Eternity and Other Stories, by Lucius Shepard ***5/8

7 stories, all ranging from very good to excellent. This is the perfect Shepard book, in that it's almost all novellas; the first story is just over 30 pages, the next almost 50, and they just keep getting longer, the last story reaching to 90 pages. In order:

Only Partly Here deals with Ground Zero, as in the World Trade Center bombing, in a completely effective way. I've tried to avoid pretty much all media having to do with that event, and I know most portrayals of it won't deal with it in a manner that I'll find worthy. I'm conflicted about the whole thing - not that people shouldn't be moved or that it wasn't a horrific event or anything like that, but that we should as a nation somehow unite in our mourning. Moreover, I've not been behind much of the US response to the attack, and I don't like anything that deals with the event as a rallying cry or call to action, at least not as we've acted. Shepard avoids all of that stuff, simply showing one person's unique experience in an extremely subtle but effective manner. I didn't really see it coming, and then all of a sudden I was extremely sad. Somehow, this story brought the human side of this event to me beautifully, and helped me deal with it five years later in a way I wasn't able to before. A masterpiece. Opens with:
"There are legends in the pit. Phantoms and apparitions. The men who work at Ground Zero joke about them, but their laughter is nervous and wired. Bobby doesn't believe the stories, yet he's prepared to believe something weird might happen. The place feels so empty. Like even the ghosts are gone."

A Walk in the Garden is a very good story. I had no idea where it was going, and then it became some sort of metaphor for universal understanding among cultures. But Shepard does such a good job of threading this through a story, with rounded characters and fascinating experiences. In many ways, this story is a return for Shepard to the Army world of R&R and Life During Wartime, with some of the same character types. If there's a complaint with this one, it's that I've read some of Shepard's soldiers before. Opens with:
"Thursday, 1435 hours"
"Paradise awaits."
"It begins at the foot of a mountain, a slice of which has been carved away by bombardment to expose a field of yellow flowers beneath - it looks as if the entire base is hollow, an immense cave utilized for this pretty purpose. Unreal. Like a puddle of yellow blood spilled from the side of a wounded rock, spread out over a patch of dead ground."

Crocodile Rock is a magical tale, literally, with the protagonist searching for answers about crocodiles and mystery in a small African town. The lead character is kind of a pathetic man, but a smart and interesting one at the same time. There are several awe-inspiring scenes, and the story is well-paced overall. Opens with:
"You must not think of me as a reliable witness, as someone immune to bias and distortion. Every story, of course, should by rights be introduced by such a disclaimer, for we are none of us capable of a wholly disinterested clarity; though it is my intention to relate the truth, I am persuaded by the tumult of my recent past to consider myself a less reliable witness than most."

Hands up! Who wants to die? is the kind of story that I wouldn't expect to like, but Shepard has a gift for creating these messed-up characters who warrant my attention and sympathy. They're just real people. This story can't really be explained, though the title does provide some insight as to the things that the characters that populate this tale are likely to say. Opens with:
"Shit happens, like they say. You know how it goes. The cops are looking at you for every nickel-and-dime robbery they can't solve, and the landlady hates your guts for no reason except she's a good Christian hater, and everything in the world is part of a clock you got to punch or else you'll be docked or fined or sentenced to listen to some ex-doper who thinks he has attained self-mastery explain your behavior as if the reasons you're a loser are a mystery that requires illumination."

The Drive-in Puerto Rico contains a few more excellent Shepard characters, this time based in a palpable Latin America that Shepard excels at creating. In Shepard's central and south American tales I can feel the heat, taste the food, and somehow smell the air even though I've never been there. Opens with:
"Things went well for Colonel Galpa after the war. Indeed they went so well that wherever he traveled he became the object of a celebration."

Jailwise is probably my second favorite story in this collection after Partly Wise, though in a lot of ways this is a stronger tale. Partly Wise is a fantastic tale, certainly, but part of its impact for me comes from the fact that it is the only artistic 9/11 reference that has had any impact on my life. Jailwise is pure speculative fiction at its best, proof that Shepard not only creates amazing characters, writes great prose, and shapes moving tales, but he also brings an astonishing imagination in the way he bends reality to his will. Something extra-real happens in Jailwise, and the result is a magical exploration of human suffering and the meaning of incarceration. It makes sense to me that Shepard subsequently wrote a novel that explores prison life more thoroughly (A Handbook of American Prayer); this is fertile ground for a writer with his talents and tendencies. Opens with:
"During my adolescence, despite being exposed to television documentaries depicting men wearing ponytails and wife-beater undershirts, their weightlifter chests and arms spangled with homemade tattoos, any mention of prison always brought to my mind a less vainglorious type of criminal, an image derived, I believe from characters in the old black-and-white movies that prior to the advent of the infomercial tended to dominate television's early morning hours: smallish, gray-looking men in work shirts and loose-fitting trousers, miscreants who - although oppressed by screws and wardens, victimized by their fellows - managed to express, however inarticulately, a novel endurance, a working-class vitality and poetry of soul."

Eternity and Afterward takes place in a visceral, gangster-rich Russia, and again Shepard showcases his evocative ability to plant the reader firmly in a distant, exotic location. In this case, the reader follows the goings-on in a Russian nightclub called "Eternity", focusing on the life of a low-level gangster who dreams of another life. It's a simple enough concept, but Shepard's take on these kinds of things is always far from ordinary. "Eternity" is something of a magical nightclub, and Shepard deftly mixes a sense of awe with the genuine rawness of life-and-death. The longest tale in the book at nearly 90 pages, Eternity and Afterward provides a fitting close to a consistently excellent collection of unique stories with memorable characters. Opens with:
"Punctuality had come to be something of a curse for Viktor Chemayev."

Shepard grabs his readers from the outset of each story, as proven by the openings I've included with this review. I'm reminded of something I learned in my creative writing class in high school, about how writers should grab the reader form the very first sentence. I've not read anyone better at this than Shepard.
(Winter 2007)

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