The Inanimate World

Britta Santowski is a freelance writer in Victoria.

Strandquist’s collection consists of nine short stories and one
five-part novella. The Inanimate World depicts a place whereupon a
reader is drawn to gaze, but is relieved not to be a participant. His
cast of characters live through tremendous bouts of agony, brought on
through illness, murder, alcoholism, or imprisonment.

In “Thrill Kill” we meet George the cabbie, who never listens to
his inner voice; Margaret the wife, who has yet to make a wise decision;
and Jack Merryweather the addictive dispatcher, who barely manages life.
War veteran Pete, in “Deeper Than the World,” while searching for
his son in the snow, recalls the war and killing German soldiers; his
wife, Shirley, mourns the fact that Pete survived the war. In
“Collecting Shadow,” the five-part novella, the reader acquires
intimate familiarity with Doug, a man with Parkinson’s disease who
sacrifices everything to become a writer. This is an insider’s account
of a brooding man’s life that dips into the recesses of his
experiences: cold and loveless, he courts both death and his inner
artist. Time collapses into itself, and the reader easily travels from
the present through history and back to the present with Doug. The
pieces that constitute Doug are slowly and meticulously assembled.

Strandquist provides the ultimate voyeuristic experience with these
fictions. When finished, sated with the inside perspective, we can then
depart, grateful that the experience isn’t ours. An intriguing place
to visit; a horrible place to live.