Customer Reviews

Interfictions 2: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing

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When you see a book and don't understand what the title means, it is often a signal that the book won't be very enjoyable. That's not the case here (at least for this reader). "Interstitial Writing" is a relatively new category -- or at least a new categorization -- of fiction. It's not exactly plain old science fiction, not fantasy, not horror, not...well...not easy to categorize. All these genres, and others, mixed together with "mainstream" fictional writing are the tools used by this group of authors. The meaning of the word "interstitial" itself (basically, referring to the gap between other things that are close together) hints at the "not-this-and-not-quite-that" nature of these stories. Text on the book's back cover say that it's all about "working between, across, at, and through the edges and borders of literary genres".

The book goes to great lengths to attempt to explain itself and its contents. The book itself is a product of the "Interstitial Arts Foundation", so one gathers that there is some self-explaining required. There is an introduction which includes, as one of its main premises, that "the contributors do not belong in this book". One lengthy quote in the intro consists of someone defining the field as "prickly, tricky, ornery...It should defy expectations, work against them...".

Each story is accompanied by a short afterword from each author, who was asked to describe (roughly speaking) how the story came about, and how it "fits" in this non-category category. It is telling that the authors themselves have sometimes wildly divergent views of this quasi-genre. There is also a lengthy interview of the anthology's editors at the end of the book, wherein they continue to come to try to come grips with the "not-this-and-not-quite-that" nature of the stories.

It is not surprising, then, that probably more so than most anthologies, this collection is rather uneven. Some of the stories are real gems, striking in their originality, but not so "out there" as to be completely incomprehensible. The ones that worked the best for me included "Afterbirth" (about the birth of twin boys, from the mother's perspective), which includes a pair of metaphoric dragons in the birthing room. At least, some of the time they're metaphoric; some of the time they seem very real indeed. "Valentines" is a marvelous miniature having to do with the author's possible confusion of three waiters with the same name...or maybe they are different versions of the same waiter. The author mentions in her afterword that she is an epileptic, and that the story is something of a description of how life happens to her. She says she herself "became interstitial" with the onset of her illness, so the story has an added bite of realism amid the confusion.

Others which I thoroughly enjoyed included the following: "The Score", told in a multitude of voices, something like reading a series of semi-related blog posts; "Interviews After the Revolution", also told in a multitude of voices, but this time as a series of interviews which gradually spin out the tale of an intriguingly-devised scam that got out of hand; and "Morton Goes to the Hospital", wherein an uncertain number of ghosts/spirits function as characters in an otherwise almost-straightforward sci-fi/fantasy kind of story. The number of ghost characters is uncertain because it gradually dawns on the reader that the author's voice is that of a ghost, and perhaps also the *reader* is one of the ghosts in the story. (Full disclosure: yes, "Morton..." was written by my daughter...I like her writing...so sue me... :)

There are some other stories which don't work as well (again, for this reader). I still don't really understand what "Shoes" is about, or what the author was trying to accomplish. The author of the opening story, "The War Between Heaven and Hell Wallpaper" declares in his afterword that it is a completely true story. But the "truth" is made of that wispy, transient stuff that are our thoughts in that time right before we drift off to sleep. In "The Two of Me", the author tells of the "birth" his sister, who gradually (over a period of years) grows out of his shoulder.

Like this quasi-genre itself, it is difficult for this reviewer to explain why I liked some of the stories and not others. Perhaps it's what about each that made it memorable (or not). The intent of the book is to throw the reader off balance. Sometimes falling over is fun (like into a snowbank), but losing your balance also can be quite disconcerting. To the extent that each author succeeds with the literary equivalent of something like a judo move inside a magic trick, the result is at least refreshing.

Slipstream fiction is a curious beast.

On one hand, it provides a place for stories that might not be either mainstream fiction or speculative fiction to live. Then again, it also provides a category for writers who are attracted to speculative fiction but are afraid that if they dive into it they might be tarred with the brush of genre, and it'll never quite come off.

I can't decide quite which way I feel about Interfictions 2. I am definitely a speculative fiction reader, and so a lot of the stories leave me unsatisfied. The best stories in this collection are the ones that spill right over into genre: "Remembrance Is Something Like a House", "Black Dog: A Biography", "After Verona", and "L'elle Close" (which is a delightful deconstruction of Arthurian myth) being the real standouts for me. Other stories don't quite satisfy, such as "The Two of Me". While the story has an interesting premise (a boy has his sister growing out of his shoulder), the story reads like a setup for something longer, and stops just short of what I would consider the meat of the story--how these two cope once they're separated.

I have to put in here special kudos to "Valentines", by Shira Lipkin, as my favorite story in the collection. This is what I would consider slipstream at its best. It has so many interpretations that it could be read as either speculative fiction or literary fiction, and it's a lovely accomplishment.
I could not shake the feeling, though, that much of the collection consisted of writers playing in the shallow end of speculative fiction, unwilling to commit all the way. As a lit-fic reader, I might really enjoy this collection. As a spec-fic reader, it left me a little cold.

Overall, though, I enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone who likes work that sits uneasily on the borderlines between categories.