Metamorphosis Blues,
the latest collection of short fiction from Bruce Taylor, has all the familiar
elements fans expect: the meticulously constructed, rhythmic—indeed, almost
musical—prose; dreamscapes where t-shirts can talk and the “raw stuff of space”
is embodied in a man’s featureless face; arachnophilia (or phobia?). The
familiar themes are here, too: the importance of childhood friendships; the ever-present
threat of the past; the fine line between good and evil, where parents turn too
easily into abusers and Santa is an anagram of Satan; and, most importantly,
the overriding sense that the world, though sometimes dreadful, is full of
wonder and magic. My favorites include “Movies,” the tale of a family theater
trip that descends into surreal, comic violence; “The Ear of Ozone,” a ludicrously
overblown pastiche of bad sci-fi writing which stars a malodorous alien, a
semi-clad girl, and a cowboy with a one-word vocabulary; “You Can Hardly Wait,”
the story of a nursing home resident, Bruce, who eagerly anticipates the apocalypse.
This book makes me want to buy a telescope and watch the night sky for
radioactive meteorites and cosmic death spiders. The end is nigh, and isn’t it
comforting to know?
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