Gravity Changes

March 20, 2017
The 19 fantastical stories in this engaging collection bend the laws of physics and fiction to leave lasting impressions. In the title story, children defy the laws of gravity before the onset of adulthood drags them reluctantly back to earth. A man struggles to save his marriage to a giant light bulb in “Children in Alaska,” while a tiny moon courts a woman by orbiting her body in the charming, one-page “Little Gray Moon.” Stories like “This Next Song,” about a doomed date between two men, still manage to integrate hints of the fantastic, departing from the collection’s established mode without abandoning it entirely. The collection’s longest piece, “Sleeping Bears,” is also its strongest, turning a clever metaphor for transparency in the age of social media into a funny, affecting examination of modern workplace dynamics. Powers excels in his earnest care for his characters and a willingness to test out every idea, whether or not it’s likely to soar.

Starred review from March 15, 2017
Flying children, lovely light bulbs, and unusually expressive faces are just some of the wonders that populate the world of Powers' debut short story collection.While each of Powers' brief tales is a treasure trove of whimsical surrealism, it's his uncompromising and often melancholy view of human nature that holds this collection together. The stories, which range in length from brief vignettes to longer narratives, bring the reader closer to the emotional reality of life by distorting the mundane reality of our world. What do leftover characters do with themselves when their action movie is over and the hero is dead? Can a woman single-handedly shrink the universe? Can a moon be in love with a girl? What is it like to be married to the devil? Each story presents a different twist; sometimes it is magical, like a man who becomes one with his couch, and sometimes it is more dreamlike, like a morbid children's game. Sometimes the difference between the magic and the dreams is not quite clear. It takes a few pages to find secure footing in this uncanny universe, but Powers' clean, no-frills prose keeps what could otherwise be a disorienting roller coaster grounded and clear. If some of the stories require a second reading, it's not because Powers strays too far down the rabbit hole but because they're too provocative to release their hold on the reader all at once. And if any of the glimpses into this world, a place wholly different and yet somehow recognizable as our own, are too peculiar to evoke their roots in truth, the next one is never too far away. A fanciful take on life, love, tragedy, and human connection that draws its strength from insight instead of artifice.

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