View from the Seventh Layer (Kevin Brockmeier)

May 20, 2008

Referring to stories as ‘clever’ is often shorthand for "interesting but ultimately shallow," while ‘inventive’ often means "very creative, but not a great piece of art." In both cases the admirable qualities are undercut by a lack of dimension and richness when considering the work as a whole and alongside others like it. But sometimes a book comes along that isn’t just clever and inventive but also vital and fully realized. Kevin Brockmeier’s The View From the Seventh Layer is a good example.

A few of Brockmeier’s stories are formally inventive– "The Human Soul as a Rube Goldberg Device" is presented in a "choose your adventure" format, which isn’t unheard of, but it also tells a complete, moving, beautiful story, which I’ve never experienced in that format before– but almost all are thematically inventive and clever in the best, non-reductive sense of the terms. Despite their undeniable freshness, Brockmeier’s stories involve the classic stuff of fiction: characters ranging from a preacher who discovers a compromising muse to a philosophy student who discovers through unexpected means why some great philosophers gave up on philosophy and an Afghani tribal woman immortalized by a western photographer, each wrestling with their constantly changing lives, their vocations (and avocations), the things they try to love, and the things they hope love them back.

Four of the stories are explicitly called fables. One of the most lyrical, "A Fable Ending in the Sound of a Thousand Parakeets," is also one of the best, telling the Steven Millhauser-ish story of a mute man living in a city where everyone communicates through song raises a flock of parakeets that gradually learn to sing the sounds of his life, even after his life is over. In another ("A Fable with Slips of White Paper Spilling from the Pockets") a man chances to buy "God’s overcoat" only to discover that the pockets are continually filled with peoples’ plaintive prayers.

There’s a deep power propelling each story forwards, but Brockmeier doesn’t sound just the same single serious note. "The Lady with the Pet Tribble" cleverly fuses Chekhov’s famous story "The Lady with the Pet Dog" with the milieu of that other famous Chekhov… the Star Trek universe while "Home Videos" takes place behind the scenes of a funniest home videos television show.

The View from the Seventh Layer is one of the best contemporary collections of short fiction I’ve ever read. It’s compellingly modern without posturing, fragile without being pretentious, delightful without pandering. I’ve already ordered Brockmeier’s earlier collection and his novel. If they’re half as interesting as this latest collection they will be well worth it.

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