An Unfortunate Assemblage of Villains
Adam McGrath
Lulu, 2005
Yog Rocks!
Critical Mick conversed with a reader who was violently reviled by the title An Unfortunate Assemblage of Villains. "Sorry, that's so pretentious."
"It's accurate! Every story does feature a villain, though you have to think about some, afterwards, to spot the blackguard."
"It’s showing off with fancy words. For a booklet as slim as the advert ones that come in through the letterbox! My unfortunate, villainous ass."
Critical Mick ducked quickly and mentioned that humor was one of Adam McGrath's favorite tools. Only the first and last tales of the collection are straightforward Short Stories. Several are parodies. A few experiments. Some present situations that are vivid and real-world enough to make you think, but arrive skewed in an original way. They amuse.
YIKES!
(Sorry. Still ducking.)
"More Americans" lands reader in the woven sandals of a shepherd boy somewhere in the Muslim world. Ahmed is tasked to help guard several Western hostages. There are mutual exchanges of kindness before the brief tale's tragic climax. The failure to understand is not limited to the main character child. Topical. Insightful. "More Americans" was shortlisted in the 2004 Cadenza short story competition.
The capper is "The Miracle of Transubstantiation," a story centering on coming of age in the height of Northern Ireland's Troubles. Is it accurate? I wouldn't know. I'm a DFA Yank who has heard more about all that from NPR than from RTE. I can say "The Miracle of Transubstantiation" is a tale with a good conflict and strong twist. A good capper.
Best bit: "Yog-Na-Shibboth." An exactly-right-length parody of Lovecraft's tired Cthulu mythos, "Yog" drips character. It cracks me up, on even third and fourth re-reading. More than that, it casts asunder the cliché and delivers death's horror and irony with the precise number of BPM that goth-rock fans hear. Ancient, powerful truths, that. H.P. would be honoured.
There are other tales, too. Hypochondriacs, prophets, crooked businessmen, punks. As with any short story collection or CD, a few tracks really stand out. The others are Islands Worth Visiting (to paraphrase Walter Mosely's memorable intro to the 2003 Best American Short Stories) at least once or twice.
And, yes, there's at least one nasty bit of stuff in each.
A few words about the book itself. An Unfortunate Assemblage of Villains is available from Lulu.com, a company intent on democritizing the process of trapping dreams between two covers. Have something to say? Lack connections with the agents and editors of the publishing house establishment? Lulu (the line goes) is the place for you. Send in your manuscript and they'll print up as many copies as there are people attracted by your quality. Adam McGrath's collection of short stories was my first exposure.
An Unfortunate Assemblage of Villains is unlike any other on my shelf. The stories themselves are printed with excellent quality and the cover, front and back, is full color. But there's no page of copyright credits, no ISBN, no branding tattoo on the slim spine. Lulu-land. A publishing oddity.
Critical Mick says: Like Claire Kilroy Adam McGrath may not be aimed a mainstream Dan Brown audience, but his line-up is worthy of wanted posters. This odd collection of baddies without page numbers will one day be a collector's treasure. Get yourself a copy!
Online-only Bonus Material! Click the chip at the bottom of this page for a Critical Mick review (yes, the term is used loosely) of an unpublished Adam McGrath original, "Biochips With Everything."
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