Inside Out Worlds: Visions of Strange by Sophie Jubillart Posey; Science Fiction and Fantasy Worlds and Concepts Captured in Novella Form

 Inside Out Worlds: Visions of Strange by Sophie Jubillart Posey; Science Fiction and Fantasy Worlds and Concepts Captured in Novella Form

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: If anyone can capture a complete fantastic world with important themes found in Science Fiction and Fantasy in less than a novel length, it's Sophie Jubillart Posey. Her anthology, Inside Out Worlds: Visions of Strange covers ten novelettes and novellas that do just that. They build descriptive worlds, create important concepts, and explore themes of loneliness, romance, conformity, rebellion, empathy, trauma, communication, AI, dehumanization, transformation, and ecology. 

The best selections are:

"The Angel and The Sphinx"

This story explores the concept of love between immortals and Alternate Universes.

Adiphael, an angel, has fallen in love with the Sphinx. Oh not the one protecting pyramids in Egypt. The one from Greek Mythology who posed a riddle to Oedipus before he killed his father, married his mother, became king, and blinded himself. 

Adiphael can't stand to watch his beloved leap to her death when the riddle is answered so he reverses time to convince The Sphinx to give Oedipus a different one that he can't solve. Unfortunately, this decision creates more problems for the pair and the entire world.

Adiphael and The Sphinx make a peculiar but compelling couple. Since Adiphael is an angel, he is practically made of love and empathy. He is a highly emotional creature who feels things strongly when he helps others. He is ruled by his heart. 

The Sphinx is made of thought and cunning. She is a highly intelligent creature who thinks deeply as she challenges others with her words. She is ruled by her brain. It is an attraction of opposites but that doesn't always translate to a happy or healthy union.

A theme in this story is of unending obsessions and appetites. Adiphael is obsessed with the idea of helping others but can't always understand that helping sometimes causes more problems. His actions are born out of love but sometimes don't carry enough foresight to see the results.

The Sphinx is obsessed with using her gift of riddles to outsmart and defeat others but doesn't know what to do with herself when she is defeated. If she wins, she is left with an appetite for human flesh which can never be filled or appeased. 

The two characters are completely consumed by their obsessions becoming a toxic couple. The obsessions become addictions and a love affair between two different immortal creatures becomes destructive to everyone including themselves.

"Prophecies of the Great Mother"

A story that frightened me the first time that I read it was “By The Waters of Babylon” by Stephen Vincent Benet. In it, a boy from an agrarian society travels to a forbidden place for a rite of passage. Upon arrival, he learns that the forbidden place is the remains of New York City and he lives in a Post-Apocalyptic society. 

I hadn't read that many Science Fiction works at the time so I wasn't as familiar with this twist so it disturbed me enough to give me nightmares. I have since read many Post-Apocalyptic Dystopian Science Fiction works, many for this blog in fact. But I never forgot my experience with Benet’s short story.

Posey’s “Prophecies of the Great Mother” could be seen as a continuation of Benet’s work with a huge difference. Benet’s story was published in 1937 and while commenting on war and industrialization, a future like that could only be imagined.

 “Prophecies of the Great Mother” reminds us that this future is not far away. It's right here and that makes this story more haunting and disturbing. This story demonstrates exactly what happens when society collapses and communication, interdependency, and learning are sacrificed.

In “Prophecies,” we know that this is a Post-Apocalyptic society from the beginning. The Narrator is part of such an agrarian tribe. The society in which he lives is caught between vilifying and learning about the past. 

They are many generations removed from the Old World but many of the younger people are sheltered from learning about it. They can't leave the confined villages and all they know comes from the elder’s words, the words that they learned from their predecessors and so on.

This society knows of the past but without literacy or technology, it's told through oral storytelling and playacting. Their history speaks of the modern world destroyed by prejudice, war, and climate change but this only consists of pockets, mere drops of information and is interpreted by the one telling the story.

 The tribe members are forbidden from learning anything deeper or exploring for themselves. Many such as The Narrator's friend Ikewa burn with curiosity because so much is forbidden. She sneaks out of the village to understand why people are disappearing. 

Despite the Elder's good intentions to not let history repeat itself, their refusal to let the young ones learn for themselves makes them unprepared and ignorant when they are faced with these problems.

 Instead of gaining agency and fighting against other societies, they are passively destroyed by a more technologically advanced society. The Narrator is captured, graphically tortured, and dehumanized by a scientist. 

The technological society is cruel and inhuman and the agrarian society is wilfully ignorant and passive.  They can't work together, understand, or function so they destroy each other and themselves.

"Girl at Sea"

Unlike many of the other stories in this anthology, this one’s central conflict is not societal. Instead, it's more personal. This story is part Psychological Thriller and part Dark Fantasy/Horror. It's a Gothic Literature novelette by way of a Grimm Fairy Tale. Oneira is a naive innocent held captive by an evil guardian, her mother.

Oneira’s mother physically and mentally abuses her. She frequently tells her that she is Oneira's mirror. She repeats Oneira's negative traits but increases the attacks. Oneira gets mad and responds with a sharp retort and Mother becomes furious and answers with a cutting insult. 

Oneira uses her hands to defend herself and Mother punches her Oneira makes an innocent cooking mistake and Mother destroys dinner. It's a childish and immature mind game but it keeps Oneira captive and from retaliating or defending herself.

Mother is a true example of a Narcissistic parent. She sees Oneira as merely an extension of herself. She believes that her daughter's only purpose is to serve and take care of her without any agency for herself.

 Oneira can never leave the house, make friends, or do many of the things that most kids should do. Oneira's mother might have given birth to her but holds no maternal love for the girl, just ownership. 

Like many fairy tales, Oneira's escape comes in the form of magic. She finds a bottle that when opened, smoke spills out and grants her every wish but only temporarily. She takes full advantage of the situation to reunite with friends, travel to different places, and change into different forms. 

Unfortunately, she always has to return to where she was before. It's an escapist fantasy which clears her mind but offers no real solutions.

Like many protagonists in such works, Oneira's freedom is not a result of outside forces like magic. It comes from her finding her own self-respect and courage to stand up to her mother. Only when she changes herself inward is she able to change her life outward.

"ReGroup"

This story would fit right in with Black Mirror (which I started watching this year and loved. It's one of my favorite new series to me).

 Like the Netflix series, this novelette shows the addictive hold that technology can have on people and how many will exploit others for money, hits, or entertainment.

There's a new social media app called ReGroup. Among its members are Dhriti, a Yoga instructor, Gilbert, a chef, Abigail, a hunter, and Akio, a historian. This story reveals the positive and negative attributes of social media. 

