Short story collections are the poorer cousins of novels in the fiction world. Publishers are very leery of them unless the author has already somehow proven himself as a saleable commodity, preferrably with a successful novel. And I must admit that I don't read many short stories myself. I heard of SEPARATE KINGDOMS from a writer friend, Don Lystra, who authored a much acclaimed first novel, SEASON OF WATER AND ICE. Now Don is looking for a publisher for (you guessed it) a group of short stories. I hope he finds one, because I'm eagerly looking forward to reading more of his fiction in whatever form.
I am extremely impressed with Laken's collection. Because she is obviously a writer who knows what she's about, and writes about what she knows. The thing that sets this book apart from other story collections is its use of alternate settings. Three of the eight stories here are set in the former USSR, in Moscow and its outlying suburbs and villages. Laken lived in the area back in the early 90s and has apparently made subsequent visits since then. Hence the title of the collection perhaps - the US and the USSR as 'separate kingdoms.'
But there are other possibilities too, and they are easy to find in each of the stories. The first one, for example, "Before Long," contrasts the world of the sighted with the blind, represented by Anton, a Russian boy who is nearing puberty, with all its normal awkwardness emphasized even more by his handicap. Childhood, adolescence and the adult world are all separate kingdoms too, of course - layers of interpretations here, I suppose, if you wanna do that kinda thing. Me, I was mostly caught up in the stories and their characters. They're all that good - and real - with dead-on perfect and believable dialogue, with occasional Russian words and expressions thrown in to add a little authenticity.
"Spectators" is one of the US stories, set in Illinois, about the often unexplored world of amputees, another 'kingdom' often ignored by 'normal' people. And
Another story, "Scavengers," looks at the odd dilemma posed by the collapse of the banking and financial community recently, which poignantly juxtaposes the plight of the homeless with whole neighborhoods of empty foreclosed houses - the haves and the have-nots, with the emphasis on the latter.
"The God of Fire" looks at the familial chasm (a ruptured relationship) between an adult daughter and her distant, difficult father, who is clinging to life in a hospital ICU, having suffered a ruptured aortic aneurism.
And in the title story, which might have been subtitled, "Look, Ma - No Thumbs," Laken subtly examines the perhaps not so significant distinction between man and the animal kingdom. This story is presented in a unique columnar format with two sides of the same story (a father and son) being told side-by-side, which presents the reader with the choice of either reading the stories piecemeal, the way one might concurrently read a couple of different news articles on the same page, or simply read one column all the way through and then go back and read the second one. In any case, it works whichever way you choose. And as a dog lover, I was especially pleased with Laken's descriptions of the two family dogs - small stuff, I know, but representative of the kind of detail that makes these stories come alive.
For me, however, the showcase piece of this stellar collection is "Map of the City," which is, I suspect, largely autobiographical. The unnamed narrator (at least I don't think she is ever named), an exchange student from a US state college who is caught up in the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, is utterly believable in her uncertainties and doubts, and particularly in her daily struggles with the intricacies of the Russian tongue and the difficulties and loneliness this dilemma brings with it. The dialogue in this particular story is understandably spare and minimal, reflecting the language barrier and the tortured syntax that often results. The American student and her Russian friends are perfect representatives of the 'separate kingdoms' of the book's title. As someone who worked with and studied the Russian language for over twenty-five years, I can attest to its difficulties. Fluency in such a language is hard-won, if indeed it is ever achieved.
Perhaps this is why I like these stories so much. Because Laken dared to write of a foreign, alien culture - the former USSR as a 'separate kingdom.' And yet she does it in the humblest most honest terms, acknowledging how little she really knows - indeed how little any of us can know - about the realities of life in a suddenly broken country. There are only intimations here of how quickly the Soviet union fractured and how old ethnic rivalries and hatreds of all the now separate republics suddenly flared again into wars and uprisings, separate kingdoms forming and reforming.
But every one of these eight stories, in both settings, is carefully crafted and faultlessly executed. Perhaps there is yet hope for the survival of the art of the short story. This is a fascinating and simply terrific book. My, how I ramble on. Good stuff, Ms. Laken. Enough said. - Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir BOOKLOVER
