The Pelican Child, Joy Williams.

The Pelican Child, Joy Williams, 2025.

Joy Williams’ most recent short story collection is an amazing read. She is bleak, pessimistic, and without hope, so a dark world indeed. But I find her world portrayal accurate, a fair representation of how common cruelty is. One of her characters realizes how sad he is and thinks “men are but unconscious machines and they perform their cruelties so effortlessly.” This sums up the mood and themes of this collection but it also reflects what I see as the reality in the world right now. These stories are full of human cruelties: towards animals, the environment, people, and themselves. Mortality is also a theme throughout this collection, from decay of the body and the environment to death and final pains of the same. It all adds up to a dystopian feel albeit all too real.

Williams is an impressive writer. I have only read a couple of her novels and story collections but admire them a great deal. Her unread books sit patiently on my ‘to read’ shelf. She writes wonderful sentences, in-depth explorations of existence, and through all the darkness includes a good dose of dry wit and humor. Overall, this is a strong story collection and what could be seen as a call to action.

Big Kiss, Bye-Bye, Claire-Louise Bennett.

Big Kiss, Bye-Bye, Claire-Louise Bennett, 2025.

Bennett is labelled an avant garde author so she fits in well with the reading I have recently been doing. I’ve read her short story collection Pond twice and found her latest novel to be well worth the reading effort. The novel primarily consists of the unnamed narrator’s ruminations on her past relationships with men, as well as analyses of current relationships with friends and neighbors. The major focus of thought is the internal wrestling with words and phrases that people deal with as they engage with others. The narrator explores the difficulty of knowing what to say to others and how to say it, including the ramifications of the things we say and how we deliver our message. It is an incredibly engaging study with a fair amount of humor when she agonizes over the most every day, common exchanges.

Along the way there are some great insights expressed by the narrator such as her discussion of the pros and cons of relational pleasantness, and in one of my favorite sections, the depiction of violent behavior on film. She also addresses feelings throughout the novel, both the difficulty in adequately expressing them and the impossibility of understanding the depth of others’ feelings. All in all, an enjoyable read leaving me wanting to read Bennett’s first novel, Checkout 19.

An Explanation of the Birds, António Lobo Antunes.

An Explanation of the Birds, António Lobo Antunes, 1981. Translated from the Portuguese by Richard Zenith, 1991.

Antunes is one of my favorite authors. He recently passed away but he was still writing and publishing. His writing style over the past many years has been a bit different than that of the earlier years but still very impressive and with many similarities. He could be classified as experimental with his multiple narrative voices, mixed tenses, and overlapping of past, present and future. He is a challenging read but every book of his that I have read has been worth the challenge. An Explanation of the Birds from the early 80’s is no different except that I got a radical pleasure from this one, much more so than his other great novels.

The main character, Rui S., is a political historian who teaches at university. He is dissatisfied with his life so he skips a planned lecture and takes his wife to a small village for a weekend so he can divorce her. That is the primary action of the book but as in any Antunes novel there is a whole lot more going on. The narrative involves several voices attempting to explain Rui’s suicide. One is left with the task of evaluating Rui’s characteristics from the varying but sometimes overlapping eyewitness accounts. Antunes handles this so deftly and in the decoding process I was left with extreme empathy for his protagonist.

Rui has spent his life trying to get an explanation of the birds, from early in his childhood up until his death. Birds occur frequently throughout the novel and provide much information about Rui and his development. I loved this recurring theme, the foreshadowing within certain episodes, and how Rui’s life and the life of birds mirror each other. A great cornerstone for this narrative.

Overall, a beautiful read concerning one man’s search for understanding and direction.

How An Explanation of the Birds informs my writing.

Oh my God! If I could even approach the mastery of Antunes I’d be content but I’m afraid I lack the chops to come even close. Still, I try to write in this experimental style, particularly with my novel-in-progress. An Explanation of the Birdswas a wonderful learning experience for me as far as writing goes, specifically accessing internal thoughts and spilling them on the page. So good!

