The Typing Lady: And Other Fictions

The writer protagonists of these stimulating metafictional stories from Ozeki (A Tale for the Time Being) long for connection and creative fulfillment. The title entry, framed as an author’s note, concerns a short story called “The Typing Lady,” written by a woman who caught the attention of the narrator at a library. The protagonist of this story within the story, also a writer, collects old typewriters in a quest to reconnect with her late mother, a poet who clacked out her work on a Remington. “Ships in the Night” traces aspiring romance author Cayenne’s vagabond life with her teen daughter, Baby, and Cayenne’s benevolent drug-dealing boyfriend, Guy. Much of the story takes place in Vancouver, where Guy protects Baby from a predatory man, while Baby longs for stability. In the hilarious “Dead Beat Poet,” a young woman named Caitlin puts her dream of becoming a poet on the back burner while working as an editorial assistant at a publishing house. During an editorial meeting, Caitlin is suddenly possessed by the ghost of a poet who claims he was friends with Allen Ginsberg and tells her the publisher should focus on poetry, causing Caitlin to blurt out “more poems!” In Ozeki’s sure hands, the story channels the ghost’s dated braggadocio into a timely rant against corporate workplace woes, as when he calls Caitlin’s boss a “one-eyed shrew who does nothing but sit on her ass and snip the intellectual golden threads of the craftsman’s loom.” Ozeki’s atmospheric tales radiate with intelligence and wit. Agent: Molly Friedrich, Friedrich Agency. (June)