book review:
Caffeine Fueled Revelation Machines
The bewildered old man holding a megaphone to his ear on the cover of Caffeine Fueled Revelation Machines is somewhat of a red herring. Most of the stories in R. Daniel Lester’s first collection (but third publication by his own Dirt Starling Press) are written from the perspectives of children or teenagers who find themselves in confrontation with the discrepancies of growing older. In worlds of sputtering fluorescent office bulbs, blinking switchboards and space shuttles, Lester’s characters inhale confusion and exhale indecision. As if to highlight this point, his stories are scattered with (debatably gimmicky) forward-slash ambivalences–“Jake hears whimpers/grunts” or “wrapped around each other for warmth/comfort.” The characters are nearly always left standing in puddles of their own uncertainty. In many stories this tactic proves illuminating, as in the case of “The Butterfly Question” where the concept of life and death is delicately explained by a father to his ponderous son. But in others–such as “Best Before…1985”–the intriguing buildup of a bear mascot hired as a last-ditch effort to save an obsolete electronics store dissipates any potential revelation with its indecisive ending. Perhaps the old man on the cover is less red herring and more premonition, signaling both the ultimate fate of Lester’s characters and the existential apprehension of modern society. A commendable first collection. (Matthew R. Loney)
by R. Daniel Lester $17.95, 151 pgs., Dirt Starling Press, dirtstarling.com