Fred Sasaki

There is something embarrassing about carrying around this collection, like toting a cartoon lunchbox, but it's just irresistible. With a flash the book announces the latest editorial travail of Michael Chabon billed as an "Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories," no less. The truth is, as it always seems to be, that it's a good read, if only for the sheer thrill of a twist from a realm beyond the sardonic plot lines of ordinary lit mags. Beneath the impeccably cool design and self-deprecating humor fueling the McSweeney's ethos is a belief in fiction so exuberant that it could only be expressed with such playful and inventive page space (this time with illustrations from "Hellboy" creator, Mike Mignola). While the editors always perform with a safety net of famous writers, the show is a continual contender for the greatest on earth. Chabon, this book's star ringleader, spotlights tricks from heavy hitters like Stephen King, Margaret Atwood, and Joyce Carol Oates--and all three contribute strong stories. There are a few lulls throughout the book, but any unevenness is redeemed when shocking surprises unfold in a phantasmagoric story from Roddy Doyle or a tale worthy of reference to Poe from the winner of the first August Van Zorn Prize for the Weird Short Story, Jason Roberts. Roberts' "7C," a simple experiment with time and apocalypse, is nearly worth the price of admission alone. Genre fiction, especially sci-fi, is constantly stepped on as kitsch and philistinism, if not fetishism. The Powers that be deem that literary imagination be constrained to the ostensible universe. Any writer genuinely embedded outside realism is stamped as queer; even Marquez must bear the burden of being "mystical." While this chamber may not contain "serious" literature, it is a reprieve from the languid "tell it like it is" diction found so often in the modern short story. Who cares that the McSweeney's universe is a comic invention, especially when it makes such a colorful lunch-break companion?

"McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories"

Edited by Michael Chabon

Vintage Books, 328 Pages, $13.95

(2005-01-04)

Also by Fred Sasaki

Nonfiction Review
This book makes a good stocking stuffer so long as the sock is filled with a nice vintage wine, cigarettes and sordid party favors
(2004-12-14)

Okay life
Something like self-help for the semi-fortunate, all of the shorts in Erin McGraw's "The Good Life" could have been born from episodes of Oprah
(2004-07-20)

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