Twenty-one stories that paint a portrait of a magical realist world that is both chaotic and corrupt. In "Blister" a young widow remains faithful to her wedding vows even after her husband's deception is revealed. The husband in "Others" is haunted by a picture from the sixteenth century that has seemingly come to life and threatens to destroy his marriage. The soldier in "A Soldier's Lament" refuses to order the execution of an enemy combatant with whom he has fallen in love. The teenage girl in "Skipping Stones" is troubled by her father's second marriage, resulting in an existential crisis.
Biswas’s second short-story collection, following A Betrayal and Other Stories, offers more inventive, genre-blending, briskly paced, tales with elements of the speculative, magical realism, and social critique, observing life and those who live it—especially storytellers—from a slightly detached, observational vantage that makes the eruptions of strangeness all the stranger. “Blister,” “What Happened to Vincent Gutbomb One Day,” “The Town That Went to Sleep,” and several others incorporate fantastical elements, while others, like “Rhonda’s Story,” or “A Matter of Principle,” though at times theatrically violent (as in “Apologia du Amore”’s gut-churning military rape scenario) hew more to life, keeping readers on edge with the possibility that there’s more to them than is obvious. The best of Biswas’s often fable-like tales achieve a thought-provoking depth.
For example, “Others,” which relays the experience of a man who becomes romantically obsessed, nearly to the point of insanity, with the portrait of an unnamed, unknown woman that his wife brings home one afternoon, is a haunting depiction of unmitigated human passion that widens and blurs the definition of art. “What Happened to Vincent Gutbomb One Day,” similarly deconstructs the definitions of “guilt” and “innocence” with the hilarious, absurd account of strangers summoning Gutbomb to court for being “guilty of innocence” and receiving threats of punishments which include being buried alive or turned into a vegetable.
Many of Biswas’s stories feature frame narratives and magic components that serve to hone in on particular aspects of human nature and society, like its propensity toward violence and hypocrisy, but together Biswas’s collection seeks to emphasize humanity’s love of storytelling, whether those are fantasies they tell themselves or tales they share with others. No story displays this message more than “Twelve Nights and a Night,” Biswas’s retelling of “Arabian Nights,” in which stories are used as the protagonist’s salvation. Though majorly unexceptional, Biswas’s collection is an accessible, quick read with a few standout stories.
Takeaway: Fabulistic stories touching on myth, philosophy, and human violence.
Comparable Titles: Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s On the Lonely Shore Kate Bernheimer’s My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me.
Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
“Brian Biswas is a literary mage. He can take the base materials of a historical romance, or a contemporary love affair, or a seagoing adventure, and make them dance in the fairy light of the Uncanny Valley. The titles of the stories in this, his newest collection, give you an idea of their eldritch intentions: ‘Julie’s Murderer,’ ‘The House in the Forest,’ ‘The Town that Went to Sleep.’ These are modern folktales. The sheer variety in the book is astonishing, worthy of a Scheherazade, and, indeed, the master storyteller herself is invoked in ‘Twelve Nights and a Night.’ The final story is a witty updating of Kafka, via Lewis Carroll. Storytelling is Biswas’ calling card; he understands the power of Story, with a capital S. Read him because he is a master artificer, utilizing a prose that is both pellucid and shimmering.” – Corey Mesler, author of Cock-a-Hoop, and The World is Neither Stacked for Nor Against You: Selected Short Stories
". . . each story compellingly puts its characters in tough spots that prove to be both gloomy and unexpected."
