Tomorrowland, a fantastic yet familiar world, where shiny promises of fulfillment fall flat, age disappoints and love is not exactly the answer
Tomorrowland by Joseph Bates (Curbside Splendor/Chicago, September 10th) The highly inventive stories in this debut collection address a fantastic yet familiar world, where shiny promises of fulfillment fall flat, age disappoints and love is not exactly the answer. Yet these bizarre stories are funny in the best humanist tradition. Imagine if Tolstoy set The Death of Ivan Ilyich in The Twilight Zone and you have an idea of Tomorrowland. The narrator of the title story, who inspects an eerie Eisenhower era “home of the future”, is old enough to remember the kitsch of this future world, once thought to be so much better than today, and appreciate the irony of the contrast with his actual life--what time steals and what remains. Mirrorverse is a hilarious tale of a guy who wants desperately to make it with his ex-wife and what happens when he’s given a device that turns his TV into a parallel universe. Yankees Burn Atlanta, Boardwalk Elvis, and Future Me, all explore the Tom...