Today I Am A
Book
xTx. Civil
Coping Mechanisms, $13.95 paperback (120p) ISBN: 978-1-937865-37-5
I am an avid reader of xTx's work and have been for
a handful of years, since around the time her book Normally Special was published. If there is one thing I can say
about xTx as a writer, it is that she does not flinch, not ever. Given her
typical range of subject matter, it's not an easy feat, and it's the tight but
complete vision of her stories that gives them their power. In Today I Am A Book, a collection built
around a single phrase, the stories sometimes feel like blows raining down,
relentless, strong, and vivid. They are arresting, and then captivating. The
narrators of these stories do not need to shout. You will lean in to catch
every word.
The book's great strength lies in its cohesion. If
it were merely a batch of stories strung together by the opening line,
"Today I am a..." it could read like a bad workshop exercise.
Instead, it feels like the characters are all calling out from the same
cavernous place. Their stories are a whirl of desire, violation, denial,
desperation, stubborn hope, deprivation, and futility. xTx has taken more than
thirty stories, all only a few pages long, and made them feel like one. The
title is appropriate.
From one of the standout stories, "Today I Am A
Genie," comes a passage that communicates the conflicting, tortured nature
of so many of the characters:
"I am a maker of
miracles. I am so very coveted. I am fulfiller of dreams. I am that of dreams. I am also the
opposite. I am so very lonely. I am despair-choked inside a well of fetid
darkness. I cannot pray enough for my undoing."
And in "Today I Am A Farmer":
"When I see the
stalks are right, I pull them. Each time thinking, this time will be different."
All of the characters are somewhere in this process,
pulling up stalks, when each time before they have yielded nothing. They are
pulling stalks, or they are already resigned to let them rot in the earth. They
are from all different circumstances, facing different insurmountable difficulties,
but they are all either approaching or have stepped over that line of
surrender. As a reader, it is a scary but emotionally resonant place to inhabit
with them.
With Today I
Am A Book, xTx's work is greater in scope than it has ever been, while
retaining her signature sharp, visceral focus. This book should not be missed.
(March 2015)
Purchase Today
I Am A Book HERE.
Reviewer bio: Taylor Breslin graduated from the
University of Pittsburgh in 2012. She lives in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. She is
on Twitter: @taylorbreslin
