Forty-four short fictions constructed with a playful, light touch. The characters are created with language as sharp and textured as a photorealistic painting so that when transformations and identity shifts occur, they startle the reader and give her a fresh perspective on the underlying essences of things and people. A woman gradually turns into a balloon, people playing the parts of cows and chickens at a first annual butter and eggs festival reveal their "cow-ness" and their "chicken-ness" to be more convincing than their humanity, a woman's clothes come alive for the ultimate "bad hair day," a conch shell picked up on the beach does not yield ocean sounds but the Panavision views of the sides of experience no one wants to see. Chadwick's fictions are irresistible.--Susan Smith Nash
This review originally appeared in TapRoot Reviews #4,
Contact the editor, luigi-bob drake, at Burning Press
Copyright Burning Press 1994, 1995.