In January, Josh Denslow’s story collection Not Everyone Is Special began appearing on the most-anticipated preview lists that get passed around the internet among the literary elite, where it was described with adjectives like “quirky” and “hilarious”. My interest was piqued. Then there was the fact that Denslow’s publisher, the relatively new 7.13 Books, is run by Leland Cheuck, who founded it with the explicit mission of seeking out stories and books that may not appeal to larger publishers, after his own frustration with the traditional publishing process.
Six weeks after first reading the book, one story sticks with me. In “Bio,” Peter Frumkin’s life plays out in a series of short narratives ostensibly written as the bio accompanying his author’s byline in a publication. The hundred word third-person biography is an artform onto itself, and Denslow has literally embraced it as such. He’s also speaking to his most likely consumer demographic—fellow writers. Quirky short story collections aren’t likely to end up in airport book stands or the aisles of big box stores appealing to the mass market, but do often find their way into the hands of other writers who themselves have no doubt agonized over their own self-aggrandizing biographies.
“Bio” exemplifies Denslow’s humor. It’s dark and off-putting portrait of a sad man. Don’t expect a deep belly laugh as Peter Frumkin pursues his writing career. But there is a wry misery about him: “Peter Frumkin lives in a tiny apartment while his wife lives in their house with his three doys and two cats. He (Peter Frumkin) misses his bird.”
Like many writers, Frumkin admits: “Peter Frumkin wants you to notice him.” It leaves me wondering, in a Sarah Jessica Parker voice: do we lead lives that amount to nothing more than a third-person biography alongside our byline? Writing as an occupation is often marked by more failures than successes, and “Bio” reminds us of these challenges.
This quirkiness of Denslow’s collection falls in line with other writing that traditional (stodgy) literary critics have struggled to categorize. “Genre bending” is a frequently applied phrase. As a collection, Denslow’s stories are reminiscent of The Miniature Wife and Other Stories by Manuel Gonzales, another book where literary fiction intersects with science fiction. We see a similar deployment of speculative world building in the recent collection Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, where race relations, criminal justice inequality, and black identity are presented through the lens of soft science fiction.
But if Denslow is on trend, he is also uniquely imaginative. His work is less concerned with race relations than with class, but his approach is similar. He’s taking science fiction and relabeling it as literary fiction to disguise social commentary. In “Punch,” characters have vouchers allowing them to punch people in the face without legal repercussions. It almost doesn’t seem like satire, given the President’s inclination to inciting violence. Yet the effectiveness of “Punch” reveals the darker side of humanity. It explores how capitalism corrupts all systems. The punch voucher system is meant to relieve societal pressure by allowing otherwise-powerless individuals the opportunity to feel empowered, but ultimately it is corrupted by a black market of punching.
Denslow’s writing is polished and tightly structured. If there is a fault, it is in the repetition of his favorite narrative structure. These quirky stories are usually framed by a first-line hook leading into a narrative sleight of hand, and they often end with an unexpected twist or revelation. Perhaps this structure plays to the contemporary moment because it helps writers survive the hyper-competitive slush pile, but it also deprives narratives the space to build slowly. Denslow’s stories must instantly command attention.
One standout, and a story that epitomizes much of the collection, is “Too Late for a Lot of Things.” Set in a Santa’s Workshop theme park, its narrator is an abnormally short person with a crush on his co-worker. Keith often plays the part of an elf because of his small stature, and his earnestness and self-deprecation win the reader’s sympathies. When Tina ends up with Charlie, we are disappointed because Keith is disappointed. This is a tough trick to pull off in a short story, but Denslow creates compassion by giving Keith faults of his own. Keith, who has driven Charlie to Tina’s home only to learn she is sleeping with Charlie, wants to leave him behind, but he’s better than that, and better than we as the audience are. “I think I’ll let him run a bit longer before I stop,” Keith concludes. He’s willing to stick by Charlie, even after learning Charlie is his romantic rival.
Not Everyone is Special is full of genuine characters and off-kilter humor. Denslow pushes expectations and ultimately presents a highly polished set of stories.