Review
"Something to crow about; it is terrific collection of fictions." -- American Book Review
"These stories are amusing, deeply moving and generous offerings from a major talent." -- Choice
Beasts calls to mind the allegorical poems called bestlaries, especially popular during the Middle Ages, in which tales of actual and mythical animals serve to satirize human folly and to illustrate moral lessons. Each of the fictions in Jaffe's book has a title with an animal's name "Brother Wolfe," "Monkey," and "Giraffe," for example. Each title, moreover, contains an allegorical suggestion that helps unlock the significance of its story, though the significance of these works is never simple or straightforward. In fact, these technically innovative pieces yield up a "meaning" or "message" sometimes long after we have read and pondered over what happens to the dispossessed, the alienated, and victimized characters who are Jaffe's typical if not exclusive preoccupations. In "Giraffe," for instance, a disoriented young white man has his hair cut by a mysterious black barber and reads an equally mysterious book he has found dealing with the senseless slaughter of giraffes. In time we realize that the violence suffered by the giraffes has its counterpart in the human realm of black-white relationships. Jaffe is unusual in using technically daring stories to express his profound engagement with social issues (race relations, drug addiction, changing sexual mores). But he is unusually rewarding too: his highly crafted, verbally dazzling fiction, though not for the general reader, will appeal to college students and teachers with an interest in what is called "postmodern" writing. -- From Independent Publisher --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
"These stories are amusing, deeply moving and generous offerings from a major talent." -- Choice
Beasts calls to mind the allegorical poems called bestlaries, especially popular during the Middle Ages, in which tales of actual and mythical animals serve to satirize human folly and to illustrate moral lessons. Each of the fictions in Jaffe's book has a title with an animal's name "Brother Wolfe," "Monkey," and "Giraffe," for example. Each title, moreover, contains an allegorical suggestion that helps unlock the significance of its story, though the significance of these works is never simple or straightforward. In fact, these technically innovative pieces yield up a "meaning" or "message" sometimes long after we have read and pondered over what happens to the dispossessed, the alienated, and victimized characters who are Jaffe's typical if not exclusive preoccupations. In "Giraffe," for instance, a disoriented young white man has his hair cut by a mysterious black barber and reads an equally mysterious book he has found dealing with the senseless slaughter of giraffes. In time we realize that the violence suffered by the giraffes has its counterpart in the human realm of black-white relationships. Jaffe is unusual in using technically daring stories to express his profound engagement with social issues (race relations, drug addiction, changing sexual mores). But he is unusually rewarding too: his highly crafted, verbally dazzling fiction, though not for the general reader, will appeal to college students and teachers with an interest in what is called "postmodern" writing. -- From Independent Publisher --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
