IF ALL ELSE FALLS. . .

by Craig Strete ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 17, 1980

Strete may well be, as advertised here, ""the only American Indian writing science fiction."" But only a few of these 17 stories are really sf, and they are the weakest material in this debut collection: tame, allegorical tales--about an Indian named Joe who lives in some future laboratory where he bleeds by the pintful from a gaping chest wound he was born with; or about a frontiersman on another planet who suffers the shame of ostracism on account of his half-breed (half-species really) family. When Strete drops the polite, rigid conventions of sf, however, he's a more fetching (if undisciplined) writer. Sentimental surrealism abounds, but in a dialect-story such as ""Ten Times Your Fingers and Double Your Toes"" he is able to oppose old-wisdom traditions with jazzy image-making (""He ease off gracefully like senility in shock absorbers"") and come up with a piquant hybrid. And a savaging of movie clichÉs--""Who Was the First Oscar to Win a Negro""--has sour wit, as do some of the better epigraphs strewn throughout other pieces: ""Sex is a properly organized two-car funeral""; ""With God you expect more and always get too much."" The overall impression here, then, is one of calibrated satire in too much of a hurry; but with pruning Strete looks likely to become a very interesting voice. And it would be a pity if the publisher's misguided ""science fiction"" label deprived this promising writer of the attention he deserves.

Pub Date: Oct. 17, 1980

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1980

Categories: FICTION