One theme that runs through the novel is Rui’s father’s obsession with collecting butterflies. Antunes describes this in episodic revelations that taken as a whole reveal the cruelty inherent in the father, not just towards the butterflies but to other lives around him, specifically Rui. It is incredible writing and such a great way to characterize cruel behavior. Cruelty is a theme which runs through my novel too and it was good to see Antunes’ technique for addressing this issue.

Colonel Lágrimas, Carlos Fonseca, 2015.

Colonel Lágrimas, Carlos Fonseca, 2015. Translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell, 2016.

I learned of Carlos Fonseca through a review I read of his third novel, Natural History. Enjoyed that novel so much I followed up with his second novel, Austral. I praised and recommended both of those books in past posts and Colonel Lágrimas, his debut novel, is no different. It is similar to the others in that is a nonlinear, experimental novel with varying texts and narrators. The main character is not an actual colonel but a retired mathematician. He retreats to a small home in the Pyrenees to conclude his final project, a text that attempts to understand the 20th century through the biographies of several woman, as well as to understand his own life through the creation of a complicated algebraic equation. Delightfully confusing and playful, yet steeped in thought this is a thoroughly enjoyable novel.

How Colonel Lágrimas informs my writing.

This novel is another example of the writing style I emulate. My novel-in-progress follows to some degree the narrative style throughout Fonseca’s book, though I’m not at the point where I can confidently say I am carrying it out successfully. Still, it is helpful to read books like this to learn of various methods for presenting a nonlinear narrative. Also, the novel involves primarily thought: there is very little action and I really admire this. Fonseca introduces some intriguing ideas which are fun and challenging to think about. It never seems dull or tedious though, but rather the liveliness and thought processes of the protagonist push the reader onward.

One idea in the novel that I am still thinking about is when the colonel suggests that life moves in a barbed spiral and an illustration of curled barbed wire is included. I have another project exploring the movement of life through a spiral so this was a welcome diversion. I found the addition of the barbs interesting although I do not necessarily agree with it. But taken in the context of the colonel’s life and experiences I can see why he would label it in such a way. There are lots of informational bits like this throughout the novel and they make it quite engaging.

The Offing, Benjamin Myers.

The Offing, Benjamin Myers, 2019.

This novel set in a small village on the coast of the United Kingdom is more lyrical than what I prefer to read. I chose to read it though because I was interested in how the author handled the growing friendship between an older, independent woman and a 16 boy exploring the world outside his village. I have been creating a similar dynamic in my novel-in-progress and thought I could learn something from this highly reviewed author. I found the characters well developed, the budding relationship intriguing, and the overall story quite enjoyable and emotionally engaging.

Robert is the boy who leaves his mining village to escape “limited expectations” and before he meets Dulcie we are treated to wonderful descriptions of the path he follows: nature is expertly described, as well as the opening of Robert’s eyes to the world around him. He stumbles upon the recluse Dulcie who lives alone in her modest cabin overlooking the sea. She becomes a natural tutor and guide to Robert and I loved getting to know her and her backstory which we discover along with Robert. Dulcie has a streak of bitterness to her worldview caused by some of her experiences which are revealed as Robert makes a more permanent home with her. Overall, the novel is a coming of age story, as well as a reckoning of a long life, and a wonderful exploration of growing with another person and enjoying the simplicities and beauty of the world.

Your Silence Will Not Protect You, Audre Lorde, 2017

Your Silence Will Not Protect You, Audre Lorde, 2017.

This collection offers essays and speeches from the late 1970’s through the early 1980’s but reads as if it were written today. Not much seems to have changed since Lorde wrote these marvelous pieces. Lorde is primarily addressing black women in this work but her message is clear and clarion for all willing to read and listen.

My favorite quote from the collection, a collection full of valuable statements and suggestions, is the following from a transcribed talk called Learning from the 1960’s:

“Within each one of is there is some piece of humanness that knows we are not being served by the machine which orchestrates crisis after crisis and is grinding all our futures into dust.”

In the collection she speaks against politics, racism, sexism, heterosexism, and homophobia and her words are inspirational, encouraging, and anger-producing. She cautions, as the title suggests, that silence is dangerous and serves no purpose than to perpetuate oppression.

