I loved Jennifer Haigh's introduction to this edition. She was editing the edition during the 2016 U.S. Presidential election and it clearly shows in the selection of stories and poems. J. Scott Farrin's, The Weeds, is the clearest example of this - showcasing a young man in a border town deal with dwindling employment prospects and urban decay. The young man's girlfriend, Tamara is also dealing with depression and Farrin's writing feels visceral. The struggles and fears of the lower and middle classes often discussed during the election are strikingly portrayed in this story.
Likewise, Kevin Fenton's Negative Space about an artist going through a bit of a breakdown who gets a temp job at a factory to try to clear his head. Not even the breakroom vending machine can cut through the ennui as the artist tries to convince himself his current life is temporary.
Joshua Ferris' Life in the Heart of the Dead takes a different tone, following a man on a work trip in Prague. The man doesn't care anything about the history of the place or the hows and whys of the country. He's in the fog of jet lag and unable to see the detail through the exhaustion.
Smith Henderson's Muscles tells a story of Trevor and his sister Lesley-Ann as they spend a weekend with their absentee father, their new stepmother, and their new step-siblings. Trevor has a young romance encounter with his stepsister, which leads to harsh criticism from his step-mother. You can sense that something is off with the family and Trevor seems unable to reconcile the harsh words of this woman and the behavior of her own children. Through very brief flash-forwards, we learn that the father, stepmother, and step-siblings go on to lead troubled lives.
The Taster by Kristen Iskandrian is about Gary, a CPA in Indiana who learns he has a special gift for tasting subtle flavors. He becomes a world-renowned food taster, but his personal life starts to fall apart as his career takes off. The tasting is the only thing going well in Gary's life, and he clings to it for all it's worth.
E.K. Ota's haunting story Silk and Dust about a man who tries to recreate his life with is dead wife through a look-a-like had the right notes of sad. An unattainable love developed by an inability to let go. The story is from the look-a-like's perspective. Through the role, she is exposed to a life she could never have on her own.
In Poetry, Geffrey Davis' Self-Portrait as a Dead Black Boy was heartbreaking for all the reasons you would expect. Poem with Warehouse FIre & Disaster Recovery Team by Erika Meitner was also well done. What kinds of things would be blown around and found if a storage warehouse was burnt to the ground? What kinds of things are stored that have little meaning when it turns out they are destroyed? I also enjoyed Rough AIr by Maggie Smith. "Motherhood never kept anyone safe, though it's no fault of mothers. There is no such thing as safety - only survival and the absence of survival." I think of this sometimes when I hit turbulence when flying. "I hope this work trip was worth creating two motherless children," I think. Lastly, Gary Whitehead's Wild Columbine asks the obvious question of when we will ever be able to separate that word from tragedy again.
4/5 Stars.
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