notanotherbookreview

FIRST DAY CARE CENTER WW2 KAISER SHIPYARDS! Today many of us work outside of the home. And one of us is going to be President. But in Eva's time, working outside the home was especially difficult, as daycare was virtually unknown. Women had to rely on arrangements with friends and relatives that often broke down. At the Swan Island Shipyard, however, there was an innovation: The Kaiser organization understood that the women workers, upon whom the shipyards relied, needed safe, reliable care for their children. And  the women wanted their children to be nearby. At first the centers that were open in the shipyard itself were viewed with skepticism by mothers; they were quite sure they would never leave their children full-time with strangers. Soon, however, the bright clean centers, where children played, learned, napped and ate nutritious meals, were a huge hit. Soon, the Kaiser day care plan was held up as a national model. You would think this idea would have been ta...

CODEX OCULARIS BY IAN PYPER (Pelekinesis Press) Imagine a lone astronaut on a large aqueous planet, where earth's verities do not apply. The astronaut has no way to tell where he is in time and space, except a glance at himself. He can go mad or stop trying to use human criteria to understand this large planet in a distant galaxy.  His log-book is filled with the glory of Ocularis' creatures, which may have spontaneous evolution backward and forward. Eventually the astronaut stops trying to figure it out and, instead is immersed in a bubbling froth of creation.  In this artist's book about a strange science, you begin seeing the creatures of this planet as living incessantly in the process of being. The observer becomes enmeshed in this continuation. Part of the conceit of this Holographic exploration is the eye of the Oculus. Is it a fluid organism, an eye, the breathing planet itself or all of the above? I found the creatures akin to the mysterious microsc...

Robert Wexelblatt's HEIBERG'S TWITCH (Pelekinesis Books) is a totally unexpected collection of short stories. You could compare him to Borges for his enigmatic intricacy or Andreyev for emotional resonance, but what of a wit that's at once playful and tragic? These stories skewer expectations in a variety of forms; police detective, Chinese parable, art world deconstruction or  South American creation myth.  What's common in these tales is the struggle of Wexelblatt's characters, often at war with destiny. They have free will within a specific context but that world is too narrow to allow them redemption, freedom, or happiness. Oddly, w hether they achieve their desire can be relevant or not. The stories are about the process of life and they are sad, funny and somehow fitting. A few examples: In the title story, a famous scientist with his final illness, retires to his boyhood home on an island. Strangely, he develops an embarrassing tic. Also unexpec...