“In the light falling horizontally along grey lapboards. In very fast light, as on any seafront… In Portsmouth. In real dejection, not just the kind we have now.”
Is this a story? Is it a poem? Is it a list? Can it be all of them? The first time I read this playful, one page piece of short fiction from M. John Harrison, it made me laugh out loud but also feel a bit sad. Oh Mike! In using what might be considered a neo-Oulipian constraint, Harrison manages to convey – without any plot in the conventional sense – a sense of character and an entire lifetime. M. John Harrison is a fabulous writer who excels in basically any form that he chooses to write in, but in his fragmentary short fiction he has great fun in creating new ways of telling stories. This collection is one of my favourites of his many excellent books.
First published in You Should Come With Me Now, Comma Press, 2018
A Personal Anthology 