AMAZING THINGS ARE HAPPENING HERE

Appel’s (The Cynic in
Extremis: Poems, 2018, etc.) short story collection offers portraits of
people experiencing new revelations.

In these eight poignant, insightful
tales, award-winning author Appel—a physician, attorney, and bioethicist—continues to address many preoccupations that he’s explored in earlier works.
One of his most prominent themes is the human tendency to alter the truth—often
less to gain an advantage than to experience the sheer joy of invention. In the
title story, Carlo, a VA hospital nurse, notes that he’s long been “fascinated
by schemes and hoaxes”; when a patient goes missing (“We were short one lunatic”),
he hatches a coverup plan, which he embroiders beyond necessity: “fabricating
Dunham’s data—and pulling it off so effortlessly—was about as much fun as
anything I’d done in years.” Several characters in other stories come to
understand that human connection, like creativity, is a mysterious thing that
can lead to unlikely attachments. In “Grappling,” Oriana Bingham, a wealthy
young woman, insists on marrying Jeb Moran, a “gator grappler” who risked his life to save hers when she
was 11; “A girl dreams that a man will put his life on the line for her,” she
explains. Oriana stays loyal to Jeb, even though he’s crude, abusive, and
drinks, but rejects Arthur Dobbins, a much more suitable man. Other stories
similarly describe a loved one’s mystifying preference for someone unworthy. Illness,
criminality, and broken lives or dreams appear in “Dyads,” “Embers,” and “Live
Shells.” The hope of rescue, or at least comfort, underlies these tales, but
the author shows how hope can only go so far in the face of sorrow, death, and
bad decisions. Still, the stories are never morbid, as the author effectively
balances them with humor and sharp observations about characters and settings.
Some pieces have a surreal tinge, but generally, they hew closer to realism
than Appel’s previous work.