This is an incredible collection and an amazing introduction to such an astute thinker. I loved her efforts to empower oppressed people and to educate others to work sincerely across groups and differences to battle the vertical axis of power and abuse. Though I am not naïve enough to think that her words could have a positive impact on today’s cruel power structures I take to heart these words that it is worth engaging in the battle:

“It is learning how to stand alone, unpopular and sometimes reviled, and how to make common cause with those others identified as outside the structures in order to define and seek a world in which we can all flourish. It is learning how to take our differences and make them strengths.” (from the essay The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House)

Fat Time and Other Stories, Jeffery Renard Allen

Fat Time and Other Stories, Jeffery Renard Allen, 2023.

This is an impressive short story collection with far ranging settings and narrative styles. I didn’t sense that there was a universal theme between stories other than the exploration of Black lives, and this worked really well. Many stories were written in a style that I have seen called fictionalized history, speculative history, and alternative history where Allen reimagines the lives of well-known figures, such as Mile Davis and Muhammed Ali. I read in an Allen interview his suggestion that he sees this as riffs on small incidents in these peoples life’s and I found them quite pleasurable. Stories take place in Tangier, during an albino revolt, in Australia and in more local settings such as a high school.

If there is commonality between the stories I see it as the exploration of time. For example, in several stories there is the suggestion of Fat Time, or what I took to mean the moment that past, present, and future occur at the same time. For example in the story Circle we learn of a young woman caring for her dying mother but we also learn that she is also dying in the same manner. It’s more subtle than that in most stories, more like the feel of the narrative style where you float between past, present, and future. It is a fun, circular story telling method but not without worthy reading challenges.

The most straight forward story as far as narrative style and setting, and also one of my favorites in the collection, is Big Ugly Baby. The story deals with friendship, bullying, masculinity, and developing sexuality. It is beautifully written and expertly deals with coming of age in a time when norms are so aggressively militant.

I will definitely search out and read more Jeffery Renard Allen. He has an older story collection as well as a couple of novels available. Based on how much I enjoyed Fat Time I think it would be time well spent reading him further.

The Nocilla Trilogy, Augustín Fernández Mallo

The Nocilla Trilogy: Dream, 2006, translated 2015; Experience, 2008, translated 2016; Lab, 2009, translated 2018; all translated by Thomas Bunstead.

I read these three experimental novels from Spain in 2019: I enjoyed them so much I knew I would return to them. I recently read them as part of my research for my novel in progress. I was using a writing style much like the one in the trilogy so I gave them a second read. Like the first time, I was blown away. Incredible writing and wonderful ideas and general explorations throughout. There are many reviews available online, some as pleasurable to read as the novels themselves, so I will just share a few thoughts here.

The first two novels follow the same style: brief narratives and quotes which tell disjointed stories but which hold together quite well. Dream is centered around a tree with hundreds of shoes hanging from it in the middle of the Nevada desert. Each vignette somehow streams out from there. Experience leaves the desert and casts a wider worldwide net. Both represent a complex differentiated world but focus on the relations between people and objects: they rarely meet but the connections are suggested by such things as the shoe tree, a lone shoe in the middle of a highway, and a suitcase of photographs.

The final novel, Lab, has a more traditional narrative but still has flavors of the avant-garde. It opens with a 63 page sentence relating the story of a man and woman working on a major project alongside their decaying relationship. The story concludes in a former prison turned lodge and explores identity and its dissolution. The concept of repetition, present throughout the first two volumes, takes center stage in the final volume.

Clearly the collection will not be to everyone’s liking, especially for those looking for traditional narrative, character development, and plot advancement. I, however, found the trilogy to be well worth the effort to decipher the meanings and ideas within, challenging yet rewarding, and quite simply a great deal of fun to read.

When Boys Become Boys: Development, Relationships, and Masculinity, Judy Y. Chu

When Boys Become Boys: Development, Relationships, and Masculinity, Judy Y. Chu, 2014.

