Sunday, October 14, 2007

Week Forty One, Book Fifty Four

The Singing Fish
by Peter Markus
Review:
Peter Markus is the author of three books of short-fiction, Good, Brother; The Moon is a Lighthouse; and The Singing Fish. A novel, Bob, or Man on Boat, is forthcoming from DZANC Books.

What can I say about Mr. Markus that hasn't been said thus far? This is not just a collection of short stories/prose poems, so I would like to think of this piece as a novella. Anyone who reads a few of these stories will notice the obsessive use of certain words. One could never look at the words- brother, river, fish, and, especially, mud in the same way again. There is a lyricism that changes the meaning of these words as you are hypnotized by their juxtaposition on the page. At first, I wanted this to be a collection of short stories, but found myself forcing it to be a love story based on humanity. Peter Markus has introduced us to two brothers, the way Vonnegut wrote of his longtime alter ego Kilgore Trout and Philip Roth takes us on adventures with Nathan Zuckerman. I look forward to more walks with the brothers and now consider Peter Markus one of my favorite writers to come out of Calamari Press.

sites to check out:
The Singing Fish by Peter Markus
Books by Peter Markus
An Interview with Peter Markus
We Eat Mud by Peter Markus