Anthology. 204 pgs. In Case of Emergency Press. August 2019. ISBN: 978-0-994352-57-6.
The newly-released One Surviving Story might prove to be a real aid for the survival of one’s state of mind for these days of quarantine and lockdown. Based on the editor’s “simple” question, “If you knew only one of you stories would survive you, which would you choose?,” Howard Firkin has selected twenty-eight stories that represent a cross-section of the world.
While many of its contributors reside “down under” in the vicinity of Australia, there are writers from Africa, Europe, and the states whose works are included in these pages with the pieces ranging from flash fiction to longer creative non-fiction works.
The collection even includes a slyly humorous piece from Sofia Chapman, who recalls “An Ex in the Provence” in a multi-genre piece that mixes prose, poetry, and play in her work.
Each story’s time element is varied as well. For example, it is pretty obvious that James Hannan’s “A Letter an E-mail” is contemporary while another form of correspondence takes place in “Liberty.” Ruairi Murphy’s main character of the same name writes to her sister concerning her life as a prostitute from Hobart Town in 1832, a village less than 30 years old at the time Liberty writes her letter from “this island at the bottom of the world.” Her business thriving, her only fear is of those well-heeled citizens who might “rescue me back to poverty.”
I suppose for full disclosure, I have to admit that I have a piece of my own in here, which initially made me quite grateful and proud—especially given that Firkin received over one-hundred-fifty submissions. After reading it, however, I feel like the guy who’s crashed an exclusive party and will soon be discovered and summarily booted out.
That’s how good the quality of the work contained in these pages proves to be.
The book opens with “Good People” by Tim Hawkins, a recollection of working in Alaska with a very mixed bag of personalities on a work site “with 22 hours of sunlight,” an environment that can fray most anyone’s nerves.
Readers also visit post-war Europe in “Dispatch Rider” as Peter Newell delivers a gut punch from the recently war-torn continent. His narrator walks along streets where “bright green spring grass had grown up where three months ago there had only been frozen earth and gutters of snow. This grass was new and fresh, it was this year’s grass. It hadn’t lived through the war and it knew nothing of the war. It was innocent.” This environment is very much like, the protagonist later learns, he himself. Meanwhile, Deline Skinner puts her main character through his own gauntlet in “The Farmer’s Task.”
Still, there is the muted optimism Sara Abend-Sims gives us “First Steps” while a retired and aging school teacher is regenerated by learning to look “Through a Child’s Eyes” written by Jo Mularczyk. That youthful innocence and generosity also shines through when a vacationing Jim Ross benefits from “Dumpster Diving in Paradise.”
The writing contained in the pages of Firkin’s collection—along with its variations of length, theme, and type—offers any readers of One Surviving Story a release valve that merits return trips.
One Surviving Story is available through In Case of Emergency Press. Purchase it now through Bookshop.org.
BILL CUSHING lived in numerous states, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico before moving to California. As an undergrad, he was called the “blue collar” writer because of his years working as an electrician on oil tankers, naval vessels, and fishing boats. Earning an MFA in writing from Goddard College, he taught at East Los Angeles and Mt. San Antonio colleges for 23 years before retiring in 2020. His prose has appeared in print and online in Birders World, Boog City, Borfski Press, Cargo Lit, Drunk Monkeys, Newtown Literary Review, and the San Juan Star. Bill’s collection of poetry, A Former Life, was published by Finishing Line Press and recently honored by the Kops-Featherling International Book Award.
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