Robert Shapard: Bare Ana and Other Stories (Regal House Publishing)

The stories in Robert Shapard’s Bare Ana and Other Stories tap into love, loss, helplessness, and nostalgia. They conjure up a surreal atmosphere but with characters rooted in reality. Whether it’s the old lady from “Sundress,” who has immortality tucked safely away in her closet, or Sanders from “Skin,” able to discard his skin like a worn-out jumpsuit, the characters sway between the real and something beyond.

Surreal artists have often drawn inspiration from a quotation by Comte de Lautréamont: “As beautiful as the chance meeting on a dissecting table of a sewing machine and an umbrella.” The stories here voice this idea evocatively. “Delbert” is a prime example, as the reader, just like the protagonist, tries to make sense of the reality unfolding in a dream-like manner: “When I get up, I retch into the bathroom sink. There is a gap in my life. I think, is this Wednesday? But, it can’t be. Last night I was covering my buddy Jerry’s shift which was early Tuesday.” As the story concludes with Delbert (the painter) becoming an eerie presence in the house, the reader can’t help but wonder whether the protagonist is having a stress-induced dream about the job of getting the house painted, which corroborates the narrative, or whether the protagonist’s life has actually become as melancholic as it appears.

A collection like this experiments with the flash fiction genre, but what strikes the reader most is that every story recounts a suppressed longing. The woman protagonist of the “Deep Green Lake” becomes an extension of a desire begging to be fulfilled. Felicity from “Zika” represents the moment in every person’s life when they finally let go. A true slice-of-life assortment, the stories have endings left unsaid. Every story, as it nears its conclusion, asks the questions “What if the writer had continued? What if the writer had given the character one more page?” They involve the subtle emotions of a familiar ache vis-à-vis human life that stays with the reader long after one has finished the book.