For a writer who wrote predominantly short fiction, A Touch of Strange is a key point in Sturgeon's ouevre. Though containing only seven stories, it showcases the author in or at peak form. “Mr Costello, Hero” opens things on a quiet note, however. It is the story of a spaceship’s purser and his relationship with a fellow crewmen, the titular Mr. Costello. Arriving at their destination planet, the purser runs into a strange cult who believe everything—everything—must be communal. Such an economic philosophy not to the purser’s taste, he nevertheless finds himself the subject of Mr. Costello’s silver tongue. Not the greatest story contrasting freedom of choice with social obligation, but a solid stab.
Readers' mileage on “The Touch of Your Hand” will vary. The barometer can be More Than Human. If you enjoyed that novel and its play with tele-this and tele-that, then this story may appeal. If treating such fantastical things seriously is less to your liking, then this story may waver. It's the story of a man whose mind has been wrecked by a science experiment. Loved by a caring woman, their lives are subtly changed by an elderly woman who claims to know how to get to the root of the man's problems.
One of the best in the collection, and notable among all of Sturgeon's stories is “Affair with a Green Monkey”. The title on point, a couple discover a man being beaten by thugs on the street and take him home to convalesce. A situation develops where what is alien becomes is familiar, just not everyday familiar, and a woman discovers a different kind of man. A strange story indeed, or perhaps just a peculiar tweak on reality.
An effective character portrait, “A Crime for Llewellyn” tells of a disengaged, spineless man who is is cared for almost entirely by his wife. So disconnected is he that he makes the foolish choice to cash his wife’s bonds. What ensues is a tale as old as time: some prisons are of our own making. Deftly written, Sturgeon captures a real person in a paucity of words. Something of a novella-length variation of Crime and Punishment as a space adventure, “It Opens the Sky” is about a con man who is forced to make some poor and violent decisions in order to keep his vices alive. Hounded by a public security agency called the Angels, his crimes take him into interstellar space where things get sorted out. The story has focus and moments of elegant, beautiful storytelling, save the conclusion which is a bit too distant, abstract to fit the whole.
If there is a reason Sturgeon still has one or two fingers clinging to relevancy today, the title story, “A Touch of Strange” is absolutely one. Mermaid romance is the story's genre, but considering their lonely rock in the sea is only a gateway to more deeply rooted aspects of humans and relationships, the story of two people who meet on said rock is deceivingly simple. Quietly powerful, subtly affecting, and perennially profound, hopefully it will keep Sturgeon relevant for longer.
Closing the collection is “The Other Celia”. While quite creepy in its portrayal of voyeurism, this story about a man spying on his neighbors, up to and including breaking in to survey belongings, is relatively mundane. Until it isn't. This is one of those stories which so delicately reveals its weirdness as to provide a contrast that sticks in memory.
In the end, Sturgeon is the master of slipstream before the term existed, and A Touch of Strange is proof. Not fantasy in the genre sense yet certainly not mimetic fiction, Sturgeon plies the interstices of understanding in this brief but impacting collection. If you've never read Sturgeon, this is an excellent place to have a taste, before the waves finally wash him from shore. (Beware the incoming pun... to be where he belongs among the fishes... sorry. Truly I didn't intend that when starting the review...)
The following are the seven stories contained in A Touch of Strange:
Mr. Costello, Hero
The Touch of Your Hand
Affair with a Green Monkey
A Crime for Llewellyn
It Opens the Sky
A Touch of Strange
The Other Celia
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