Omniphobia: Stories - Hardcover

Dillard, R. H. W.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0807118397 ISBN 13: 9780807118399

Publisher: Louisiana State Univ Pr, 1995

Synopsis

For R. H. W. Dillard, morbid gravity and exuberant absurdity are all of a piece. Omniphobia is seriously funny stuff, the reversible-wear fiction of a fiery imagination. These four stories and three novellas take place in a twilight zone where we have learned to fear the very things we used to trust, and their characters find themselves spilled onto the slippery slope of flux and change in the deadly fun house we call contemporary reality.
The first of the collection's three sections, "Oh Love Love Love," opens with "The Bog," a novella both touching and uproarious. Cosmo Cotswaldo, Ph.D., undertakes to prove that nature can be entered into and controlled through the will. But when the chilly, humorless feminist Sara Band arrives on the scene, his attempts to manipulate this newly found power unleash the truth of his vulnerability to nature - in its tide of sexual forces, and ultimately in quicksand. The short story "Their Wedding Journey," which follows, is the ill-fated history of a marriage that circles (literally) around a wedding cake.
The second section, "Way Down Yonder," contains a novella and two stories that address the distinct culture of the South while both satirizing and paying tribute to the body of literature that has attempted to define that culture.
The third section, "Walking on Shallow Water," moves into darker and more dangerous territory. "The Death Eater" is the internal monologue of a diner chef who is obsessively repulsed by the killing and eating of animals. So hypnotic is the cadence of his thoughts that the reader almost overlooks the virulence of his actions. The final, title piece of the collection, "Omniphobia," is a novella with four ongoing narratives: an urban omniphobe, a "writer" who has not written in more than ten years; a political prisoner seeking escape, his mental state and movements painstakingly detailed; a punk-rock singer who wrenches his lyrics from his own experiences; and a catalog of phobias, from dread of flowers to omniphobia. It is an apocalyptic tale of fear and death and salvation that links back to the attempts at taking control and making sense described in "The Bog" - attempts that at last subside in a visionary surrender to a larger, vital whole.

About this title

About the Author

R. H. W. Dillard is professor of English and chair of the creative writing program at Hollins College in Virginia.

Reviews

The four stories and three novellas in this first collection of short works by novelist, poet and critic Dillard are all strange mixtures of humor and horror. Dillard's writing has an eerie resonance, whether he's describing a short-order cook driven to murder by overexposure to fat people at their feed, or gently spoofing Southern fiction and Southern manners in a story about a boy named Shirley and his girlfriend, Roy. Dillard is particularly adept at cutting close to the bone; he conveys the psychological struggles and emotional stalemates in which his characters find themselves with an accuracy than can make the reader wince. Cotswaldo, the protagonist of "The Bog," is a scientist who studies nature with the ultimate goal of proving that intellect can vanquish instinct. His transparent efforts to convince himself that he is not a creature of instinct?and his disappointment with his fellow humans who so obviously are?creates a feeling of agonizing embarrassment for the misguided naturalist. When Cotswaldo realizes the error of his beliefs, we share his sense of release if not his sense of hope. Similarly, the title story tells of a reclusive writer who lives in a world drastically circumscribed by his fears. Dillard re-creates this nightmarish existence fed by memories and obsessions, but he allows glimmers of real, or more normal, life to shine through, thereby intensifying the impact of the story's tragic ending. Occasionally Dillard goes unpleasantly far in his lack of regard for good taste. Fans of scatological humor will be the best audience for some of his selections.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The title story of this collection, "Omniphobia" (which means fear of everything), is full of dark dreams and frightening images as the narrator catalogues natural disasters in our environment--sunny days that plant cancer in our skin and a blood donor's gift with the AIDS virus mixed in. In "The Bog," a young biology professor sits by a bog, writing about his obsession with Darwin and Freud, blind to all but his intellectual pursuits. "The Road" is a depiction of the rural South before the civil rights era, populated with characters having names like Rastus and Puke Guffaw, who drink Dixie beer in the Stars and Bar. Throughout his stories, Dillard is a maker of mayhem and always master of the mood. When it comes to terror, he can outdo Poe anytime. Theresa Ducato

This collection of fiction by Dillard (English, Hollins Coll.) will be best appreciated by fellow academics and students of writing. "The Bog," a satire on academia, is set in a think-tank where our narrator is investigating his belief that human thoughts can control insects. This heavy-handed fable includes professor Sara Band, a classically misogynist creation who has sex with all of her male peers. Better are the stories that qualify as Southern fiction. "The Road" manages to go beyond a parody of Southern themes, becoming a moving story of homecoming and change in its own right. "That's What I Like (About the South)" is great fun, with sections of the story entitled "celebration of eccentricity" and "deep involvement in place." Still, this volume of metafiction will be of little interest to most readers. For academic collections only.?Brian Kenney, Brooklyn P.L.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Louisiana State Univ Pr
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0807118397
• ISBN 13: 9780807118399
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208