The characters are able to share their interests and expertise with like minded individuals. They can earn a living doing and talking about what they love. 

They can openly express themselves and explore their creativity to its fullest. Communities and relationships are formed. There are definite benefits to this app.

Unfortunately, with positives comes negatives and in ReGroup’s case the latter outweighs the former. Users are rated by hits and receive cash prizes with the more hits, posts, comments that they make. Motivated by financial greed and instant fame, comments become inflammatory, hateful vulgar posts and videos are created, and hate speech and death threats become frequent. It's a mess.

The logical thing that most would do is reduce their time on ReGroup, only use the app for their specific interest, change their settings to private, close their accounts, or leave the app entirely. But the characters can't or won't. 

They are consumed by notoriety, avarice, and anger. Some flame others and others just passively accept it but don't do anything to stop it. They are watching a train wreck and can't look away. 

The characters are a figurative part of the machine of hatred that the app exploits. It changes them until they become a literal part of it. They gave their humanity away and now they are nothing more than endless streams of data, words, and numbers that no longer have any purpose or meaning.

"The Sea"

This novella combines many of the frequent tropes that are found throughout the anthology like it is Posey's final word on the book as a whole. It is an allegory about the union between humanity and nature.

Amos is drawn towards and frightened of water. It provides him some comfort but he also has nightmares of drowning. He imagines conversations with it like it's a living being. It provides a connection that he can't always find with people. 

When Amos is alone, The Sea speaks to him. It warns him that he, like the rest of humanity, has squandered the gift of nature and they will die. Amos begs for another chance that they can turn things around and he will lead them.

The relationship between Amos and The Sea is complex. It serves as a mentor that inspires him to study marine biology and oceanography. He becomes an expert in water conservation and addresses governments about climate change. He can feel the Water’s pain and suffering as it is polluted and altered by corporate greed and willing denial. He has found a purpose in life and is determined to give his all.

There is also a personal component between Amos and The Sea. They share a connection that is borderline sensual. The descriptions of Amos swimming and The Sea surrounding is reminiscent of making love. The Sea takes a human form and Amos has visions of himself in mercreature form so they can explore one another's bodies.

 For someone who can't communicate with many humans, Amos shares desires, longing, secrets, and deepest thoughts and feelings with The Sea. He finds a worthy partner, so he becomes more determined to save it. Amos defends it the way a devoted spouse would to find a cure for their dying partner. 

The novella has a theme of transformation. Humanity has transformed the seas to become unlivable and separated themselves from nature. Both The Sea and Amos take other forms to balance humanity and nature. Soon all of Earth, the land and the people will have no choice but to transform.

Gittel by Laurie Schneider; Speechless in Achten Tan (Book 1 Of The Sands of Achten Tan) by Debbie Iancu-Haddad; Slumber Nevermore by R.J. Garcia

 

Gittel by Laurie Schneider 

This is a brief summary of my review. The main review can be found on LitPick 

Gittel by Laurie Schneider is reminiscent of many coming of age books like Anne of Green Gables and The Little House books. It's not long on plot. It prefers instead to focus on various individual conflicts in Gittel’s life that test her character and teach her various lessons.

13 year old Gittel Borenstein is part of a Jewish family that emigrated from East Europe because of a pogrom to Mill Creek, Wisconsin with 12 other Jewish families. The book focuses on various events in Gittel’s young life such as bullying from Antisemitic classmates, conflicts with her more traditional Orthodox family, a budding romance with a local boy, and her participation in a Chautauqua.  

The book is strong on character, time, and place. The Borensteins emigrated for their safety but still feel out of place in this rural American country. Gittel has to suffer from insults and threats from other students, particularly Karl Leckner, whose religious Antisemitic father takes every opportunity to compare them to demons. Gittel shows her strengths by using witty comebacks and verbally challenging her antagonists. She even describes her mouth as the sharpest weapon that she and her friends, Irene and Emily, have.

Gittel struggles with not only societal conflicts but those within her own family. Gittel is a maturing young woman who is fascinated with the American way of life while her traditional Orthodox family mostly clings to the tight-knit Jewish community around them. Gittel makes gentile friends, develops her interests in singing, dancing, and reading, and uses her talent in public speaking during a Chautauqua. She nurtures aspirations to continue her education and become an actress or writer despite some of her family's concerns and soft objections. 

The most heartwarming moments are when Gittel and her family come to an understanding about her aspirations and interests and she recognizes their own adaptability as well as her own. She recognizes loving bonds which while hidden and not always expressed out loud, but are always felt. 

Gittel is the Yiddish word for “good” which is a decent description of the book. However, it's more than good. Gittel is great.

Speechless in Achten Tan (Book 1 in The Sands of Achten Tan) by Debbie Iancu-Haddad

This is a brief summary of my review. The main review can be found on LitPick. 

Speechless in Achten Tan is a Fantasy novel that will appeal to YA and Adult Readers with its captivating lead character and her search for her personal power.

 Mila, a mute cavern gnome, goes through a test to be considered worthy to study magic. After she fails the test, her mentor, Nora, sends her to the desert world of Achten Tan to study magic under Gerwyn, a wise and powerful witch. While in Achten Tan, Mila finds romance and friendship, becomes involved in a power struggle against the despotic Bone Chief Opu Haku, and discovers her strength and voice.

After her test, Mila is in despair because she doesn't conform to what her community believes are their standards of maturity. She is deprived of the ability to speak and to practice magic. She cannot ascend in their world so she is deprived of her agency. The dramatic irony is the reason behind her failure. Mila’s brother, Turosh, drowned over the same waterfall where she was being tested. She was temporarily overcome with grief, lost control, and failed the test. A moment of emotion remembering a traumatic event that shaped her youth and motivated her to continue studying ended up becoming a barrier in her pursuit of magic and full acceptance into her society.

As with the heroes in many legends and books in the genre, Mila is sent to continue her journey elsewhere. She has to leave to continue her studies. Her journey to Achten Tan also allows her to connect with her past, present, and future. Her boyfriend from the village, Geb, is also in Achten Tan to train as a healer. He provides an emotional center and keeps Mila focused as her abilities increase.

She also befriends Kaii, son of Opu Haku, the Bone Chief. Mila's friendship allows the son to step out from his father's tyrannical shadow and fight against him. Mila widens the scope of her magical pursuits to make long lasting changes with other kingdoms including her own. 

Mila is even able to reconcile her grief over Tarush’s death. She comes to terms with the loss and its aftereffects. While death and loss are still painful for her, she is able to set them aside and move forward on her path to maturity.

This is a Fantasy novel that many, especially young people, will relate to as they follow their own paths, discover their own abilities, and gain their own voices.

