AN ADVENTUROUS SPIRIT

An amusing anthology of writing about travel from the online journal The Lowestoft Chronicle.

In this new collection, editor Litchfield presents a selection of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and interviews about journeys. Each writer offers a pair of works, with the book opening with “Just Entering Darkness, Missouri” by Jeff Burt, a piece of short fiction in which a father and son road trip results in an unexpected, menacing confrontation. The tales, real or imagined, can lead anywhere, from Parisian pinball haunts to the seedy underbelly of postwar Manhattan. One of 18 poems offered here, “Making Sense” by Linda Ankrah-Dove is a delightful mashup of Homer’s Odyssey and the lyrics of Bob Dylan. Two interviews are also included: a conversation with historical novelist Sheldon Russell and another with Abby Frucht, winner of the Iowa Short Fiction Award. Creative nonfiction offerings include Catherine Dowling’s “Two Halves of a Whole,” about her attending a writers’ workshop in Alaska to experience the territory away from the tourist trail. Among the many standout works is Tim Frank’s “Three Strikes,” whose premise—about a London Underground driver actively seeking his third kill so he’ll be eligible for indefinite leave—is inventively and uncomfortably dark, and readers will savor its devilish twist. Meanwhile, poems such as “Woman With the Red Carry-On” are drolly perceptive: “Why must I take six undies / for a two night stay?” Other descriptive passages, such as this one in “Just Entering Darkness, Missouri,” will make the reader recoil and snort with laughter simultaneously: “I examined one large jar of goose pickles, expecting the brine to be the color of urine, but if it was urine, the dark brown belied some type of illness.” Readers may be disappointed at the dearth of female fiction writers here, but, by and large, the work features a wide array of voices. Overall, it’s entertaining, varied, and clever writing.

A refreshingly original collection of sharp tales.