Delight in the Surprises: A Literary Magazine for Mainstream and Experimental Writing
One thing I liked about A Public Space was that it’s the type of magazine that gives a hint about what is inside. On the back cover it lists artists included in the volume, but also a quote from one of the last stories, the quote that caught my attention and convinced me to buy it when I was in the bookstore. Also, the table of contents offers slices of the pieces that are longer—usually just a sentence or two, but usually encapsulating the feel of the piece.
Writing in both Danish and Slovenian is translated in this volume. The creators of the magazine also have an initiative to translate Japanese magazine Monkey Business annually, and twenty-five percent of all Monkey Business sales will go toward the Nippon Foundation/CANPAN Northeastern Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund. The translation will debut at the end of April.
The volume starts off with a section called, “If You See Something, Say Something,” which includes an experimental piece by Tom Drury. “Overheard,” is the conversation of two teachers talking in a high school lounge and centers on the inappropriate, and “the comfort of disapproval.” There is a lot here for such a small section, and it is funny and real and sad.
Drury’s other piece in the journal, “Joan Comes Home,” is about a mother who left her family and is now coming home, to take her son back to California with her. One of the most powerful sections of the story is the scene between father and son leading up to Joan’s arrival, where Tiny Darling, the father, is trying to prepare his son for the real world. Tiny is such a wonderful, vulnerable character, and looks up from his post-it of real-world things to instill in his son to say, “’Do you still want to go? Because you can call it off any time.’”
Micah, his son, responds saying, “’I’ve never been in an airplane. I feel like the timing is good.’
‘We could get you up in a crop duster if that’s the issue.’
‘It’s not.’
‘I know,’ said Tiny. ‘I just said that to be saying something.’”
Kiki Delancey’s story is next in the volume, called, “A Good Six-Two,” which is about her nameless protagonist who is in his sixties and is, “big, but fragile.” It is an excellent story centering on his loneliness and his repression of desire. A lot of the story is spent in his mind where he fantasizes, analyzes situations heavily, and avoids a new woman who has come into his life, magnifying what many self- conscious and shy people feel when meeting others: “He didn’t know how to communicate these things. It would be very important to convey just the idea that these savings and amounts meant nothing other than shared security, shared comfort, not a bribe or purchase price but a gift of companionability or of friendship. That was crucial. How could you know when the words you used meant the same to this other person that they meant to you?”
Another piece centering on “not letting on to oneself,” was “The Persistence of Muybridge,” by John Haskell. It is an experimental essay where Haskell details his struggle in trying to write about Eadweard Muybridge, an English photographer. It centers on Muybridge’s life and the author’s attempts to force desire and happiness into his seemingly non-passionate existence. While I really did enjoy this piece, the ending felt to be just that: forced. (Haskell switched to first person and assumed the voice of Muybridge, but only briefly, leaving the end a little choppy.)
