Review of 'Visit Me in California' by Cooley Windsor

Visit Me in California
by Cooley Windsor

TriQuarterly Books/Northwestern University Press
ISBN-13: 978-0-8101-2496-7
2008. 123pp. $16.95

Moses, Homer, Paris, Medusa, Perseus, and even Jesus make appearances in this slim volume of very short stories set in locations as diverse as the bottom of the Red Sea, a tavern in Ancient Greece, and the San Francisco Hilton. Although wildly different, what the stories seem to share is a sort of irreverent reverence.

In the collection’s opening story, “The Last Israelite in the Red Sea,” a youthful narrator, who enjoys pretending to be Moses, or a snake, or an angel, finds himself at the back of the line of Israelites trudging through the Red Sea “air ditch” Moses has created. When the boy tries to return a stranded octopus to the water, he gets sucked out of his shoes and into the sea. Although he manages to escape the water, he finds himself alone and in awe of the power of God who has caused such a miracle. Except that the Egyptians are fast approaching—so he has to hustle to the shore. “Omega Notebook,” last in a series of flash fictions that make a grouping called “The End of the World,” offers what appear to be stage directions for Judgment Day, opening with a variation of a verse from Corinthians: “The trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. That’s the cue. And remember to smile.” In the book’s final story, “The Hilton Epiphany,” Robert Castleberry (who also appears in an earlier piece, “Semele,” which incorporates Greek mythology) is in the midst of a career-killing disaster of a banquet for which he is responsible, when the ceiling vanishes, new Jerusalem descends toward the dinner guests, and Jesus enters the room.

Despite the numerous religious references, there doesn’t seem to be a single thematic linkage to the collection, unless it’s the fragility of life and the inevitability of death. In “The Fleshly School of Poetry,” a grouping of seven flash fictions all deal with life’s hard lessons. In one, a babysitter contemplates telling her charge about the death of her dog in order to teach her about reality, although the telling is harder than she imagines and she puts it off. In another, a man writes a prayer for the mother of a murder victim. And in another, a writing workshop participant contemplates death. In “The Art of War,” a grouping of five stories, we see Omar, a mourner, acknowledge that the people know what’s coming next—their death and the destruction of Troy—but are unable to alter their fate. Sova, a courtesan, discovers a mortally wounded Achilles, who reveals that his invulnerability was only . . . a myth. We are all mortal.

The collection, on the whole, is challenging and thought provoking, but also fun. Historical figures speak in modern idioms. As the Pharaoh’s army approaches, the Israelites say, “Oh no . . . We’re goners!” Homer recites his poetry in a tavern for drinks and favors. A carpenter who witnesses the Ascension starts a business selling bits of the True Cross . . . that he makes himself. (“It’s pretty True,” he says. “Made by someone who was there.”) Even the dark matter comes with a black-humor twist, as in “An Earthquake Pedagogy,” in which preparedness involves being ready to cope with far more than the absence of electricity and clean water.

Windsor has created a world in which bad stuff happens. And the only way to cope is with good humor, and faith. It's a sparkling debut.