Xander Fuller’s Reviews > Collected Stories > Status Update

Finished 'The Journey of a Lifetime', a pleasantly dark little tale about a man's love for trains and journeying on them. Definitely a good one.

Finished 'A Schoolboy Prank'. Another really good one. It seems the latter half of the collection is where the real meat of the content is. A very grim and mournful tale of homosexuality repressed within a teacher and the students he taught, charged with all the inappropriateness of its leanings.

Finished 'Exotic Pleasures', which is very Twilight Zone-esque with its fantasy/sci-fi elements paired with real-world human problems, this one concerning intimacy and pleasure. Liked it a lot.

Finished 'The Fat Man in History', a sort of brutal look into a communist world where fat people are considered less than human for being 'counterrevolutionary'. Pretty gnarly stuff.

Finished 'Joe', 'The Puzzling Nature of Blue', 'Conversation with Unicorns', and 'American Dreams'. The first was shockingly provocative, the second both entertaining and frustrating, the third short and sweet(but not sweet like happy), and the last is probably my favorite so far. Very curious concept but wow it's memorable.

Finished 'Report on the Shadow Industry', a very short story about boxes of shadows that people spend a lot of money on and are fascinated by. Makes me think of blah blah technology bad blah but it could be just a short little idea on actual government and manufacturing deadly things.

Finished 'Withdrawal', a macabre look into a furniture/art dealer who has a clientele of disturbed individuals who buy macabre things from him. Sort of a grittier Weekend at Bernie's.

Finished 'Concerning the Greek Tyrant', a meta-story of the Odyssey featuring Homer predicting what happens to his characters, who can also interact with him. Not too bad.

Finished 'Peeling', a very surreal little story that can be considered a horror story of sorts. What's real and what's not is the crux of it. Also finished 'The Windmill in the West', which is probably my favorite so far. Very disorienting of a soldier alone guarding a division between the 'east' and the 'west', supposedly America and Australlia, but gets confused as to which is which.

Finished 'Crabs', 'Life and Death in the South Side Pavilion', 'Room No. 5(Escribo)', 'Happy Story', and 'A Million Dollars' Worth of Amphetamines'. The first was interesting, felt like a critique on White Australia feeling lost, the second was odd, the third was interesting but felt sorta directionless, the fourth was meh, and the fifth was interesting too, sort of a reversal of fortune scenario.