The Invulnerable Ovoid Aura and Other Stories

Matt Hartman is a freelance editor and cataloguer, running Hartman Cataloguing, Editing and Indexing Services.

While some of these stories (including the title piece) have appeared in
the Canadian Fiction Magazine and other journals, their publication in
book form is felicitous for at least two reasons. First, they provide a
fine sampling of Bullock’s more extended prose: “Ovoid,” “The
Forest Pool,” and “The Boy and the Canal” are all more than a
dozen pages. The length allows the author both to develop his images
more completely than in his prose poems, and to employ humor and satire
to a greater extent. Second, Randolph Cranstone, the protagonist in four
of Bullock’s earlier fictions, makes a reappearance here in the story
“Randolph Cranstone in the Hands of Lilith.”

Cranstone is Bullock’s most completely realized character, torn
between the need to write and the urge to act. His estate contains
mysterious pools, vegetation, and rocks into which he is invariably
willingly (or unwillingly) thrust: “Cranstone placed his hands on its
surface and leaned lightly against it, the boulder opened up so
unexpectedly that Cranstone stumbled forward into the dark corridor
beyond. In the distance he saw a small white animal trotting along the
stony pathway. . . .”

Bullock’s work has been the subject of a recent critical edition by
Jack Stewart (The Incandescent Word: The Poetic Vision of Michael
Bullock), in which the author points out that Bullock’s surrealism is
accessible because of his precise and concrete use of language. Each
story in this collection proves Stewart’s point: regardless of how
fantastic or improbable the images and characters, the clarity of the
prose allows the reader to suspend disbelief. For readers unfamiliar
with Bullock’s work, this collection, with its direct plotlines and
stylistic virtuosity, makes a fine introduction. Recommended for
literature collections.