Ploughshares Solos Omnibus Volue 5

This will likely be the last book I finish for 2017 and it's a fitting end to this weird tumultuous year. Nine stories that take you so completely out of your element and make things seem upside down but normal at the same time. Solos Omnibus #5 was a really great way to experience multiple places and time in one short volume.

Face the Music by Michael Lowenthal - This excellent story of a jazz music student learning under the visiting professor tutelage of Sun Ra was sort of a musical coming of age story. Wherein the student realizes that all the notes he'll ever learn of jazz won't make a difference when it comes to actually playing jazz. Sun Ra forces the students to look at music, not academically, but intrinsically. In the end, the student recognizes his own limitations, and therefore, Sun Ra's genius. 

Koppargruva by Hugh Coyle - Before Nobel was the name of a prize given out in Sweden, it was the name of a man, an inventor, whose work in dynamite and nitroglycerin helped revolutionize the mining industry. This short selection of a book in progress (which I am looking forward to purchasing and devouring upon release), tells the story of Nobel's travels to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and his attempts to sell his products and his innocence in the death of his brother and several other miners in Sweden. 

Footing Slow: A Walk with Keats by Eli Payne Mandel - Keats was an English poet who was underappreciated while he lived, died young, and then became an integral part of the English literary fabric. In this story, Mandel attempts to recreate the walk across England and Scotland attempted by Keats towards the end of the 19th Century. Ultimately neither Mandel or Keats could complete their planned trips and while their experiences varied widely, the telling of the attempt was very satisfying.

A History of China by Carolyn Ferrell - A young woman tells the story of her German mother and GI father who tried, and failed to make their love work under the cruel light of a pre-civil rights movement America and the other inherent challenges that come when your vision of something does not match the reality and your shame in failing to make the vision happens manifests itself in many ways. For the young narrator, her large family and all of their complicated relationships with her father bleed out into her own actions. 

The Girl Who Lied by Uche Okonkwo - A tale of young girls at a private boarding school. The wealthy, interesting Kemi tries everything to get back home and to be shown love and concern by her absentee parents. Meanwhile the narrator feels shame at her own family's humble means. A real grass is greener scenario with a little bit of self awareness to make the tale satisfying. 

Bones by Lisa Horiuchi - A retired white collar worker decides his life needs more excitement and so he travels to Belize to try to find the bones of "the missing link" in evolution. He's stymied by a language barrier, government uprisings, and porous national borders. He's not even sure why he's interested in the bones in the first place except that he wants to see them. 

The Critic by Timothy Parrish - This story felt just a little bit too long for me, but was a very interesting tale of a critic obsessed with Bob Dylan who he refers to as "the Twerp." The critic and the musician circle around each other for years as the 60s come and go and the critic feels like the best good times have passed. He's probably right, the music of the 60s is iconic and informs most of what we hear today. But would we feel that way if a critic hadn't been there to point it out? 

Girl of Few Seasons by Rachel Kondo - This sad tale of a poor Maui family centers on a brother and sister, Ebo and Momo, who raise pigeons together until Momo is injured and has to be moved to Honolulu for care at a state run facility. Her brother, desperate to see her after nine years apart, enlists in the US Army in order to have one visit with her. It's a take on island life I've thought little about and made me realize I know embarrassingly little of the demographics on the Hawaiian islands. 

and Finally Kaat by Edward Hamlin - A Flemish woman and her American lover live in Paris. The women are forging ahead in their relationship until a motorcycle accident calls into question the commitment of the American. Nothing is certain and decisions are made on conjecture. It's a bit melancholy actually. 

The entire set of stories were well written and interesting. I liked being transported for a time out of our current news cycles and into these mini-worlds filled with people still going about their experiences with eyes wide open.

4/5 Stars.