Slumber Nevermore by R.J. Garcia

R.J. Garcia knows how to keep Readers up at night. With the anthology, Slumber Nevermore she crosses genres to give the Readers a full effect of dark twisted tales that deliver on chills, ominous energy, and unforgettable mental images. 

There are seven stories but the best are:

“The Stolen Child”-This story is a Dark Fantasy that plays on those frightening magical creatures: Fairies.

Garcia refrains from the wholesome fairytale Disney image of fairies and focuses instead on the variations from myth and legends where they are powerful, capricious, demand to be respected, and should be kept at a safe distance. 

Mae is anxious about her sister, Emmie, who disappeared right in front of her. She has this sensation that they had been watched and out of the corner of her eye, she thinks that strange figures appear and disappear. She always suspected that there were fairies in the woods. Could she be right? Spoiler Alert: She is.

The fairies are written as ominous and secretive. They appear as orbs of light, shrill whistles, or silhouettes. Mae isn't sure if they are dreams or if they are real. Then when she finally talks to them, she isn't sure if they are good, evil, or neutral with their own moral code. They could go either way. Their ambiguity is their strength and while she is with them, Mae is completely at their mercy. As long as she is in their world, they could do whatever they want to her and no one would know about it. 

“The Stolen Child” is a modern fairy tale told to a Horror loving audience. Anyone who reads fairy tales knows that fairies can be sinister or helpful but are rarely the main antagonists. Instead the real villains are often a lot closer to the protagonist’s home than that. Those villains are cruel, malicious, and bring the worst misfortunes. 

“Lipstick”-This story is a Paranormal Horror that should not be read by anyone with coulrophobia. 

10 year old Billy sneaks out one night to see a carnival. The night of rickety rides, junk food, and fun to be scared thrills turns to terror when he encounters a demonic looking clown. The clown not only makes a formidable impression but makes him an offer that haunts him for years.

Dark carnivals might be cliched and scary clowns even more so, but they are used so often because they work. Carnivals can give off a sinister vibe when one thinks about it. These places of supposed amusement contain rides that are quickly put together by people who might have dubious reputations and are certainly in a hurry. A guest’s safety depends on them. Is it any wonder that they inspire fear? If you read books like Something Wicked This Way Comes or saw movies like Freaks or Carnival of Souls among others, you know what I am talking about.

Then there are clowns. They hide their true faces, come up close and face to face with children, seem impossibly cherry, and wear garish makeup. Lest we forget fictional clowns like Pennywise or real ones like John Wayne Gacy who certainly had dark sides. A clown can be terrifying. A carnival can be spooky. A clown in a carnival is frequent but also can give you that instant chill down the spine, the chill that warns you that maybe you should have stayed home.

Billy ignored that chilly warning and ultimately paid a huge price for it. This brief moment changes his life in many disturbing ways that leaves him traumatized and alone. The final paragraphs show the complete impact that this demonic clown had over his life to the point that Billy can't separate himself from him.

“Sister Witches”-It’s rare to have a Horror short story told from the point of view of the monster, but this story does and turns a story that would normally herald fear for the victim instead invites pity and regret for the monster. 

Cassandra is one of three witches. The other two are her sisters, Sheba and Celeste. The trio kill mortals and absorb their youth to remain forever young and beautiful. Their latest victim is Tommy, an aging man who is residing in a nursing home. 

The witches' goal is to preserve their youth. Their absorption of others’s essences is graphic but is comparable to an addiction rather than an unexplainable supernatural or demonic force. It ruins the mortals but also the witches as well.

Cassandra and her sisters absorb the essence not because they want to, but because they think that they have to and are unable to survive without it. This takes a toll on Cassandra in particular. She has become someone who isn't terrifying or frightening. Instead, she's weary and tired of life. She is ready to die but is unable to. 

In a way the fear doesn't come from an outside source, but from within. If we compare their immortality to an addiction, the fear comes from feeling forced to get that immortality and what it would be like to live without it. Cassandra fears what they have done, what they will do, and what would happen if that eternity would end. She is simultaneously longing for death and afraid of what happens if it comes. 

“The Axeman Among Us”-Of the stories, this is the most realistic. Instead of Dark Fantasy or Supernatural Horror, this is more like a Psychological Thriller. It features an infamous real life serial killer. The Axeman of New Orleans was a serial killer who murdered mostly Italian immigrants or Italian-American men from 1918-1919. Most notably, a letter allegedly from The Axeman said that he would not kill anyone on a certain night in homes where jazz played. Musicians played in hundreds of homes that night. The Axeman was never identified and no arrests were made.

Vincent and his friends, Mikey and Dupree are startled one night by the sound of a scream and a dark mysterious figure hastily leaving a building with an ax in hand. They suspect that he might be the Axeman. The trio become obsessed with the case and go to extreme lengths to stop the Axeman's reign of terror.

This story’s tone and atmosphere are on point. The Axeman is certainly human but he carries a demonic aura. He haunts Vincent's dreams and is described more of as an otherworldly presence than an actual human being. He invites the possibility that he might not be human at least in this version. But the fact that he is, somehow makes him even more chilling. He has a human way of planning and analyzing how to commit the murders without getting caught and an inhuman desire to hack a human body to pieces.

There are some interesting twists to the story. Since it is set in New Orleans, we get motifs like voodoo and jazz. Voodoo presents the only supernatural link in the story and even that might just be within the minds of those who believe in it. It also makes sense that in absence of any physical legal help to stop the Axeman, the boys would turn to more esoteric means. Voodoo is a large part of New Orleans life but it is also held in suspicion by non-practitioners. There is something supernatural and eerie about it, the type of thing that would draw someone like the Axeman. The boys are using one unusual potentially dark path to capture one unusual dark person. 

Jazz music also plays a large part most prominently practiced by Vincent's brother, Peter. It not only plays into the physical location but the time period as well. Jazz is improvisation mixed with deep emotion like pain, anger, sadness, and love. While popular, it was also controversial and considered an outsider’s choice of music like rock or rap would be later. The kind of music someone who stands on the outside fringes of society would listen to.

It's also worth noting that Peter is a WWI veteran. This is the time of the Lost Generation, when soldiers returned home with deep trauma. Where flappers and college kids decided to live freely without a care. It was a time where people were aware that life could end at any moment, so might as well grab all that you can. This deep emotion is played by someone who saw death up close and killed people because his government told him to. Maybe Peter feels a disturbing connection to the Axeman, an understanding about what it's like to live on the outside fringe, with longing and emotions that he can't express openly, and living with a violent and bloody past. 

