Bayard Godsave | Lesser Apocalypses
This collection of five stories—and a prophetic sixth narrative woven between them—avoids all the clichés of apocalyptic storytelling. There are no government scientists or sadistic warlords to be found here. But these apocalypses are only “lesser” in the sense that Godsave is interested in how people incorporate their understanding of the end into their daily lives. The stories span time and place, but they’re linked by a pervasive anxiety about the meaning of calamity—both general and individual. A boy’s fascination with a gas mask is transmitted to his mother. A pregnant teenager in a post-nuclear Paris sees pictures of a bright, thriving city and is repulsed. And in the collection’s first story, “Predictable Trajectories,” a soldier in a missile silo follows an order to launch and only later discovers the whole thing was a drill. Fifteen years and one divorce later, his girlfriend tries to understand what the experience did to him: “I began to think of Barrett, and the day he returned to his wife and children, after turning his key, after all he must have seen in his head. And I could see them just then through his eyes: lifeless, limpid, unmoving as he opens the door." —Brian Gebhart
Monkeybicycle 9
The latest issue of Monkeybicycle is a doozy. You like space shuttles? They've got one. Poems about supermarkets and napping? Done. Or what about this lovely bit from J.P. Dancing Bear: "you pull a lever / and hold on: as it bounces and pogos: you’ve fallen in love with / the shadow of your creation: just like so many other creators: / you lovingly: dutifully adjust the footing:"? In their own words, "Our latest issue is filled with stories and poems from 29 of the most amazing authors we’ve had the pleasure to publish." We agree. —Jeff Simpson
