With All Aboard , acclaimed fiction writer Joe Ashby Porter ventures into new, sometimes unprecedented territory, from the luxe restraint of “Merrymount,” through the stops-out eroticism of “Pending,” to the distilled heebie-jeebies of “Dream On.” Here, reading, travel, and sexual orientation (and disorientation) loom larger than before in Porter, and the dialogue gives new play for what Harry Mathews has called Porter’s “golden ear.” The whole collection unfolds as does each component, laying track just ahead of the speeding train of thought. Joe Ashby Porter lives in Durham, North Carolina. As alter ego Shakespearean Joseph A Porter, he teaches at Duke University.
Porter should stick to short fiction. This book returns to the interesting style he used in Touch Wood. Strange stories written in an unusual word-mongering style. If you read it, read it carefully. Not for the casual.