These stories deliver scares to the characters and the Reader making their sleep a truly unpleasant one.

Tales of Wythenwood by J.W. Hawkins; Bedlam Trances by Nicholas Wagner; Two Anthologies Reach the Dark Side of Human and Animal Nature

 

Tales of Wythenwood by J.W. Hawkins; Bedlam Trances by Nicholas Wagner; Two Anthologies Reach the Dark Side of Human and Animal Nature 

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: I have been reviewing a lot of anthologies this year. If you can't say it in a long novel, say it in a short story or novella and these authors do. Do they ever. 

Aside from being speculative anthologies J.W. Hawkins’ Tales of Wythenwood and Nicholas Wagner’s Bedlam Trances would have very little in common. Tales of Wythenhood is a fantasy about talking animals in an enchanted woods and Bedlam Trances is a Supernatural Horror and Crime Thriller about creepy people doing creepy things. But if we dig deeper, we discover that these books have a great deal in common. They are bleak looks that explore the dark side of human and animal nature. One is just more subversive about it than the other.

Tales of Wythenwood by J.W. Hawkins may be an anthology about talking animals, but don’t for a second think that it’s anything like Charlotte’s Web or Beatrix Potter. Think less Charlotte’s Web and more Animal Farm. Less Beatrix Potter and more Watership Down. Less Mickey Mouse and more Maus. It’s a very dark, at times disturbing and graphic fantasy novel that personifies animals with human traits and not very pleasant ones. Many of the traits that the flora and fauna represent include prejudice, avarice, wrath, vanity, aggressiveness, hatred, and vengeance. It is not some sweet adorable romp in the forest. Instead it is a commentary on human nature and it is forthright, savage, cruel, terrifying, beautiful, and captivating.

There are six stories total and the best are:

“Gerald the Mangy Fox”-What could be a decent variation of “Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer” where a misfit who is judged by their appearance becomes a hero by helping the people who insulted them instead becomes much more subversive and yet somehow more honest.

Gerald is insulted by other animals, particularly the other foxes because they have beautiful coats and his is covered in mange. The foxes are also facing conflicts with the Great Oak, who is the leader of the Wythenwood. They resent having to give back to the forest what they take from it. Gerald, angry at the other fox’s treatment, starts a chain reaction that affects himself and the other foxes.

Gerald is reminiscent of human outcasts, people who are turned away by others because of their appearance or place of origin. Gerald, like many, grows to resent the treatment that he has been given to the point that he wants bad things to happen to his tormentors and doesn't care if they inadvertently happen to him. He is filled with anger and regret towards those who made him miserable. It makes him an outsider but it also makes him understandable.

We have all had situations like that where we were scapegoated and treated horribly like others. Better people often forgive them and work towards positive things in spite of or because of that derision. Most people to be honest simmer with anger and justifiable hurt. They hurt us so we want to hurt them back. Gerald is like that to the point that he makes deals with wolves and the Great Oak to get even with the other foxes. 

The final pages drip with irony as the results are not what any of the characters expected. It shows a reversal of beauty and ugliness where true natures are shown and exposed. It becomes a test of honesty, kindness, and mercy which reveal the appearance of the souls underneath. 

“The Fall of the Orchid Copse”-This story takes a strange but meaningful look at interconnectivity within countries and how much people claim independence but we are often linked by economic, political, and social interdependence. No one truly stands alone. People buy and sell goods and services. We live off of each other’s work and survive because of those connections.

Some animals of Wythenwood live in the Orchid Copse which is a specific part of the woods that operates by its own laws and regulations. It’s the time of year when the animals of Orchid Copse must decide which one of three animals, selected by the Great Oak herself, will be the leader of the Copse and whether the Copse is to remain an independent area or become a complete part of Wythenwood. 

This novella represents the way various nations are formed and the struggle that many face to become an independent country to themselves or to remain with a larger one and if so which one. There are many questions and arguments made by the various characters whether this is a flawed system or one that works. It doesn’t give any easy answers and allows the characters and Readers to decide for themselves.

Most of this story is seen through the eyes of Sriya, a fiery mongoose that questions this system that she has been given. She wants to know whether choosing only animals that are selected by the Great Oak is a real choice or whether it’s just the appearance of a choice. Is the Great Oak a dictator, an apathetic disinterested leader, or a loving parent watching her children? What does the Orchid Copse gain from maintaining its own complete autonomy from the Great Oak and what does it have to lose? 

Sriya represents the rebel, the one who recognizes the flaws in the system and has the passion to fight against and change it. When a violent action takes place, she is able to gather enough interest and a following for the Copse citizens to seriously consider breaking away from the Great Oak. But it comes at a great cost to their own freedom and security. 

Because it is based on the Hong Kong Umbrella Revolution of 2014, it also recounts what happens when rebellion falters and asks whether idealistic ideas are enough to sustain a community. It’s all well and good to break away from a government, but if there isn’t anything substantial to back it up and an actual plan in place, ideals and arguments are all that remains. 

“The Artfulness of Stupidity “-With all of the sweeping themes of politics, prejudice, and other important issues, Tales of the Wythenwood doesn’t lose sight of capturing good characters inside their fur and feathers. This is a particularly strong character driven piece in the anthology. 

In a colony of beavers, everyone does their part to build their dams and contribute to their community, everyone except Indoli. His outsider status, avaricious manipulative nature, and his insistence on obfuscating stupidity ends up causing problems for everyone in the woods, especially the beavers and himself.

Indoli, similar to Gerald and Sryia is also an outsider but unlike his appearance and his ideals, it is Indoli’s personality that makes him different. Instead of doing the hard work of his fellow beavers, he prefers to scheme and manipulate others. He plays dumb but is actually very clever in seeing problems and potential solutions. 

He is the type that knows where to point and put others in certain directions to acquire his own benefits, retain his own sense of leadership, or sometimes just to get even with others. He is a character who in other stories would become an outright villain. He could be reminiscent of corporate CEO’s or oligarchs who become wealthy not from their own merits, but from the labor of others. They control things from behind the scenes and are so drunk on their own power that they would rather hurt others, even if it means destroying all that they have worked for. They don’t see the danger that could backfire on them and in destroying others, they ultimately destroy themselves.

There is another possibility of Indoli’s character, one that is more positive towards him.Hawkins subverts those expectations of making Indoli a full villain by giving him certain character strengths and also a son, Pickwick whom he truly loves. Instead of being seen as a symbol of corruption and manipulation, he could also be seen as creative. He has a different mindset from those around him that causes him to function differently from the rest of the colony. He may not fit in, not because he chooses not to but because he can’t. This mindset allows him to come up with creative solutions that could be beneficial to the other beavers if they were implemented. Those traits that Indoli has gives him the ability to think and act differently, but also keeps him away from everyone else.

