Flowing in the Gossamer Fold
Ben Spivey’s Flowing in the Gossamer Fold is fiction that comes form a from a dark place. I don’t know whether to describe it as a prose poem or a fever dream. I read it in one sitting on an unseasonably cold rainy night here in Atlanta. And then I went back and skimmed a few sections, postponing sleep as long as possible.
It begins with our narrator, Malcolm, prepping to go on stage to provide a motivational speech to a college crowd. He thinks back to te morning’s events, which included a striking visual, that left no doubts that his wife had left him for good. He begins his speech:
I told them my life was not going in the direction I desired, not in so many words. I’ve had better days, I’ve seen better mornings, the sky has been brighter, God has existed. I paused. Shook my head. Regained my composure. The red velvet curtain looked purple under the bluish spot light. No one reacted. No one was affected by anything. To the onlooker, I too was unaffected, as a proper speaker should appear. Selling myself to the crowd. With a big smile I said: like some of you in crowd, some of you know what I mean.
And then Malcolm becomes completely unglued. The rest of the novella/poem/fever dream unfolds as Malcolm seemingly moves in and out of “clarity.” The reader follows along as Malcolm views his past, his time with his wife, and the indeterminate length of Malcolm’s “after” through a gossamer haze. The narrative keeps the reader constantly off-balance. Reality and time both become fluid constructs. Yet Spivey’s sharp prose holds the reader captive until the end. It’s a gripping read. Check it out.
May 11, 2011 11:27 am 2 Comments
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By Cal Gough, May 18, 2011 @ 4:59 pm
This sounds really interesting…and certainly unusual. How did you find this book? I don’t think I’ve seen mention of it, and am always curious about how people stumble across things that aren’t highly publicized. Thanks for the great description!
By Tim, May 18, 2011 @ 10:24 pm
Cal, I found this book via networking with some authors that are very into the indie book scene. A resource that you might want to check out is: http://www.indiebookstore.com