If You [ ]: Fabula, Fantasy, F**kery, Hope

by Colin Fleming

Overview

A relationship ends in the space between [ ]. Abe Lincoln and Edgar Allan Poe Two stroll the river in the afterlife, debating a second death. Two boys navigate jazz, baseball, and growing up in the second between the pitch and the swing. And a man from Living Dangerously sets off across the ocean on a pile of lobster traps, seeking the truth of the smoke on the wind.

With If You [ ], author Colin Fleming breaks the unwritten rule of the short story collection. In over thirty different styles, Fleming delivers a punk rock triple album in book form—compositions that display a dizzying range of fearless artistry, from horror to hyper-experimental to a story disguised as a grocery list. Together, these pieces resonate with unexpected chords, exploring the breadth of human experience and affirming that that narrative is everywhere, if we are able and willing to see it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781950539215
Publisher:	Dzanc Books
Publication date:	01/25/2022
Pages:	200
Sales rank:	1,146,619
Product dimensions:	4.70(w) x 6.90(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Colin Fleming is the author of The Anglerfish Comedy Troupe: Stories From the Abyss. Widely published in myriad media, he writes nonfiction for theWall Street Journal, American Interest, USA Today, LA Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Slate, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Salon, the New York Times, the Washington Post, JazzTimes, The New Yorker, The Guardian, and more. His fiction has appeared in Boulevard, Post Road, VQR, Commentary, London Magazine, Conjunctions, F(r)iction, JazzTimes, AGNI, and Harper's. He is a regular guest on NPR's Weekend Edition and Downtown with Rich Kimball.

Table of Contents

Brackets 3

Blinkered 7

Yellow Hammers 13

My Death Tie 29

EAP and Abe 35

Analogues 43

Sequentials 47

An Incident in Cathedral Romance 53

A Deuce Cross 59

Red Sweatpants 81

The Effect of Gravity Upon the Tub 91

Junction Regale 105

One-Way Zebra 115

Jawbones 129

The Ghosts of the Alley, the Ghosts on the Wall 139

Rimer's Boots 145

Laying Sheets 167

The Taste of Smoke 173

Editorial Reviews

10/04/2021

Fleming’s fresh new collection (after Meatheads Say the Realest Things) comprises various voices with an overarching erudition, making the whole of the 18 stories greater than the sum of its parts. A relaxed, meandering bro persona is the most prominent. “A Deuce Cross” makes for a surprisingly tender coming-of-age story about brotherly love and a passion for the Beatles. In “Rimers Boots,” the protagonist works a gritty summer job that pushes him toward an artist’s life. “The Effect of Gravity upon the Tub” offers a change of pace, with a courtly, Victorian flavor and a juicily macabre plot. Several of the shorter pieces start with a clever conceit and end abruptly, feeling like palate cleansers between the longer, shaggier works. “My Death Tie” captures a funereal feeling with short, punchy sentences. “Brackets” flirts with free verse in its playful word placement and typography. “The Ghosts in the Alley, the Ghosts in the Wall” seems particularly apt for the Covid-19 era, with its isolated protagonist haunted by carnal fears that become more elaborate as he dwells on them. Throughout, Fleming maintains a mischievous sense of self-deprecation and perspective, and zeroes in on pitch perfect words (in “Brackets,” vermin are described as “rapscallions... entering in droves”). Not everything is fully realized, but it’s always smart and worth sinking into. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Colin Fleming

“Colin Fleming’s stories exhibit many of the qualities that have distinguished his criticism: namely, a fierce but disciplined intelligence, a singular view of society—and, sometimes, those who live in isolation from mainstream society—and a well-earned and convincing compassion. All of this, in a debut collection of stories written in eloquent prose, at once vivid, hypnotically precise, and always bursting with energy.”
—Richard Burgin, Boulevard, and five-time Pushcart winner

“Colin Fleming is a thoughtful and provocative maker of stories. Singular, he refuses to assimilate to any of the easy available trends. He can break into any life and find surprises—sudden moral convulsions, paradoxical resolutions. The characters have broad expressive range, and when they interact anything can—and does—happen. Fleming is a writer to stake out and shadow—to see where he goes, who he meets, where he gets his news.”
—Sven Birkerts , editor of Agni

From the Publisher