A sometimes-inaccessible collection; the metaphysical tales shine when they stick to allegory.
Rahal offers a collection of short stories and spiritual contemplations addressing God, creation, and the day-to-day distractions that distance people from these ideas.
In another galaxy, the company U-Dream Inc., develops photon-based computers—mind-reading machines that blur the lines between games and dreams and make any fantasy seem real. But NIAM, the artificial intelligence that U-Dream employs, has been infected with a virus that snares its users in a nightmarish world while stealing their memories. The only hope is the company’s specially trained group of operatives, who seek to reveal the falsehoods of NIAM’s parasitic fantasies and awaken those trapped. The collection’s eponymous story is accompanied by others depicting those who fail to challenge perceived truths, including “A Pit Stop,” which features a lone seeker trapped in a hellish, absurdist pit reminiscent of The Divine Comedy(“As you reflected on your situation, your ears picked up the reverberations of wailing howls and piercing shrieks. These seemed to come from the far depths of the tenebrous cavities of the pit”). The fantastical explorations of the concepts of God, creation, fear, and self-control focus on the importance of questioning those in power who maintain illusory systems around themselves and others. Along with these original stories are retellings of parables about figures both real and fictional, including Bar Daysan and Baba Yaga, as well as essays, letters, and a hymn. Rahal uses simple stories with straightforward morals, often set in timeless places, and the characters and settings are mostly archetypal, presented in an ethereal manner. The result is a collection of stories structured like basic, effective fables, which remains true even when the pieces follow SF plotting tropes (imagine Philip K. Dick as part of the oral tradition). In comparison, the sermon-like essays are at times overwhelming with the sheer number of ideas they introduce, although they still fit well in the collection by virtue of their shared themes.
A sometimes-inaccessible collection; the metaphysical tales shine when they stick to allegory.Pub Date: Jan. 4, 2023
ISBN: 9798765237205
Page Count: 174
Publisher: Balboa Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The range and virtuosity of these stories make this Mosley’s most adventurous and, maybe, best book.
A grandmaster of the hard-boiled crime genre shifts gears to spin bittersweet and, at times, bizarre tales about bruised, sensitive souls in love and trouble.
In one of the 17 stories that make up this collection, a supporting character says: “People are so afraid of dying that they don’t even live the little bit of life they have.” She casually drops this gnomic observation as a way of breaking down a lead character’s resistance to smoking a cigarette. But her aphorism could apply to almost all the eponymous awkward Black men examined with dry wit and deep empathy by the versatile and prolific Mosley, who takes one of his occasional departures from detective fiction to illuminate the many ways Black men confound society’s expectations and even perplex themselves. There is, for instance, Rufus Coombs, the mailroom messenger in “Pet Fly,” who connects more easily with household pests than he does with the women who work in his building. Or Albert Roundhouse, of “Almost Alyce,” who loses the love of his life and falls into a welter of alcohol, vagrancy, and, ultimately, enlightenment. Perhaps most alienated of all is Michael Trey in “Between Storms,” who locks himself in his New York City apartment after being traumatized by a major storm and finds himself taken by the outside world as a prophet—not of doom, but, maybe, peace? Not all these awkward types are hapless or benign: The short, shy surgeon in “Cut, Cut, Cut” turns out to be something like a mad scientist out of H.G. Wells while “Showdown on the Hudson” is a saga about an authentic Black cowboy from Texas who’s not exactly a perfect fit for New York City but is soon compelled to do the right thing, Western-style. The tough-minded and tenderly observant Mosley style remains constant throughout these stories even as they display varied approaches from the gothic to the surreal.
The range and virtuosity of these stories make this Mosley’s most adventurous and, maybe, best book.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-8021-4956-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Grove
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
These letters from some important executive Down Below, to one of the junior devils here on earth, whose job is to corrupt mortals, are witty and written in a breezy style seldom found in religious literature. The author quotes Luther, who said: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." This the author does most successfully, for by presenting some of our modern and not-so-modern beliefs as emanating from the devil's headquarters, he succeeds in making his reader feel like an ass for ever having believed in such ideas. This kind of presentation gives the author a tremendous advantage over the reader, however, for the more timid reader may feel a sense of guilt after putting down this book. It is a clever book, and for the clever reader, rather than the too-earnest soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1942
ISBN: 0060652934
Page Count: 53
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1943
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