cover image EIGHTY-SIXED: A Compendium of the Hapless

EIGHTY-SIXED: A Compendium of the Hapless

Brian Ames, . . Word Riot Press, $11 (196pp) ISBN 978-0-9728200-7-3

Wilderness, both physical and emotional, is a common thread in this scintillating, arresting collection. Armed with an unfettered imagination and razor-sharp prose, Ames (Smoke Follows Beauty ) conjures a malevolent fictional world where violence is an ever-present threat. Largely set in rural Washington State, these stories take as their primary subjects men on the fringes—a snow-plow operator, a mechanic/hit man, a small-time drug dealer—flummoxed by fate and by their own gross flaws. In one of the best, "Ajax the God," a washed-up major leaguer shoots a six-point elk and tracks the wounded animal through the forest, ruminating as he goes on his long-lost days as a celebrated pitching prospect. Ames also shows a playful side. "Monocle," the strange account of a man born with a single, cyclopean eye, is a delight, a whimsical tale in which the author wisely plays it straight for maximum comic effect. A few of these 22 pieces feel incomplete, but even when the occasional story fails to deliver, the sheer force of Ames's imagination and the wild energy of his language will make readers sit up straight. 3-city author tour. (Oct.)

Forecast: A McSweeney's-style jacket—lots of small type and quirky art—should appeal to readers likely to appreciate Ames's offbeat collection.