One of Indoli’s most positive characteristics is his love for his son, Pickwick. The young beaver is Indoli’s main confidant and sees the more vulnerable side that he keeps hidden from others. The two are at odds with Indoli’s means and methods, but they are still devoted as father and son. Pickwick doesn’t see a corrupt influence or an iconoclastic eccentric. He just sees his father. Likewise, Indoli doesn’t see a disappointment or one of the mindless herd working on the colonies. He sees his son. He gives Pickwick the love that he often felt was denied him by the rest of the colony and the Wood.

Bedlam Trances by Nicholas Wagner Bedlam Trances by Nicholas Wagner is familiar territory to the blog. It involves graphic horror in many different forms. Most of the stories focus on manipulation and control. One party uses violence and threats in their greatest extremes to control another. There is a feel of unease in each story as the truly violent means are executed and characters are left with broken lives, minds, hearts, and souls.

“Crown of Switchblades”-This story combines crime thriller with psychological horror and does both genres rather well. A criminal gang is caught up in a war between their employer and another upstart. What starts out as a crime spree of violence, public property damage, drunkenness, and debauchery becomes much darker as they run into a strange, morbid, and terrifying cult. 

“Crown of Switchblades” runs on two tracks and because of that the tone is drastically different. The first part is a black comedy along the lines of the Italian Job, Lock, Shock, and Two Smoking Barrels, or any Quentin Tarantino film. It consists of seedy characters having clandestine meetings, bodies tumbling out of cars, and plenty of f bombs shouted by no-hopers. It’s a grim but weirdly comic situation as the gang, particularly the main protagonist, Doss hit spots like pubs and football clubs as though they were just having a Lad’s Night Out rather than breaking the law on behalf of their leader. 

The story then takes a severe turn into something else as Doss and his cronies end up farther away from their city environment into a rural area dotted with abandoned buildings and metal sculptures called the pipe men. They then encounter the people behind the pipe men, a cult who is looking for someone called “The Prophet.” 

Once Doss encounters the cult, he is put in a situation in which he is not prepared. Before he and his friends were able to face these conflicts. They can deal with crime bosses, drug deals, and the occasional violent act. But this cult isn’t like that, they have darker purposes. They have no motives and they don’t care who fits their vision. They want to fulfill it and they draw Doss in a way that is incredibly bone chilling and ominous.

““The Tragic Events Befalling Lizaveta”-The darkness that these stories encounter carries over into the Medieval Era as Oresetes, a monk investigates some strange happenings in a monastery after a novitiate turns up dead. 

The murder mystery is effective as Oresetes and his superior, Wittelsbach investigate the murder and the various leads. The setting of the monastery is deceptively described in the first page which features children playing. It gives the impression of a good kind giving place which welcomes all. But the more that the protagonists visit the cold austere stone walls and the monks keeping secrets, the more an ugly side resonates. 

Things become more apparent when they enter an area called “The Hurting Place.” In a few pages, the secrets are revealed in a bloody violent confrontation. It shows the ancient outdoor Pagan subconscious inside the Gothic indoor Christian surface. It says that inside many law-abiding seemingly upright pillars of the community hides souls that seethe with wrath, sexuality, violence, anger, and hypocrisy.

“Notes from the Yucatan”-This is a very short story which makes the most of its setting to show the eerie sense of dread when one is out on an unfamiliar landscape and how it mirrors the dark souls that inhabit it. The Narrator is searching for a man named Sir Reginald with the help of a guide, Bartholomew. 

The setting has many descriptions of sinister trees, ruins, particularly pyramids, and harsh rain. It seems like the end of the world where someone is listening to every sound and seeing every shape and is in fear of what could be out there, whether it is animal or human. Whatever it is, it is coming for you. Worst of all, the body could be thrown somewhere and never be found.

The fear and paranoia in the setting is mirrored in the behavior of the characters that surround it. It  is like an Edgar Allen Poe story in which the Reader explores the Narrator’s fractured psyche and we see the violence in the main character is just as prominent as it is without. If anything it was even greater within the Narrator. He is not acting out of any motive or or reason. He is violent for violence’s sake, almost like a force of nature around him.

“Hecato’s Dream”-This story takes us to the decline of the Roman Empire.Two guards, Hecato and Rufus chase after an assassin and come face to face with their own mortality. 

This is set towards the end of an era and that is felt throughout the story. There are discussions about Gauls, invading armies, cults springing up, and lawlessness. The Empire that maintained such a wide control over various nations is on its way out the door. With that decline became a decline of structure, rules, regulations, defense things people like Hecato and Rufus were familiar with but had long taken for granted. 

Now during these times, bloody crimes occur but not in a way that feels justifiable or understandable, not for any specific reason. It is because there is no structure and the one that remains is so fatigued by the forces outside that they don’t care about the struggles within. If there are no laws, no one can be punished. If no one can be punished, there is no fear of being caught. Hecato and Rufus’ world is crumbling so they are taking what they can. They know that their time is short, just like that of the Empire and the only thing that they have left is their own violent avaricious angry urges that need to be satisfied. Once those are spent, they truly meet their ends in an afterlife in which they know but can’t accept that an inevitable end is coming. 

“Ceremony”- This story covers similar ground with “Crown of Switchblades” in which a seemingly badass group is undone by a supernatural presence and all of their braggadocio becomes a joke, whereas “Crown of Switchblades” excels in a shift in tone. “Ceremony” excels in dark comedy dialogue. Declyn, an investigator, is looking into  the rock group “The Raging Bastards. His lover, Misty, who is involved with not only him but the three guys in the group is his main contact. Declan’s time with the Raging Bastards begins with plenty of sex, drugs, and rock and roll and ends with blood, guts, and terror, especially after Misty disappears.

The key advantage is the dialogue. Many characters dance around the truth with plenty of strong language, sexual overtones, and violent metaphors. Many of the phrases like when Bastards member, La Roe sarcastically describes the group as “tree huggers preaching peace and love” brings ironic smirks. Other comments like “If I had your eyes, I’d drive us off a cliff” carry an edge of suspense undertones hidden inside the dark comedy overtones.

One of the more interesting aspects of the dialogue is the amount of foreshadowing. After the story is over, it’s worth going back and putting together the tantalizing clues that the characters dance around. The constant references to blood, animals, violence, and aggressiveness spill some of the tea before the entire kettle is knocked over. There are also warnings when people tell Declan that he should stay away and that he doesn’t want to know what Misty and the Bastards are up to. It’s one of those stories that lays the plot in front of you so when you go back and reread it, you think, “Of course, it was there all along!” 

