The Corset and the Jellyfish by Nick Bantock (Tachyon, 2023)

By Warner Holme:  This is a book-length collection of the extremely short story subgenre known as drabble. 

Each story is illustrated, a delightful set that with the exception of certain choices made in designing the cover and interior are all also by the author. Each of these is placed on the page opposite the story it illustrates, allowing clear connection in the mind of the reader. 

Among the most appropriate illustrations is that for “Surrealist Chess” As it resembles nothing more than a pair of red and black playing pieces which have begun to twist and merge. Even a basic reading of the story will notice that the coloring of one set of pieces and it is white. However the nature of the rest of the narrative and the very title will make the difference in coloration seem only all the more appropriate rather than a discontinuous issue.

Sometimes the connection is not exactly clear, as is the case with “Looking Back.” Is this short piece comes early in the collection, and features an illustration of a figure with a bow and arrow on a hill pointing it towards a star. The short piece on the other hand gives an amusing look at the eccentricities of a professor of archaeology and her personal history. While one could argue for the historical context of an individual sporting a bow and arrow regardless, it still feels extremely odd as a choice

“The Rag Doll” has a more fitting illustration with a figure that isn’t exactly humanoid but couldn’t the less be the titular object. This short is very much in the more horrific area of tales in the collection, strange and weird with bad things happening. The fact that there is an arguable moral, and definite definite course of events might lead some to see it more like a fairy tale by Grimm.

Others like the lynching give very much a look at reality in its darker sense, With the brutal murder in the implied style of an individual of color for a non crime that may have served to be completely unrelated to his actions. Aside from featuring a visually dark figure, this one joins the collection with barely if at all involved illustrations.

None of this is, of course, to say that the illustrations are bad. If one enjoys the style of them they will likely enjoy most if not all of the weird little scribblings so carefully chosen throughout. Instead it is merely a notice that many of them will seem decidedly divorced from these stories they might be intended to illustrate. At the same time looking at them truly separately would be largely inappropriate, the various pieces having been selected for connection.

How well a reader will enjoy this book isn’t so much connected to their enjoyment of the ultra-short 100 word form it is constructed out of as it is the entire matter. Fans of the author are more likely to appreciate it than those who do not like him, of course, However while it retains the charm of much of his work it is very different in resultant effect. Curious parties would do well to check it out as it is a very short read However it is unlikely to convert anyone into lovers of the drabble art form.