NOTE: Reviews are the opinions of the individual reviewers and not necessarily those of The Chiaroscuro as an entity unto itself.



 

by William D. Gagliani
Email: tarkusp@execpc.com



In the Spirit
By P.D. Cacek
Wormhole Books (chapbook)
48 pp.$13.00

Continuing its recent tradition of offering several short works by one writer in handsome chapbooks, Wormhole Books (www.wormholebooks.com) offers fans of P.D. Cacek a hearty slice of her fiction, including the World Fantasy Award-winning "Dust Motes," as well as two others. A brief introduction by Jack Ketchum sets the stage, while artists David Martin and Joanna Erbach provide the exterior and interior art direction.

Center stage is definitely grabbed by "Dust Motes," which reads as well the fifth time as the first, and which clearly shows the author's sensitive side. Leslie Carr, suffering from breast cancer and not sure herself why she is drawn to the public library, there meets Howard Roth and a large group of people who need her for a talent she doesn't know she has—the ability to straddle the worlds of the living and the dead. If you haven't read this story, originally published in the highly-regarded GOTHIC GHOSTS anthology, now is your chance. It's a tear-jerker without a single maudlin moment, and it's a superb opener to this mini-collection which, as Ketchum points out, is about loss and yearning and pointedly avoids the out-and-out horror cliches.

"Shingas' Tale," an excerpt from the novel NEW HOPE, tells of parents' yearning for a lost son, and their last chance to speak to him and see him off to their heaven. The ancient (or perhaps far-future?) Native American society is gentle and Cacek portrays it with a tender, loving touch. Touching it is, too, and steeped in a tone that only borders on the nostalgic, but which makes real the pain Shingas—the father—feels, and deeply moving.

"Night Sounds" closes the chapbook with a harder edge, though still tending toward the quiet side. When Leigh Turner hears the sound of an intruder in her house, she calls her sister Kelli. Suspense builds nicely and reality is twisted effectively, not revealing its effects until the end. This one sticks with you because it has the sort of delicious smack-you-in-the-face ending that's harder to pull off than it seems.

Like all Wormhole chapbooks, this handsome little package serves as either a good introduction to P.D. Cacek, or to fill a lack in your collection of her multi-faceted work. And it will enhance your chapbook collection as well, simply because it looks so good, so it's a winner any way you look at it.