The violence is graphic but detached in a way that makes it more grotesque or comic than scary. The moment when Declan reaches the truth is dripped in irony and gore. The final line is blunt in violence that comes out of nowhere leaving Readers to sort out the aftermath.

Weekly Reader: The Colours of Death: Sgt. Thomas' Casebook by Robert New; Mystery Anthology Is Bright With Color Theme

 

Weekly Reader: The Colours of Death: Sgt. Thomas' Casebook by Robert New; Mystery Anthology Is Bright With Color Theme

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: The color of death might be black as the symbolic color of mourning like seen on the robes of the Grim Reaper. It might be red, the color of blood when it comes outside of a body. In some cultures, the traditional color of mourning is white. However, according to Robert New's The Colours of Death: Sgt. Thomas' Casebook, death comes in a variety of colors.

Colours of Death is a suspenseful mystery anthology with an interesting premise: each short story takes the theme of a specific color. The colors in the title are revealed as a symptom of the murder (blue skin revealing that the victim has been poisoned as seen in "Blue: Blue Bloods" ) or a specific trait about the murderer or victim in question. (One of the characters has flaming red, almost orange hair, in the short story, "Orange: The 11th Killer.") 

The stories fall into a mostly predictable pattern. A murder occurs somewhere in Perth, usually seen through the perspective of the potential victim or one of the eyewitnesses. Something odd happens or some unidentified character with a unique trait appears to make what the character sees even more bizarre. Then Sgt. Brad Thomas and his colleagues are called in to investigate the crime. The color element is introduced during the investigation describing either the cause of death or the victim or killer's appearance. Thomas interviews suspects and searches the scene of the crime to gather evidence and find probable solutions. He also discusses the case with others including his mentor, Prof. Engels, forensic pathologist, Sally Summers, and his fiancee, Amy Stevenson. Thomas uses his deductive skills or intuitive reasoning to come up with a Eureka moment, connected to the color. He discovers the killers' identity and gets them to confess in a final interview. Thomas is then left contemplating his dangerous career and upcoming marriage to Amy.

While the stories are formulaic by nature, the colors are made to explore all of the interesting ways and possibilities in which a murder can occur. New does a brilliant job of making each story unique in execution, connecting the story with the rest of the anthology, and also allowing the story to stand on its own as an interesting case in its own right.

The stories run an interesting gambit of murderous possibilities. In "Black: Black Death," Thomas investigates the murder of Johnny Smyth, a man who had his bones broken, organs damaged, and had been beaten so much that the bruises on his skin appeared black. ("It's like he was sandwiched between two trucks or fell from the sky from a parachute," Sally observes.) Thomas uses information that he gathered investigating images and memories from his own rural background to reason that Smyth had been killed and dropped into a mine that was owned by Athol "The Fugue" Fugate, a local crime boss posing as a legitimate businessman and reoccurring antagonist in Thomas' series. This is among the more gruesome cases, but it stands out because of the one on one struggle between the opposite sides of the law. Those sides are found in Thomas' Sherlock Holmes-like deductive reasoning and empathy towards the crime victims vs. Fugate's smooth ability to do away with his enemies and making his name known and feared by the general public while literally getting away with murder.

Thomas has a fascination with psychology and criminal profiling. That profiling comes into play in "Orange: The 11th Killer." Thomas engages in a conversation with Paul over an investigation in which 47 different hair samples are found around a series of dead bodies. Thomas reasons that the person is obsessed with hair. Perhaps he could be bald or has a unique hair color in which he was noticed or mocked for. (The orange in the title refers to hair color.) Thomas also notes that the killings occurred on the 11th of each month as an important date in the killer's life. Of course he is found to be right. There is almost something psychic about this approach to crime solving and the short length makes Thomas' observations a bit too quick and obvious. However, this story reveals how crime solvers get into the killers' minds to learn what they are obsessed with and what compels them to take such a dangerous path.

Another brilliant case is "Yellow: The Storyteller." Aaron Stevenson, Thomas' future brother in law, is contacted by a local serial killer known only as The Storyteller. In Jigsaw like fashion, the Storyteller kidnaps a family member of the chosen target and then calls them to tell them that they have exactly 45 minutes to solve three riddles or said family member would perish in a fire that the Storyteller would start. (Yellow as in flames. Thomas and co.'s only possibility is that the Storyteller is a firefighter because they know the exact time of fire progression.) During a tense three way conversation, Aaron,Thomas, and Engels reason their way through the riddles to save the life of Aaron's son, Jethro. The three men use their vast knowledge to determine the solutions. One example involves the clue "Franklin's 51st theft stole the credit for this." Instead of the more obvious choice of Benjamin Franklin, Engels comes up with the theory that the clue refers to Rosalind Franklin, whose photo fifty one revealed the helical structure of DNA and who was not given credit for the discovery until after her death. The story is almost a process of figuring out who is smarter: the criminal who gets people to play their games or the officers who are trying to end the game.

One of the more heartbreaking cases in the anthology is that in "Blue: Blue Bloods." A toxin is released during an awards ceremony at Sangre Azul School causing hundreds of deaths, most of them children. The blue in the title is a double meaning revealing the blue skin which is a symptom of the toxin and that the school's name is French for "blue blood." This is another case that is largely dependent on Thomas' rural background and knowledge of poisons, but what stands out is the emotional tone of this story. It is matter of fact but carries a sense of sadness about the realization that a whole school full of children, almost a generation, will never graduate and ascend to college, never be with their families, or never hang out with their friends, because of one person's hatred and vile actions. Hundreds of families are greatly affected by this tragedy including parents and siblings. The short story calls to mind real life mass murders such as the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in which the majority of the victims were children.

New captures the senses well with his writing. The colors themselves capture sight and the many of the murders affect the victim's senses of smell and taste. 'White: Sting'' is one that activates the sense of touch not only in the victim but subconsciously in the Reader. Sally investigates the body of Grant Dillon. The cause of death was a self inflicted gunshot to the head but what confuses Sally is the body's appearance. Why was Dillon hairless all over and why was his skin red raw as though it had been waxed several times? Why was their one folder in his medical cabinet marked "Pain" which contained several receipts for prescribed and over the counter pain medication and alternative treatments? Dillon was clearly under a lot of pain that may have resulted in his suicide but what?

After talking to his doctor, Sally learns that Dillon had been infected for a year because of the stings from the white hair of the Gympie Gympie Tree, native only to Queensland. The hairs of the tree can embed in the skin and cause unbearable pain that can last for up to two years. ("It's like being burnt with hot acid and electrocuted at the same time," Dillon's doctor states.) Someone clearly wanted Dillon to suffer. 

