Wistful, yearning, and engrossing reflections on humans as creatures of uncertainty.
A debut short-story collection explores themes of sexual predilection, religion, and displacement.
Much of Anthony’s writing has sexuality at its core, either positing an unknown interpretation (“The Sexual Secrets of the Book of Esther”) or emphasizing the life-shaping magnitude of erotic—especially pederastic—encounters (“Loss”; “‘And, of course, you would have handled it much better’”). Many of the narratives carry an exotic flavor, with protagonists displaced from Latin America to the United States or vice versa. “The Rebel” goes further still, situating a white doctor in Burma during a dreamy, almost fever-ridden uprising by Kachin guerrillas. Of the 14 stories, the final six present Roman Catholic priests as viewpoint characters for events—often homoerotic encounters—that took place many years ago. Two of these (“The Temptation of Msgr. McCarthy” and “The Last Chapter”) concern themselves with men of faith uncovering the hidden proclivities of persons now deceased. The tone of writing throughout these stories suggests a broad acceptance of gay sexuality and compassion for those whose inclinations have resulted in suffering (church officials included). The result is an attitude at once more broad-minded than Catholic doctrine might suggest and yet more forgiving of abuses than readers may be comfortable with. Anthony writes with polished prose, evincing a literary fondness that will elevate the tales for some readers yet make them less accessible to others. “The Shelley Manuscript,” for instance, tells of a spirit writer (employed by a credulous Arthur Conan Doyle) who channels Oscar Wilde to recount a historically challenging eyewitness reappraisal of Shelley and Lord Byron. The story is layered and erudite, but relies in no small degree on readers possessing some familiarity with the subject matter. “Hercules: Love and Death,” in retelling the Greek myth of Alcestis and Admetus from the perspective of a modern-styled, sensitive Hercules, similarly benefits from readers knowing the original tale. Many of Anthony’s stories contain passing references to Greek mythology or Shakespeare (“The storm was Shakespearean, but no brave new world appeared”). The tense varies from past to present, the perspective from first to third person (with one story told in the second person). Most of the tales are life pieces, more reflective than hard-hitting. But when taken together, they pack a melancholic je ne sais quoi.
Wistful, yearning, and engrossing reflections on humans as creatures of uncertainty.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A welcome literary resurrection that deserves a place alongside Wright’s best-known work.
A falsely accused Black man goes into hiding in this masterful novella by Wright (1908-1960), finally published in full.
Written in 1941 and '42, between Wright’s classics Native Son and Black Boy, this short novel concerns Fred Daniels, a modest laborer who’s arrested by police officers and bullied into signing a false confession that he killed the residents of a house near where he was working. In a brief unsupervised moment, he escapes through a manhole and goes into hiding in a sewer. A series of allegorical, surrealistic set pieces ensues as Fred explores the nether reaches of a church, a real estate firm, and a jewelry store. Each stop is an opportunity for Wright to explore themes of hope, greed, and exploitation; the real estate firm, Wright notes, “collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent from poor colored folks.” But Fred’s deepening existential crisis and growing distance from society keep the scenes from feeling like potted commentaries. As he wallpapers his underground warren with cash, mocking and invalidating the currency, he registers a surrealistic but engrossing protest against divisive social norms. The novel, rejected by Wright’s publisher, has only appeared as a substantially truncated short story until now, without the opening setup and with a different ending. Wright's take on racial injustice seems to have unsettled his publisher: A note reveals that an editor found reading about Fred’s treatment by the police “unbearable.” That may explain why Wright, in an essay included here, says its focus on race is “rather muted,” emphasizing broader existential themes. Regardless, as an afterword by Wright’s grandson Malcolm attests, the story now serves as an allegory both of Wright (he moved to France, an “exile beyond the reach of Jim Crow and American bigotry”) and American life. Today, it resonates deeply as a story about race and the struggle to envision a different, better world.
A welcome literary resurrection that deserves a place alongside Wright’s best-known work.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-59853-676-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Library of America
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
BOOK TO SCREEN
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