Monday, August 20, 2012

Zoetrope: All-Story Vol 16 No 2


This issue of Zoetrope was another good issue. As part of their normal format there are new stories and the last story is a classic one that has been turned into a movie.

Hallelujah, Family! by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya
This story is about multi generations of dysfunctional family told in short bullet points. It was kind of hard to follow at first but when I straightened out who was who really liked it.


Extinct Anatomies by Daniel Alarcon
Loved this short story about a man who while overseas, got dental work done by his cousin. In order to distract himself from the pain he had vivid sexual fantasies with the dental assistant.


Short Life Of Trouble by Sam Shepard
Fantastic little play between 2 long time musician friends one of them interviewing who I assume to be the more popular musician. Great dialog and read really well.


The Plum Tree And The Hammock by Janet Frame
This story is about 2 family neighbors and a plum tree with the roots on one side and the best fruit leaning over the fence into the neighbors property told from the point of view of one of the young daughters. It brings up a good point, who owns a tree with roots on one side of a property line and the majority of the branches on the other?


We Can Remember It For You Wholesale by Philip K. Dick
This classic was the inspiration for Total Recall and was amazing. The twist at the end was so good and I never saw it coming although in hindsight I probably should have. It's the second Philip K. Dick I've read in Zoetrope and it's convinced me I need to buy a book of his collected short stories. His imagination and storytelling skills are crazy good.


Art by Sfaustina
I'm not sure what I think about the art, here a couple good examples from the magazine


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