Readers with a low tolerance for pain or are extremely touch sensitive to rashes and bruises are advised to read only with plenty of aloe gel nearby to soothe the psychosomatic pain that will inflict in becoming too involved into this story.

Besides an interactive sensate experience thanks to New's description, the characterization in this story stand out. Both Dillon and the person who contributed to his death are written very sympathetically. Unlike many of the previous stories, there is a clear motive and understanding towards why someone would want to cause such suffering. 

Also Sally emerges as a real hero in this story. In most of the previous stories in this anthology, Sally's role is to be Thomas' sidekick just to provide forensic analysis and be amazed at Thomas' observations and solutions. This time Thomas is in the back seat, preparing for his wedding and giving only a few suggestions to propel her investigation in certain directions. Refreshingly, "White: Sting" gives Sally a chance to do some real legwork, interview suspects, and come up with a solution based on her own medical expertise.

The Colours of Death is an anthology that reveals that death cannot only wear many faces, but it can be many colors as well.

 

New Book Alert: Happy Hour and Other Philadelphia Crimes by Tony Knighton; Dark, Sharp, and Sinister Stories of Philadelphia's Criminal Classes

New Book Alert: Happy Hour and Other Philadelphia Cruelties by Tony Knighton; Dark, Sinister, and Sharp Stories of Philadelphia's Criminal Class

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews


Spoilers: Crime stories narrated by detectives are an enjoyable read but crime stories narrated by criminals are even more so. Instead of solving the crime, the stories concentrate on constructing the crime and their efforts to either abscond with the loot or avoid the law.


Tony Knighton's anthology, Happy Hour and Other Philadelphia Crimes presents several stories of Philadelphia's less law abiding citizens. Some are funny, some are suspenseful. But all are fascinating looks at the dark side of human nature and how far desperate people will go to get their needs met.


Among the best stories are:


"Happy Hour"- This is a hilarious and moving story about a petty thief trying to avoid his many enemies. Bobby, a recovering alcoholic, can't resist making off with a fancy discarded coat in the dead of winter. The good news is the coat conveniently has thousands of unmarked bills enough to pay off Bobby's debts. The bad news is the coat belonged to one of a group of hired killers as he learns from the cell phone that they also left behind.

The plot moves along briskly as Bobby jumps from one place to another from his apartment, to the home of a drug dealer, to an A.A. Meeting and runs into fresh complications. There are some plot holes abound such as when Bobby has a clear chance to purchase a train ticket out of town, he doesn't take it and some tense moments such as when he hears that one of his neighbors was killed by his pursuers. Eventually, things take a darker turn when Bobby's desperation to avoid this situation turns deadly.


"The Road Trip"- In The Usual Suspects, Kevin Spacey's character, Verbal Kint, describes real will as doing what the other guy won't do. This brief gruesome story illustrates this concept of one killer out doing another.

The Narrator is already a piece of nasty work. He is in the country breaking into a house and killing the only resident. He stops to get fuel and supplies in one of those lonely diners that you know is going to lead to trouble. A diner customer encounters the Narrator. In a plot twist worthy of Stephen King, the new guy proves to be a real cut up. It is a sinister short story that builds on the suspense and lowers it with an effective Karmic twist on the hapless Narrator.


"Sunrise"-This one is definitely the outlier of the anthology. It deals with crime but it is set in the future where Philadelphia has been ruined by war and climate change. A father struggles to get his ailing son to a hospital before sunrise when the daylight could be potentially fatal.

The story shows how familial love and sacrifice can cause people to do desperate things. The Reader's sympathies are entirely with the father as he protects his son in this dystopian setting. He commits a few crimes in the story, but his motive for protecting and healing his son are never in doubt. Not to mention, the setting leaves enough interest for Knighton to continue writing other works set in this eco-unfriendly environment.


"The Session"-This story reflects the inside of a psychopath, one who hides his true deadly intentions beneath a cover of respectability no matter how thin that cover is. Harold, a convict, is in session with Donna, a court appointed psychiatrist, for a conditional release.

The story is entertaining in an eerie darkly comic way as Harold alternates between what he tells the psychiatrist and what he really thinks. Harold verbally compliments a former psychiatrist by saying that the doctor "helped (him) a lot." However, he mentally calls the psychiatrist "a fat drunk fastly approaching senility."

The plot leads to sinister creepy implications when Harold's request is granted and he can't resist an oh so subtle peek at Donna's address. The story is open ended but one can't help but fear about the potentially dangerous effects that will occur after Harold's release.


"As Long As You Can"-Instead of murder, this story concerns itself with con games and what happens when criminals try to outdo each other with brains rather than physical force.

Hank works at a call center where he convinces lonely seniors that he's their long lost grandson who's in a bad spot and could they send him a few thousand dollars to get out of it. Most of the story consists of Hank's explanation over how this scheme works and how he got involved. It's clever in a scoundrelous way as various hurdles are covered from avoiding Caller I.D. to how the cons take notes of the right terms and names. (You don't want to slip and call someone "Grandma" when she was always referred to as "Nana.") The call center is treated ironically like any typical law abiding profession as the workers sit in their cubicles and boast about their sales.

Hank tries to outdo the others by calling his marks off the clock and asking for extra money. He is the type of crook that thinks he is so clever and can't be caught. His cockiness makes his downfall even better as he is outsmarted by a mark that is more than aware of the con and plays it better than him.


Tony Knighton's anthology may show that crime doesn't always pay. But it is always enjoyable to read.

New Book Alert: Sympathetic People by Donna Baier Stein; Moving Emotional Stories Reveal Various Hidden Chambers of the Human Heart

New Book Alert: Sympathetic People by Donna Baier Stein; Moving Emotional Stories Reveal Various Hidden Chambers of the Human Heart




By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

PopSugar Reading Challenge: A book that you meant to read in 2019


Spoilers: Donna Baier Stein's anthology Sympathetic People is filled with love stories, but not love in the traditional sense. There are romances but the stories also involve love between friends, family members, or parents and children. Stein's writing explores love in many forms.

However, they should not be mistaken for happy ending stories where love conquers all. Instead the character's emotions often compel them to do reckless, obsessive, and sometimes hurtful things in the name of love or what they perceive as love. In fact, many of the stories feature conflicts between the character's individuality and personal needs against those of the objects of their affection.

Sympathetic People explores the depth of emotion found in the human heart and how love and hate can be the two strongest most similar emotions.

