Chris Adrian is one of
America’s most unique literary talents, and his short story collection, A
Better Angler, is by fat his best book. While I say unique, I don’t always mean
good. His novels, Gob’s Grief, The Children’s Hospital, and The Great Night can
be a bit too idiosyncratic at times, but when he is on the ball, he offers
emotional resonance better than any other author I can think of. It is almost frustrating
because I want to like them. And while that problem is present in this
collection of short stories, it is much less so than his longer novels. The ideas
he is playing with are more contained and reduced for their obvious short shelf
life. While some stories do fall flat, as is bound to happen in most, if not
all short story collection, Adrian is down right brilliant when he succeeds. Most
of the stories in this collection farm similar territory that you would find in
any of his novels: real life emotions like grief and loss collide with the
world of the supernatural, with angels and demons playing key roles in the
outcome of many of these stories. Some gems I would like to point out are “The
Sum of Our Parts”, where a female suicide victim floats out of her comatose body
to experience the many lives of the staff at the hospital her body is at, with
both sad and aberrant results. Another story I liked was “The Changeling”,
where a small boy drifts in and out of what may or may not be a demon
possession, much to the exhaustion of his two caretakers. But the best story of
the collection is easily “Stab” where a boy whose twin brother (who happened to
be his Siamese twin before a surgery) dies, falls in with a burgeoning female
psychopath to find his body. The imagery, the darkness and the light all make
for one of the best short stories I have read in a while and is totally worth
seeking out on its own. Not a perfect collection, but proof that Chris Adrian
deserves your attention.
Rating: 4/5
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