It’s been a couple of years since I read D. H. Schleicher’s first short story collection AND THEN WE VANISH. The stories in that book felt very special, tantalising and intricate, and reminded me of the work of Paul Auster. Now we have another collection, WHEN WE COME BACK, and what a collection it is.
The opening story, LOST CAT, VERY SKITTISH is a brief, wry snapshot of a small neighborhood during COVID and how the actions of a few individuals subtly intersect. It sets the tone for a collection that dips in and out of moments in lives, allowing you to breathe them in for a short time.
In MOLLY ON THE FERRY a woman’s curiousity brings her to a revelation about something that’s been happening all around her. A subtle tale rich with texture. One of my favourites, with a cool ending.
COLDSPACE, another favourite. A brilliant short piece, which sees a man enveloped fully by a moment of reflection.
In PUDDLE JUMPERS a husband entertains fleeting thoughts of freedom. What beautiful descriptions this story has. Reading this felt like looking at a vivid home video for just a few minutes before we are reminded that there is often darkness found just outside the frame.
IN THE YEAR 2000, for me the best story here, is a tale about being in the friend zone, and not by choice, as is so often the case. A great passage in this story made me feel very seen, at least, in the context of my younger years. “Hmmm, here I was again. Those pangs. She set the paradigm for me. My guy friends marveled at how easy-going I was with girls. I grew into a woman’s confidant. That was my gamble, my way into their secret space, but it was always a losing bet.“
Schleicher really knows how to paint the picture of a scene with efficient flourishes. He’ll note something about the way a curtain billows, or how the water behaves, or tell so much about a character from the CD she plays in the car, or how she puts her foot on the dashboard. The latter half of this collection looks at snapshots of an evolving world. MISCHIEF, MUSKRATS AND MUDSLIDES begins a foray into our witnessing of a world affected by climate change, floods, pandemics. Later we have the prosepcts of AI and the distant future of the internet. In COMMUTER’S SENTENCE, half the world is transformed into a traffic jam that becomes a permanent way of life. It ends with a shocking thought, and an image that will stay with me for a long time.
Richly and economically crafted characters search for meaning in these latter pages, and make choices as the world, its axis and its climate shifts around them, and in WHEN THE DOOR OPENS, the very core of our understanding of what may lie in store for us as a species knocks us off-balance.