Andy Duncan’s first book, Beluthahatchie and Other Stories, was a superb collection of short
fiction. Dripping with voice and style,
each piece was carefully crafted, occupying a wholly unique perspective, from
the ghosts that haunted General Patton to a small southern town’s witnessing of
a criminal execution. Picking up where
he left off, Duncan’s second collection The
Pottawatomie Giant and Other Stories (2012) is everything the first
collection was, and comes just as recommended.
As mentioned in “Fortitude”, Duncan explored possible
motivations for Gen. George Patton’s strength of character. A sort of secret history, or “missing
biography” type of story, in “The Pottawatomie Giant” he returns to the form to
tell the unknown side of an early 20th century boxer’s tale, Jess Willard. A massive man known for his ability to take a
punch, beating the then consensus champion Jack Johnson and becoming world
champion himself, Willard was skyrocketed into fame, but was never really
comfortable with it, as witnessed by his altercation with Harry Houdini. Duncan looking at Willard in old age, it’s an
interesting story that twists on itself under Duncan’s quality pen. Another semi-biographical tale, this time of
a historical figure few will be aware of, “Zora and the Zombie” looks at real-life
anthropologist and writer Zora Neale-Hurston and a trip she takes to Haiti to study
the local culture. Voodoo all around,
Duncan uses the story to understated effect to balance feminist concerns across
traditional and contemporary culture.
A pair of tales feature the quietly strong, wonderfully
quaint Southern girl, Pearleen Sunday.
In “A Diorama of the Infernal
Regions, or The Devil's Ninth Question”, Sunday, in a moment of minor trauma,
accidentally transports herself through Professor Van Der Ast’s diorama and
ends up in Mrs. Winchester’s ghost-filled house. Eventually meeting with Ol’ Scratch
himself—something which drags out of her the realization of her own abilities,
it’s a story you just grab a hold of and hang on. Told several years later, “The Dragaman's
Bride” is a fiery story (har har)—an Appalachian tall tale with grit. The prologue, involving a sheriff chasing a
young woman through a thunder storm, grabs the reader by the small hairs, and
the resolution of why he is chasing her just as satisfying.
Like Duncan’s “Fortitude”, “The Chief Designer” is an
alternate-view, biographical novella looking at a lesser yet key figure from
history. Looking at the life of Sergey
Korolyov and his impact on the Russian space program throughout the latter half
of the 20th century, Duncan once again converts history into material saturated
with interest without sacrificing the humanity.
Entertaining, informative, and ultimately ruminative, it’s among the
best stories Duncan has ever written. (Longer
review here.) Capturing an amazing character voice, “Close
Encounters” takes a look at UFO sightings through the eyes of a poor elederly
man who once purported to have been abducted by aliens. Twilight Zone with human integrity, the tale concludes at a
beautiful point of equipoise.
“Daddy Mention and the Monday” tells the tale of a prisoner
who attempts to conjure his way out of the prison walls by making a deal with a
devil. Walking a proverbial high wire in
the aftermath, the result is a great, great voodoo tale. In “Unique Chicken Goes in Reverse”, Father
Leggett is called to the house of the O’Connors, and there meets their strange
daughter Mary and an even stranger chicken she has named Jesus. Uncertainty and doubt creeping in regarding Legget’s
faith in the aftermath of this encounter, the religious undertones of this
subtle, wonderfully balanced story run deep.
What reads as a goofy title is a significantly more multi-layered story. Taking Tolkien’s famous hobbits and twisting
them into a light story on racism, in “Senator Bilbo” Duncan uses the alternate
races of Middle Earth to analogous effect.
The story probably started as a bit of a larff by Duncan, but once the
ball got rolling, really started taking solid shape—and you don’t need to be a
fan of Tolkien to appreciate it. The last
lines of the story have been done before, but this should not detract from
their humanity.
Duncan’s first collection Beluthahatchie and Other Stories contained some of the absolute
best short fiction written in the 90s. The Pottawatomie Giant and Other Stories
continues the success in the first decade of the 21 st century. “Close Encounters” and “The Chief Designer” are
superb pieces of short fiction, and “Zora the Zombie” and “Daddy Mention and
the Monday Skull” aren’t too far behind.
If you somehow find yourself in a position to buy or borrow the
collection, do so, as the opportunity becomes more rare with each year…
The following are the dozen stories contained in The Pottawatomie Giant and Other Stories:
The Pottawatomie Giant
Senator Bilbo
The Big Rock Candy Mountain
Daddy Mention and the Monday Skull
Zora and the Zombie
Unique Chicken Goes in Reverse
Provenance
A Diorama of the Infernal Regions, or The Devil's Ninth
Question
The Dragaman's Bride
The Night Cache
Close Encounters
The Chief Designer
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