#657 Feral- Julia Elliott

#657 Feral- Julia Elliott

This is a wildly original story. The world is in an extreme downturn and the excesses of society are starting to turn to our downfall. With cities in ruins and the overall health of the human race in question, dogs have become more wild and taken to their more natural, wild instincts. 

“The American pet craze had led to an epidemic of abandoned dogs. A rash of dog-fighting rings had flared in rural ghettos. And the repressed wolfish instincts of domestic dogs had been coaxed out, had transmogrified into weird new breeds.”

Everyone is in alert and in the local school, the children are obsessed with the dogs—except the religious ones who consider the phenomenon akin to a  biblical plague. The teacher of the school has an odd connection to the packs of dogs. Her heightened olfactory perceptions she believes are strangely tuned to the dogs, and she can sense when they are coming. She claims that woman may have a more advanced vomeronasal organ that can utilize these senses better.

This was a fun one to read, imaginative and a bit exciting. In a pop-culture world where there are whole genres focused on post-apocalyptic zombie attacks, it would seem obvious in a case of societal breakdown, packs of wild dogs would be likely.

Notable Passage: “The world is a tempestuous tangle of significant odors…and humans are blunt-nosed fools.” 

Rating: 8-9-9-7 Total= 33

#125 Weekend- Amy Hempel

#125 Weekend- Amy Hempel

I was going to skip over some of the really short pieces in these collections, but I decided not to. It’s important to see the whole short fiction genre in its entirety. A 70-page stream of consciousness ramble from David Foster Wallace next to a 3-page evening newspaper vignette from O. Henry is a tough comparison, but why do they have to be compared. I can enjoy them both.

Thus I give you Weekend by Amy Hempel. A short stage-setting piece that begins her collection, Tumble Home. It’s just a glimpse of a lazy summer outing. A softball game with no score and gin drinks splashing while running to first. “The game was called on account of dogs.”

“The Hunter retrieved a foul ball and carried it off in the direction of the river. The other dogs followed—barking, mutinous.”

This is such a delicate style of writing, you want to slow down, and savor it like the last sip of lemonade while the sun goes down.

Rating: 9-6-7-8 Total= 30

#60 Mixed Breeding- Nicola Barker

#60 Mixed Breeding- Nicola Barker

This one’s a bit out there. Lenny’s new rebound girlfriend seems to have a sexual canine fetish:

“Had Lenny realized that Cassandra’s interest in him was based principally upon a sexual fascination with Pike, his German Shepherd/Labrador cross, he would definitely have reconsidered his good opinion of her.”

Her sexual preclusions with dogs remain unspoken but her liberal feelings towards sexual pleasure as a whole are wide open for discussion.  Doll, Lenny’s mother, doesn’t like Cass at all and the tension between them is the whole story.  Oedipal feelings abound but not in the way one my think.

These topics are spoken of in a matter-of-fact style and not as perversions, which make the story read normal, until the final envelope is pushed at the end. Barker has the reputation for the occasional “shock topic.” This probably falls in that category. Overall, It’s an ok story, worthy of a read, but not one good enough to warrant its inclusion in a collections subtitled: "100 of the finest short stories ever written."

Rating : 7-6-5-5 Total= 23