Absolute Fiction by Willard James Rusch

The stories in this collection, three nominated for the Pushcart Prize for short fiction published in small literary magazines, vary widely in length, genre, and subject. Two stories are short-shorts and three are novellas, with the others of conventional short story length. In these frames of different sizes, characters contend with realistic, surrealistic, and fantastic hazards of contemporary life. In the farcical “Della’s Motivation,” a junior executive discovers sinister paranormal secrets while trying to advance her career by participating in dangerous physical challenges at a behavioral motivation facility in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. In “A Spike in the Head,” a young reporter visiting her grandmother inadvertently discovers a family secret involving abortion, murder, and surprising acts of compassion. “An Octopus Vase,” “Only All the Dead,” and two other stories portray crises in religious faith, particularly Roman Catholicism. Raucous, irreverent humor prevails in “And Marion Never Looked Lovelier,” in which a centenarian trillionaire produces a bizarre silent film starring long-dead actors. Beyond subject, theme, and genre, Absolute Fiction presents stories rich in the local colors of upstate New York, northern New England, Nova Scotia, and Ireland, including narratives featuring endurance running and bicycling. With ten stories published here for the first time, the collection’s two introductory pieces present perspectives on the contemporary literary and genre scenes and on the pragmatics and tribulations of submitting fiction that struggling writers especially will find interesting and practical.