. The former comes off as a bad joke one can see coming from the very beginning, with the latter being nothing more than a weak melodrama, which is far removed from any denotation of noir.

Regardless, there is enough here to please the most skeptical of palates, especially when one wonders how far Akashic can go with the series. And with the bulk of the material being riveting and engaging in this Steel City installment, there is no doubt the noir succession has a much longer road to travel.

Pittsburgh Noir is certainly worthy of a place on your bookshelf.

*

~Bill Prystauk is an award-winning screenwriter living on the east coast.  In 2011, his dramatic horror, RAVENCRAFT, placed third in the AWS Screenplay Contest. His dramatic ghost story, RISEN, was the First Place Winner in the 2010 Horror Screenplay Contest. His script, RED AGENDA, was the First Place Winner in the 2008 International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival. In 2006, his erotic crime thriller, BLOODLETTING, won second place in the Screenwriters Showcase Screenplay Contest.  He also has two short scripts in production, a short story forthcoming in Criminal Class Review, and has published numerous poems.  Bill holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Wilkes University and teaches English at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania.

Press 53

$17.95

Editors: Murray Dunlap & Kevin Morgan Watson

When the premise of an anthology is compelling, reader expectations are high. Upon receiving a review copy of collected stories and narrative non-fiction called What Doesn’t Kill You published by Press 53, I plowed into it. Who wouldn’t want to read tales about inner demons, stereotypes, loss, and psychotic neighbors that foiled and nearly felled other human beings? As the editors remind us in poet Terri Kirby Erickson’s quote prefacing the book, “It isn’t every day we pass a scene like this.”

On top of themes such as suffering, despair, and life-lessons-hard-learned augured in the title, the reader then learns in the introduction that it was a real-life event in writer/editor Murray Dunlap’s life that inspired the collection. He was a marathon runner before someone running a red light pushed him into the path of an SUV and put him in a wheelchair for the rest of life, which Dunlap mentions in the introduction and revisits in a stirring prose poem “Times I Nearly Died,” appearing midway in the book.

Before the first word of the first story is read, an evocative title and moving back story about the anthology’s origins are introduced. How fortunate that most of the stories selected for the collection turned out to be great reads.

In his comments, Press 53’s founding editor Kevin Morgan Watson explains that they received more than 2,000 entries, all of which were gamely read by Dunlap. In paring roughly 60 stories down to the final 10, Watson and Dunlap selected pieces that would give the reader a thematic mix.  Besides the decided skill of the writers showcased, it was their attention to “mix” that made this anthology particularly strong. To my mind, there’s nothing more disappointing than an anthology in which every story reads like every other story, which all mirror the editor’s favorite kind of story. Credit both a dual editorship and solid if not daring literary taste for including darkly funny and painfully whimsical pieces as well as others underscored by ironically affirming and mindlessly tragic acts. That is, in addition to a range of prose styles—from enigmatic to folksy to confessional. These are stories with heart and heat, with guts and grit that are neither effete (the kind that leaves you feeling either slimy or dyspeptic or scratching your head after you’ve read them) nor overly sentimental.

Of the invited contributors—authors Jane Bradley, Laura Dave, Michael Knight, George Singleton, and Curtis Smith—Bradley’s, Dave’s, and Singleton’s storytelling particularly resonated with me. In real life, we so rarely experience happy endings, more likely emotional ambivalence or heart hurts we are forced to stuff for the rest of our lives. Or very occasionally, shockingly violent conclusions, though I won’t be a plot spoiler and tell you whose story I’m referring to.

George Singleton’s short story “All Those Little Prongs” is a gem. It centers on Hubert Foy, a lowly everyman/insurance bilker whose ex-wife is a little money grubbing and a lot indifferent. Hubert’s college age daughter is a lesbian opportunist studying forestry with one redeeming quality—she has a refined eco-conscience. The fact that the daughter’s studies have made her an expert in flora become critically important to Hubert’s personal fortunes after he finds the likeness of the Virgin Mary’s face in the middle of his aloe plant. Perhaps Singleton was raised in the church, because in this tale no one whose behaviors bend the standard-issue Judeo-Christian code of morality goes unpunished.

As a writer, I admired the literary craft in Michael Knight’s story “Ellen’s Tale,” which deftly interweaves past and present using a device that recounted how the same scene would appear in a book about his estranged wife’s abandoning him while reminding us that sometimes people we love don’t or can’t ever care about how much they’ve hurt us no matter how much we want them to.

Julie Gard’s “Thin Bits of Evidence” is also ingeniously crafted. It lists an assortment of objects from a thrift shop—a Smiling Squirrel Pin for 40¢, JC Penney Button Covers also for 40¢, a Wooden Smokey the Bear Ruler for 10¢–and then ties them to the story of  how their deranged neighbor tried to burn their house down in the summer of 2006.

“Island” by Rhett Iseman Trull is a brave recounting, expertly told, of her real-life descent into madness as an English major at Duke University and how she clawed her way back from a psychotic break to a somewhat normal life beginning with immersion studies on an island dedicated to marine research.  Trull devolved into a pathological liar just before her nervous breakdown, which cost her many friendships. in addition to her own will to survive, her parents’ steadfast love was also critical to Trull’s eventual recovery.

With a title like What Doesn’t Kill You, I expected to read stories about losing the family home or enduring a personal, hard-fought brush with insanity. For some reason, I didn’t expect (at least) two pieces to muffle serious emotional wounds in favor of embracing irony. Two of these stories, “Looking at Animals” by Josh Goldfaden and “Between the Teeth” by David James Poissant turned out to be my favorites.

“Looking at Animals” thrusts the reader into the solitary life of Raymond, a retired photographer for National Geographic, who learned how to become invisible in order to do his job shooting wild animals. Raymond has never cultivated the interpersonal skills to reach out to other people directly but sneaks into their yards and homes to observe them instead. Then using the stealth he acquired for his profession, he does odd jobs to improve their quality of life—fixing things for them—when they can’t observe him. Ironically, while the retired photographer is casing his neighbors, the neighbor boy is observing him, though the boy makes a clumsy voyeur and has a lot to learn before he himself can become invisible. Why is the boy stalking him? Because he believes that Raymond needs some personal fixing.

“Between the Teeth” is a darkly funny story told from the point of view of a man who marries not merely a woman but a woman and her beagle. It’s almost as if the beagle is prescient, remaining her dog throughout their sham of a marriage, because the beagle treats the man like an interloper in his own home. Ironically, that is exactly how his faithless wife comes to regard him, too. In a mostly subconscious act of passive-aggression, the man runs over the beagle while backing his Jeep out of the driveway, crushing the beagle’s chest until his ribs are the consistency of finely smashed potato chips. If you are inclined to think a hateful beagle tottering on the brink of death can only surrender at this point, then you must read  “Between the Teeth.” It’s worth the price of the anthology alone.

Press 53 has described themselves as publishers of quality short story collections. While I found the quality in this anthology occasionally uneven, if you enjoy prose—fiction and creative non-fiction, there are more than a half-dozen stellar pieces in What Doesn’t Kill You that might make you a better writer and perhaps a stronger person for having read them.

~Gale Martin has published fiction and essays in The Christian Science Monitor, Sirens Magazine, Duck & Herring Company’s Pocket Field Guide, and The Giggle Water Review and in several anthologies. She has a master’s degree in creative writing from Wilkes University and lives in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.~