Art Monster: Stories and a Novella

Abstract

Monsters external and internal stalk the margins of the stories and novella that make up this collection. Though each selection engages in its own distinct exploration of the monstrous, the pieces hint at a shared question: how does entrenching and isolating ourselves in a singular experience--of place, of occupation, of grief--cripple our ability to understand one another? In Sea Monsters, a young girl comes to terms with how loss has hollowed out the adults in her life, morphing familiar faces and comforts into grotesqueries. Eva Americana explores the power and pull of a small Midwestern town on its inhabitants, suggesting that nostalgia might be the most monstrous indulgence of all. In Derivatives, a washed-up former prodigy sabotages his own happiness at every turn, punishing himself for failing to live up to specters of expectation. And in Mr. Jelly, a children's book author confronts the horrific, perhaps supernatural power of her own creation, fearing she's to blame. Art and sacrifice are so often conflated in the popular imagination. Art Monster: Stories and a Novella dissects this relationship, questioning who--or what--might be sacrificed in the stories we tell