In this marvelously original collection, Finger (Basic Skills
) explores the nature and function of legendary outcasts, from Goliath, initially ridiculed for his giantism before he became a savior of the Philistines, to Vincent Van Gogh, tortured madman and impoverished artist caught in a bureaucratic vacuum as he waits for his Social Security benefits. In “Helen and Frida,” Finger imagines with absurd relish Helen Keller and Frida Kahlo featured in the same empowering movie (Helen is played by Jean Harlow). In “The Artist and the Dwarf,” Finger configures an elaborate inner life for the dwarf Mari Barbola in Velázquez's Las meninas
, juxtaposed with the dialogue between a medical illustrator in Auschwitz and her doomed subject, the famous circus dwarf Lia Graf. Most ambitious is “Moby Dick, or the Leg,” in which Finger suggests a touching, untoward intimacy between Ishmael and Captain Ahab. Brisk, inventive and intelligent, these stories do their own thing, and do it well. (Sept.)
