Highway B: Horrorfest

This surrealist and not entirely successful collection of micro-fiction from Martin (Pillage) offers 33 snapshots of alternate realities that coexist within a world known simply as B. “Veel” sees a “curse land off-course” due to a spelling error. In “Sex Party: Sketch Orgies” a society of erstwhile sexual libertines are forced into chastity by a new regime, allowing a profusion of sex-related art to flourish instead. “The Organmeister” describes a horrifying synthesis of body and musical instruments. In “Red Light District of Kladow,” sex club patrons are able to watch clones of themselves engaging in behaviors they themselves don’t dare. Martin gestures at both the fabulist tradition of Jorge Luis Borges and the absurdism of Douglas Adams’s late works, but though there are some effective passages that make good use of Martin’s off-kilter premise and narrative tricks, a lack of grounding elements and narrative cohesion largely leaves the collection’s charms as ephemeral as its premises. Nothing is allowed to stick on an emotional level, nor are any of the miniature stories given enough time to develop satisfying commentary on the subject matter they attempt to lampoon. Taken as a whole, this creates the impression of having been told one very long meandering joke without a punch line. (Jan.)