The author explains in his introduction that he wanted to create pieces that \u201chung there in midair, suspended\u201d without categorizing them as prose poetry, flash fiction, or micro-fiction. The very short entries presented here, sometimes only spanning a few pages, generally introduce a single character, capture one consequential moment, and culminate with an ironic reversal. In \u201cRay,\u201d a man watches his terminally ill best friend meet lung cancer with defiant humor. After Ray\u2019s death, the grieving narrator asks a stranger for a cigarette, only to be warned, \u201cThose things will kill you.\u201d (Similarly ironic and darkly comedic turns run throughout the collection.) The rebellious skateboarder in \u201cSims\u201d is disparaged by his hometown until he dies serving in the Gulf War and is suddenly hailed as a patriot. In \u201cNeighbors,\u201d two mismatched teenagers conceal a violent domestic incident, after which a drunken father unexpectedly protects their secret. \u201cSwimming\u201d follows several boys whose challenge to a boastful friend ends in tragedy at a pond. Other entries are gentler: \u201cDog Days\u201d portrays a widower tethered to a declining factory town by memories and an exceptional hot dog restaurant, while \u201cOrigins\u201d concerns a man realizing how little he knows about the lives his parents led before he could remember them. \u201cMr. Wilson\u201d tackles homophobia while also neatly revealing a marital dynamic in which a father\u2019s dissent consigns him to the sofa. (When he disagrees with his wife, he automatically walks \u201cglumly to the dresser to pull out the extra blankets,\u201d knowing exactly where he will spend the night.) Joseph demonstrates remarkable skill in establishing whole worlds with only a few pages. But despite his sharp observational acumen, the author\u2019s heavily staccato prose can feel flat. Many pieces conclude before their characters or conflicts fully register\u2014they seem to land suddenly on the page and scurry away just as quickly. Still, the strongest entries leave deep impressions.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The author explains in his introduction that he wanted to create pieces that \u201chung there in midair, suspended\u201d without categorizing them as prose poetry, flash fiction, or micro-fiction. The very short entries presented here, sometimes only spanning a few pages, generally introduce a single character, capture one consequential moment, and culminate with an ironic reversal. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7362"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}