Reviews

A June Night in the Late Cenozoic

Stephen Osborne

Robert Allen's new book of stories, A June Night in the Late Cenozoic (Oolichan) is full of near-worlds with dimensions that intersect the three (or is it four) that we navigate by in this world. A man wakes up to find the Gaza Strip being relocated in his back yard; Bluto ponders the significance of his life with Popeye and Olive Oyl; a young man rebuilds butterflies on the kitchen table. These stories are constructed like prisms: they bend the light. Allen writes in the near-tradition of the 17th century metaphysicals by way of Jorge Luis Borges and Donald Barthelme. Great titles too, like "Retsina on Venus"; "The Indigo Hotel"; "Thoume Kene Kimte Cacounche."

Tags
No items found.

Stephen Osborne

Stephen Osborne is a co-founder and contributing publisher of Geist. He is the award-winning writer of Ice & Fire: Dispatches from the New World and dozens of shorter works, many of which can be read at geist.com.


SUGGESTIONS FOR YOU

Reviews
Patty Osborne

Crossing Borders

Review of "Solito: A Memoir" by Javier Zamora

Reviews
KELSEA O'CONNOR

Haunted House guest

Review of "A Guest in the House" by Emily Carroll.

Reviews
Helen Godolphin

ON Piracy (And petrified oranges)

Review of "Our Flag Means Death" created by David Jenkins on HBO Max.