Joytime Killbox

January 13, 2020
Wood’s slight, absurdist collection of brief encounters exploits the story-making potential of human misunderstanding and the failure to connect. In “What to Say to a Child in the Speedway Bathroom,” a man’s effort to help a child properly use a public urinal leads to a confrontation with the boy’s mother. In “USS Flagg,” the narrator takes stock of a deceased friend’s collection of rare comic and action figures, reflecting on the value of their friendship (“For guys like us, making friends wasn’t easy”). In the episodic “Beasts of Flight,” a 16-year-old boy goes for walks with his pet parrot, blending in unnoticed until the parrot emulates the sound of a traffic signal, causing the death of a blind man in an intersection. “Diary of a Bad Afternoon” follows 17-year-old writer Ellis’s quest to meet his hero, J.M. Coetzee, while Ellis’s mother, who believes he is gay, encourages him to “flair it up” while silently noting eligible women who might interest a “straight Ellis.” In “My Roberta,” a man’s wife becomes a stranger to him after getting a clitoral hood piercing and buying a motorcycle. While too many of the diffuse tales fall short of resolution, Wood’s knack for identifying characters’ discomfort makes him a talent to watch. Fans of Padgett Powell will want to take a look.