The Wall of America

If you like Phillip K. Dick, you'll love Thomas Disch. The ideas are just as weird, but the prose is more coherent. And funny! But also sad. It's all a rich tapestry.

To give you an idea of his range, I will just mention that Disch wrote both a book called 'The Genocides' as well as one called 'The Brave Little Toaster' (yes, Disney made a movie version you ;ay vaguely remember). In between there was some (good) poetry and award winning literary criticism. Maybe even an opera--it's hard to keep track of everything, really.

This particular book is a posthumous collection of his late-in-life short stories. Titles include:
-'The White Man' (about vampires)
-'In Praise of Older Women' (depicting a conversation between Oedipus and show more Jocasta)
-'Painting Egglants' (which is not a metaphor or allegory. It is *literally* a compelling story about a man who paints paintings of eggplants. 'How is this possible?')
-The Man Who Read a Book (!)
-The First Annual Performance Art Festival at the Slaughter Rock Battlefield (I desperately want to talk about this one, but mentioning any details would give too much away.)

I would write more about Disch, but as usual when finishing a book, I've stayed up past my bedtime. show less

I really wanted to like this posthumous collection of short stories, because all of the wonderful blurbs told me I should. The Washington Post Book World calls Disch “One of the most remarkably talented writers around.” Newsweek calls him “… a unique talent.” Others gush about how wonderful his final novel is. I thought, “Wow, I’ve stumbled on a great writer I didn’t know about. I’ll have to catch up on his books.” I just couldn’t justify the praise with these stories.

Each story seems based around a gimmicky idea, but the idea is never fully realized with actual characters the readers can see as real human beings. I understand that many of these stories are science fiction and fantasy, which are usually all about show more the idea and not the characters, but I never felt like he did his own ideas justice. For example, in the title story, the Department of Homeland Security has built a wall between Canada and the U.S. People can sign up for space on this wall and display whatever they want. The story is about a man who displays his artwork on a isolated section of the wall. He meets a younger man and then disappears. The idea of the wall being used to display art is great, but I got to the end of the story and thought “so what?” He satirizes corporate sponsorship of heaven, our insatiable need to be entertained and stimulated, and violence in sports. Oh yeah, he doesn’t like religion very much either. But he never fully captures these ideas in great stories. He just kind of throws them out there.

Two stories I did enjoy in the collection were “The Owl and the Pussycat” and “Nights in the Gardens of the Kerhonkson Prison for the Aged and Infirm.” Ironically, these two stories are not science fiction or fantasy driven. “The Owl and the Pussycat” tells the story of an autistic boy through the eyes and voices of his stuffed animals. “Nights…” tells the the story of an incarcerated elderly serial killer who a pro-capital punishment group is using to knock off other criminals in the prison. It saves taxes.

I love Vonnegut and Phillip K. Dick, so I’m not sure that I’m prejudiced towards sci-fi. I just wasn’t impressed with Disch. Although, the critics tell me I just don’t understand him. show less

"The collection truly captures his range as a writer. The lovely, strange satire "The Man Who Read a Book" is a trip every book-lover should enjoy, set in a parallel world where reading books can actually become a paying job. "A Family of the Post-Apocalypse" follows the daily travails of people left behind after the rapture. The finest work, "The Owl and the Pussycat" begins as a sweet ode to stuffed animals, and becomes a devastatingly insightful look at family abuse."

Read the full review here.

Short stories, mostly new wave speculative fiction, but a few more post-modern mainstream fiction. Most of them were wickedly funny satires of the arts in the United States. I enjoyed them all, even the post-modern mainstream ones, which aren't generally my type of story. I've review many of the stories individually.

Interesting collection. Disch had range, and while not all of these work for me, they might for you.