cover image TOUCH WOOD

TOUCH WOOD

Joe Ashby Porter, Joseph Ashby Porter, . . Turtle Point, $15.95 (192pp) ISBN 978-1-885586-64-3

Porter (Eelgrass; Resident Aliens) brings his distinctive style to a variety of odd situations in these 10 stories, which often end up in literary destinations far from their point of origin. The collection begins amusingly with "A Man Wanted to Buy a Cat," which features a man so smitten with a milliner's cat that he contemplates kidnapping it, even though his spouse is extremely allergic to the species. "Schrekx and Son" is a sort of sexual rite of passage, as a Parisian father passes on some rather disquieting information about marriage and dating to his son, who, at 31, is just beginning to dip his toes into the mating pool. "A Pear-Shaped Woman and a Fuddy Duddy" is a delightfully weird exercise in which protagonists Lucille and Elmer descend upon Biloxi for a "character festival" and begin arcane interrogations of the locals, until the focus shifts to an in-depth discussion of smells with other festivalgoers. In "Scrupulous Amédée," the author effectively narrates the mysterious romances and illnesses of a French lighthouse keeper, although the extended format comes close to stretching his prose tricks to the limit. Porter's tendency to deliver elliptical, down-to-earth renderings of his character's inner lives may be an acquired taste, but his agile mind and unusual take on even the most mundane elements of people's daily routines make this a challenging but constantly entertaining read. As Porter puts it in the title story: "Deep perplexity gathers to a wave. Good comes of it." (Sept.)