Not explicitly framed, The Perseids nevertheless has a through line: the lives of ordinary people in Toronto around the turn of the millennia, 20th to 21st. The story which kicks things off, “The Fields of Abraham”, could be seen as that setting's prequel. It tells of a Jewish boy getting by on almost nothing in early 20th century Toronto. His sister has dementia and is unable to help. So when not teaching immigrants English, he heads to a local shop to escape. But a student makes an offer that could help the boy financially, only it would mean selling his familial soul. Over a game of chess he asks the shopkeeper for advice, which doesn't go as planned. It's a simply written story, but Wilson wrings emotion from the boy's plight, setting the tone for the bittersweet stories which follow.
Moody as the title hints, “The Perseids” is about a a middle-age divorcee who looks to get out of a rut by buying a telescope. The purchase introduces him to an art student, which forms the basis of his next relationship. Eccentric as can be, the student's social circle ejects the man from his rut, putting him in a mercurial phase of life, culminating in an open, effective ending. It's clear why the collection is named after the story. “The Inner Inner City” is a heavy tale about an academic in a long-term marriage. One evening, he and his friends agree on a challenge: who can think of the best pseudo-religion? Each participant throws in a Benjamin, and they're off to dream up the next cult. About personal blind spots, Wilson excellently parallels the man's attempts at coming up with a religion to the happenings of his domestic existence.
If Toronto is the setting for the collection, “The Observer” is an interlude. Set in the 1950s, it tells of an aspiring astronomer who has the opportunity to visit the then new Palo Alto observatory. She meets Edwin Hubble, and in the course of conversation has a profound idea shared with her about the universe's perspective on time. Then things get... confusing. And anal probes. Back to Toronto, “Protocols of Consumption” is the story of a bipolar man who begins group therapy among a proverbial gang of misfits. Struggling with employment, marriage, and life in general, he agrees to start medication. In the transitory period which follows, a lot of new things appear in his life, including insects, followed by more insects. An oddly thought provoking story.
More a wonderfully unfurled scene than story proper, “Ulysses Sees the Moon in the Bedroom Window” depicts a man visiting an academic friend to see a peculiar stone. But he attends with the intention of seducing his friend's wife, there having been some hanky-panky the last time he visited. There is a cat, a scrying cat, which puts a strong exclamation point on this lovely vignette.
An expose of sorts, “Plato's Mirror” tells of a bestselling sf author who accepts a gift from an eager fan, a mirror. His life thereafter changes—things revealed that he would likely not want revealed. But perhaps he needed them revealed? “Divided By Infinity” is a return to the magical bookshop of the first story but in modern day Toronto. It describes the life of a man fighting off thoughts of suicide in the wake of his wife's passing. He encounters tomes there which do not exist in our reality and things in the news start to twist uncanny. Closing the collection in odd fashion is “Pearl Baby”. A rushed piece which needed further development, it is about a post-menopausal woman who gives birth, yes, gives birth to... read on and find out. It's supposed to be a character portrait but ends up more body horror. It needed more character backtory to sing.
In the end, The Perseids and Other Stories is a solid-solid collection. I imagine it flew under the radar of most readers when it was published, and of course has been swallowed by the deluge of genre released since. It's worth going back and taking a look if you enjoy humanist science fiction. Wilson creates living, breathing characters and uses fantastical devices to explore, examine, and throw light on various aspects of being human. He writes strong, clear sentences and each story is a thought out, well executed idea (with the exception of perhaps the closing piece), offering a collection more consistent than his novels.
The following are the nine stories collected in The Perseids and Other Stories. It does not contain “The Cartesian Theater” or “Utriusque Cosmi”—both likely better known Wilson stories but written at a later date:
The Fields of Abraham
The Perseids
The Inner Inner City
The Observer
Protocols of Consumption
Ulysses Sees the Moon in the Bedroom Window
Plato's Mirror
Divided by Infinity
Pearl Baby
No comments:
Post a Comment