The Era of Not Quite (American Readers Series)
“He was an artist, after all, and what an artist did was strive, in the most tedious and repetitive way, to break through into new territory.” In this instance, Watson’s protagonist is a composer, but these words are meant as a motto for the arts in general and this book in particular. Watson’s promising first book contains 23 pieces—really, 22 and a jokey “Special Advertising Section” halfway through—and the shortest resemble maxims. Watson jettisons as many fictional conventions as he can. Written in a plain style and using the flexible logic and tropes of fables, these tales wink at the reader in a sly, postmodern way, saying, in effect, “This is the not the world, it is fiction, but how worldlike fiction is, and how worldly readers feel feeling real feelings about fictional worlds.” And Watson’s world is like a Möbius strip made of flypaper. Modest in their ambitions and narrow in scope, these tales, in which, for example, a dragon bites off his own foot for having “wronged beauty,” will stick with you. --Michael Autrey