All of the stories are moving, emotional, and character driven. The best are the following:


Versions-This story explains where the title of the anthology comes from in a haunting opening paragraph that summarizes the theme carried out in each story. It says, "We are all sympathetic people. Individually or two by two. None of us has ever resisted a midnight call from a witch-held friend, sat while a pearl-haired senior stood in the aisle of a bus, or shoplifted anything but books and that was many years ago."

This story focuses on that concept of being sympathetic and caring to people even at the cost of one's own personal happiness. The Narrator is in her second comfortable marriage when she learns that her husband's first wife is coming to town and needs help finding a place to live.

The Narrator's internal conflict focuses on how people see others in different stages in their lives and how those perspectives shape how we always think of that person. The Narrator thinks of herself as the version that her first husband saw: the free spirited artist living below her means. She then remembers how her current husband sees her: as a wealthy matron flipping through catalogs and selecting furniture for her upscale home. Her kindness towards Nina is a way of reconciling the woman that she was in that desperate situation and the woman she is with the resources that she can use to help.

The Secret of Snakes-This story provides the Reader with a venomous racer snake as a symbol of the decline of a marriage. Arlene is snake sitting for her son while he is away at camp. Meanwhile, Arlene has to watch as her husband practically flaunts his affair with a younger assistant and Arlene contemplates an affair
of her own.

The racer snake becomes a symbol of Arlene's repression. As long as she is following the instructions, Arlene has control over the snake just as she does with her marriage. Unfortunately, human (and snake) nature can not always be bound by rules. In one violent encounter with the racer, Arlene's repression ends and she gives into the rage and passion that she kept hidden.


In Heraklion- An SNL sketch features a parody commercial in which people are encouraged to visit Italy but the pitch people remind you that the trip won't make you feel comfortable with your body. It won't give you marriage counseling and you may go hiking but the vacation to Italy will not turn you into a person who likes hiking. In other words, a vacation might be fun and relaxing, but you are still the same person and sometimes the problems and perception that you have follow you on your trip.

In her story, "In Heraklion", Stein gives us beautiful evocative description of Crete's sunny beaches, historic ruins, and locals who cater to tourists. However, she also gives us two women who are visiting Crete as one of them is recovering from a doomed relationship with a married man.

It's an interesting dichotomy comparing the pleasant setting with the confused and neurotic characters that inhabit it. The story suggests that emotions can't be denied and worries and frustrations will remain no matter how beautiful the scenery is.


Hindsight- This story carries irony in which a woman recalls a long friendship that she and her husband had with another couple that ended in betrayal and hurt feelings.

The friendship between the two couples is described with various small moments such as the two women getting to know one another while their husbands worked on their dissertations or an Independence Day party where the friends lit sparklers before all hell broke loose. The Reader also sees how the changing times of the 1960's-'70's affected the marriages as the Narrator's husband published his Civil War book and became absorbed in work and her friend, Jessie, became involved in feminist politics. Seeing the decline in Jessie's marriage, the Narrator does everything that she can to hold onto her husband.

Years later, the Narrator reflects on the choices that she, Jessie, and their husbands made and how they all ended up in the same place. In one final ironic twist, it becomes clear to the Reader, though maybe not to the Narrator, that her memories of Jessie are clearer and more pronounced that those of her husband and that she might miss Jessie more than she is willing to admit.


The Jewel Box- I must admit as a native St. Louisian, I get a delight whenever my city is mentioned and this is no exception. One of the reasons I love this story is because it shouts out to one of my favorite places: Forest Park, a place with many wonderful attractions. One is The Jewel Box. The Jewel Box is a greenhouse filled with the loveliest flowers. It is not very well known and doesn't receive near as much local attention as Forest Park's other attractions or the larger Missouri Botanical Gardens on Shaw Blvd. However, The Jewel Box is a sight to behold and one to remember.

This is the memory that Sarah tries to give to her ailing grandmother, Nini. As Nini lays in the hospital, Sarah fills her with childhood memories particularly the trip the duo took to St. Louis from Kansas City.

Sarah describes The Jewel Box exquisitely in beautiful terms such as "There were tropical trees, waterfalls, and fountains, and below us, golden pheasants and flamingos flashed among the bushes and streams. In the trees, there were scarlet Ibis. A touch pool with turtles and crayfish." Her descriptions of The Jewel Box create an image of a fairyland of childhood nostalgia that Sarah longs to reach with her grandmother. She wants Nini to hold onto the young woman that she was, but also wants to recapture the child that Sarah was if only through words.

Lovers #1-5 or Why I Hate Kenny Rogers-A first person narrator can make or break a short story and this case, surely makes it. A woman describes her past romantic relationships in an attempt to explain what happened last Sunday when she had sex for the first time in five years since her divorce.

The Narrator has a frank, rambling, funny way of describing her former lovers such as #1 who she refers to "as the first man (she) really fell in love with who turned out to be gay and killed himself." She uses that distinction in the strangest places such as when she describes him then suddenly remembered, oh yeah, he used to wear white tennis shoes. (As though his sexuality, suicide, and the white tennis shoes were somehow linked.)

A woman being so honest about her past sexual history might come across as victimized or provocative, but this woman's narration allows her to come across as blunt, world weary, and self-depreciating with a sardonic sense of humor that is aware of her shortcomings. She is aware that she is reducing these men to numbers instead of names, but she cautions that she doesn't hate these men, or any men for that matter. They were very nice, "but sometimes there's a gut reaction (she has) that can feel like hate, or the neighbor of it, like it did last Sunday."

As the Narrator recounts the various lovers over the years, she recalls how much she changed in her interactions about what she received from them and they got from her: #1: a sexless innocent friendship, #2: a quick passionate sexually charged fling, #3: a relationship based on intellectual quality and ideals, #4: an intense affair with a married man, and #5: the one she married that she considered her true love and not a fantasy but was rocked by personality disorders. They changed as she aged, her lovers representing herself in different stages of life.

The subtitle comes from an NPR interview where country/pop singer Kenny Rogers talked about his six previous marriages and said that he loved all of his wives. He also spoke of his politics and how he befriended Presidents on both sides of the political spectrum saying "that he loves concepts more than people." The Narrator fumes that she hates that attitude about certain men, but can't ignore how similar she is to Roger's words. Rogers reflects the worst things about herself and she knows it too. She too loves the concept of true love more than the men. She is aware that she has been in a cycle and that is hard for her to break free.

However, her encounter last Sunday with Randy, (not #6, significantly he has a name), suggests that she is ready to get past her rocky romantic past and finally have a lasting committed relationship.
Y
Sympathetic People is a beautiful anthology that causes the Reader to look inside the human heart. Some of what they find might be painful, some pleasing, but always memorable.