Crossroads, edited by F. Brett Cox and Andy Duncan (Tor, 2004)

This is actually something of an interesting mixed bag. Crossroads was an attempt to invoke a certain sense of style and atmosphere by collecting stories and short pieces about the American South, honoring authors such as William Faulkner, Mark Twain, Manly Wade Wellman, Edgar Allen Poe and others. In short, stories where the South itself was as much a character as a setting, where the regional attitudes influenced the course of the story, and where fantasy and reality crossed over one another. As a result, what you’ll find here is a fantasy anthology that’s far more “mainstream” or “literary” than many of its colleagues, containing stories quite suitable for teaching in university English classes years from now. These are imaginative, strange, and quite varied. Some stories are all-new for this volume, a number of offerings are reprints , though none older than 1988. Some of the authors are quite well-known in the fantasy field, while others are relative newcomers. What they all have in common is an identification with the South, living in that area and having an empathy for the area’s particular feel. As a result, it’s hard to truly classify this collection. You could just as easily find this book in the fantasy section as you could the fiction section, or, should your store be in the South, perhaps the regional interests section.
But what of the stories? Well, there are those that stand out. Bud Webster turns in a thoughtful piece about an old man who’s lived past his prime, yet isn’t allowed to die, in “Christus Destitutus.” It’s a sharp, moody look at faith, obligation, duty, and the heavy burdens some of us must bear. Don Webb turns in a dreamlike, multilayered quest for truths and mysteries, in “Ool Athag,” a fantasy tale that meanders through various realms as it searches for the origin of something buried in the far past.
Some stories aren’t really even fantasy at all. Michael Bishop’s “The Yukio Mishima Cultural Association of Kudzu Valley, Georgia,” is the account of a semi-disgraced academic seeking refuge and redemption in a small town. However, when he accidentally introduces a new kind of foreign culture into their midst, he can’t even begin to imagine the consequences that soon follow. Like a catastrophic game of dominos, it all comes tumbling down faster than he can stop it. Michael Swanwick, whose literature has cut an award-winning swath through the field, gives us a short, poignant story, more essay than fiction, entitled “The Last Geek.” In it, one man, the last of his kind, tours the country, giving talks about his old life, and demonstrating his profession one last time for shocked and amazed audiences.
In “Slippered Feet,” by Daniel Wallace, an older couple decide to go on a vacation to somewhere far away and exotic, perhaps an island. They take up language lessons at night, hoping to get a feel for their destination’s language and culture. However, when one of them becomes far more adept at understanding the new language than her husband, it drives an eerie wedge between them. Lynn Pitts’ “Tchoupitoulas Bus Stop” is a New Orleans ghost story, filled with yearning and tragedy, and coming to an uneasy, unsettling resolution.
Other authors present include Andy Duncan, Gene Wolfe, Scott Edelman, Bret Lott, Kelly Link, and Jack McDevit. All in all, a wonderfully diverse collection of Southern tales that will certainly appeal to the literary-inclined, cerebral reader. I enjoyed checking this collection out, but I will confess that a number of stories just didn’t catch me. As stories of the “Southern literary fantastic” go, however, this is an excellent anthology.


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