Revelation Countdown by Cris Mazza

by Cris Mazza

While in many ways reaffirming the mythic dimension of being on the road already romanticized in American pop and folk culture, "Revelation Countdown" also subtly undermines that view. These stories project onto the open road not the nirvana of personal freedom but rather a type of freedom more closely resembling loss of control. Being in constant motion and passing through new environments destabilizes life, casts it out of phase, heightens perception, skews reactions. Every little problem is magnified to overwhelming dimensions; events segue from slow motion to fast forward; background noises intrude, causing perpetual weehour insomnia. Imagination flourishes, often as an people suddenly discover that they never really understood their travelling companions. The formerly stable line of their lives veers off course. In such an atmosphere, the title "Revelation Countdown", borrowed from a roadside sign in Tennessee, proves It may not arrive at 7:30, but revelation will inevitably find the traveller.

Genres: Fiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Cris Mazza is the author of a dozen books of fiction, mostly recently Waterbaby (Soft Skull Press 2007). Her other titles include the critically acclaimed Is It Sexual Harassment Yet?, and the PEN Nelson Algren Award winning How to Leave a Country. She also has a collection of personal essays, Indigenous: Growing Up Californian. Mazza has been the recipient of an NEA Fellowship and three Illinois Arts Council literary awards. A native of Southern California, Mazza grew up in San Diego County. Currently she lives 50 miles west of Chicago. She is a professor in the Program for Writers at the University of Illinois at Chicago "

Reviews

[Nate D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Along the highways and back roads of nowhere America, out west or south or somewhere in the vast middle zones, a series of relationships malinger: unwanted, ill-fated, falling apart, never begun. A lot of these stories involve infidelity. These are not relationships stably grounded in a home, they belong instead to the liminality of travel, often a suspended state of never-arrival, without clear destination. Along the way road signs and pylons of decrepit tourist traps beam out inscrutable messages as if from lost civilizations. It's all a lost civilization; these are the lost avatars of bereft Post-Americana. The road story is also quick to pick up: travel on endless highways has neither beginning nor end, you're always in the middle of it. So there's no set up, no rising action needed, the sensation of speed and motion is instantaneous. For this reason, and thanks to the unusually strong thematic cohesion, this is the rare story collection that feels like one necessary set, and can be read all in one go without typical short-narrative fatigue. For this reason, there's no one essential story, but an altogether essential whole, from opening abduction to the sign-semaphore-punctuated roaderotica of the closer. Mazza's How to Leave a Country left me unmoved despite unique structuring, but this pure movement and fascination, travel writing for the lost, broken love stories for the abandoned, roadways caught between the promise of freedom and the inescapability of oneself.

Watch out for the BLACK ICE! This was another from FC2's avant-pop imprint, the first title of which I read, Bayard Johnson's Damned Right, was also a memorable take on driving. I need to track down more of these.

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this straight through in one sitting. Then went back and read several of the stories again. Fantastic collection of road stories where everything is coming undone. The language is dense, particular, and passionately detailed. The maximalist approach bears comparison to Lee K. Abbott and maybe the early work of Debra Monroe. The only piece I didn’t really enjoy was the two-column all dialog “BMW Conversation,” although it is an interesting experiment.