This nonfiction book is the result of Chu’s two-year study of boys moving through kindergarten through first grade and it is a fascinating read. Her focus is on the gender socialization that takes place at this age level, in particular ‘how boys negotiate their self-image, behaviors, and styles of relating to others in light of cultural constructions of masculinity.’ It was a bit eerie at times reading this because it continually reminded me of my teaching days and made me reflect on how I handled classroom situations: with hindsight spurred by this reading I see how I could have handled situations a bit more delicately with attention to the developmental processes occurring and awareness of the social pressure my students were dealing with.

In addition, I distinctly remember my gender socialization at this age level and through adolescents (though obviously I did not label it as such at the time). Especially resonant was Chu’s discussion of boys who struggle with rejecting stereotypical masculine pressure and the price they may pay for doing so. I, like a couple of the boys in the study, experienced solitude, loneliness and peer aggression by rejecting the norm and forging a more sensitive path. Likewise, it was heartbreaking to observe the boys who did accept societal norms at the cost of their relational abilities.

One interesting aspect of the book was Chu’s relating of the meetings she held with the fathers and mothers of the children in the study. She relates how they interpreted the changes in their children as they navigated gender norms in the classroom and in the home. Not surprisingly, they spoke of the regret they had that their boys were losing their ‘sensitive side’ or what Chu has labeled their relational presence. Parents also could easily relate to their children’s difficulties as they remembered their own childhoods and the sacrifices they made in their personalities in order to fit in to gender expectations.

How When Boys Become Boys informs my writing.

I learned of this book while reading Carol Gilligan’s book In A Human Voice (Gilligan was one of Chu’s teachers and advisors in her studies), and as expected it turned out to fit into my gender and gentleness studies rather well. There is so much information in this book that I can use to model characters and situations in my novel-in-progress. Especially informative is the aspect of the pressure on young boys to adapt to a clearly maladaptive expectation and the trajectory of their further behavior based on the decisions they make at this early age.

My story Idle Hill fits perfectly into this dialogue. In the story an adolescent male struggles with generational male aggressiveness and insensitivity and the resultant pain and grief caused to himself and others by the solutions he finds. It is available to read in my collection Not So You’d Notice at Amazon.

The Birth of Emma K., Zsolt Láng

The Birth of Emma K. and Other Stories, Zsolt Láng, 2023, translated from the Hungarian by Owen Good & Ottilie Mulzet, 2023.

Often, while reading these stories, I was lost as to what was going on. It turns out, though, this uncertainty is partly what makes these stories so beautiful. Strange characters in strange settings and situations feed the uncertainty and kept my interest high as each story unfolded. The first story in the collection begins with ‘Our Lord’ sitting on a hill in Budapest contemplating who gave him the power to create the world. While this never gets resolved, we see him wrestle with his problem throughout the narrative, which seemingly has nothing to do with him. Lang describes this approach in the later story Chestnut where the narrator states, ‘We could go on in this banal but well-oiled style, because the external events aren’t important, rather it’s the invisible line of force of the internal happenings that guides the thread, woven from these sentences into a new pattern.’

Another invisible aspect of each story is an observer, sometimes seen but often not. He or she may be observing from a window or while sitting at a bus stop. We never learn if the observer is the narrator or simply a bystander but it is a powerful tool within the narrative, like the reader is sharing the observation, living alongside the characters and their ruminations. The story Loneliness takes place entirely at rubbish bin with the protagonist, Ildiko, standing by the bin while being observed by a stranger several floors above her. The narrative involves her observations, thoughts, and memories while taking out the trash but we know there is someone watching her and this ads a bit of menace and again, uncertainty to the story.

How The Birth of Emma K. informs my writing.

I found this collection intriguing and incredibly enjoyable. Not sure how I could pull off Lang’s style as I do not completely understand his accomplishment. However, I have experimented with the style in my stories such as Tiny Points of Contact and The Remove, both included in my collection Not So You’d Notice which is available at Amazon. In the former, the plot basically involves a kayak outing to observe manatees but there is a lot more going on in the protagonist’s head. And in the latter, the protagonist begins a car collection but it is what he is struggling with internally that holds greater importance.

Lang’s collection is worthy of a second read: for pure enjoyment but also to investigate his artistry, his building of a philosophical view of the world, and the comfort of dwelling in uncertainty.