These stories aren’t always narrative and, when they are, they’re not conventionally so. The reader’s frequently left with the sense that the author believes certain conventions (for example, motivation and fullness of characters) are old, worn, unnecessary. Brian Joseph Davis’s characters usually come across as vessels to contain his social comment, satirical wit or to carry out his formal experiments. That gets boring after awhile. But he can tell a story and tell it well, without sacrificing his voice or outlook. In “The Lame Shall Enter at Five Miles Per Hour,” the young narrator, disabled in a work accident, joins a community of older, some elderly, scooter racers. They’re not contained by age or corporeal reality. The reader is happy to have gone along for the ride.
This article appears in Jun 3-9, 2010.