MYSTERIES OF BOWIE AND OTHER ODDITIES

George Orwell and David Bowie are recurring figures in fiction and nonfiction pieces that examine passion, truth, politics, and authoritarianism in Raffetto’s collection.

“Inside Orwell”is a fictional recounting of George Orwell’s life and his transformative experiences in the Spanish Civil War. (“He, like no other author, was undeceived by the period’s politics, wars, current events, and the struggles of the workers and the powerless.”) “Bowie and the Berlin Wall” is an extensively footnoted essay analyzing David Bowie’s connection to Berlin. Raffetto draws parallels between Bowie and Orwell, who both used pseudonyms, “creating alter egos who became groundbreaking artists and cultural icons.” “Venice to Venice” is a story about an FBI agent named Brian who served as an intelligence officer in Iraq in 2006. In 2017, he is working for the FBI in Venice, California, trying to repair his relationship with his 19-year-old daughter Emily. Brian reflects on the 1987 Bowie concert that he attended at the Berlin Wall: “Thinking of those days, when he was a junior analyst at the agency, made him nostalgic. He had been so optimistic then, so different from the dark pessimism he felt now.” “The Mysteries of Game Theory” takes place in a future Los Angeles where James, a former Facebook data scientist, emerges from two years underground after a pandemic to search for his sister, Cleo. James becomes involved in the fight against the authoritarian government. “The Georges” explores a white man’s rage over the hypocritical coverage of the murder of Trayvon Martin and the acquittal of George Zimmerman, his killer (“This type of Orwellian logic has become a cancer on our society”). Raffetto writes deftly in both fiction and nonfiction modes. Incorporating many facts of Orwell’s life and his involvement in the Spanish Civil War with fictional re-creations of those experiences adds to the realism of “Inside Orwell.” The extended length of the stories, with their recurring themes of authoritarianism and political division, allows the main characters to develop realistic family and romantic connections. Ultimately, the threads of Orwell and Bowie woven throughout prove fascinating.

A thought-provoking collection of fiction and nonfiction.