Monday, February 18, 2019

Sick: A Memoir by Porochista Khakpour

That is Porochista Khakpour (@PKhakpour) pictured on the cover of her new book, Sick: A Memoir. If you’ve been following her on social media or know someone who has, then most likely you’ve seen her post about the struggle to diagnose and treat her illness(es). Among pictures of her poodle and writer friends she has shared photos of herself much like the one on the front cover, lying in a hospital bed with tubes running along her arms. I was peripherally aware of her situation (coming from a graduate creative writing program), but I did not experience her story in real time as so many of her friends and followers did.
What I have experienced vicariously through friends and family is the state of healthcare in the United States that Khakpour documents meticulously throughout her narrative. In particular, the systemic disbelief, dismissal, and disregard for women experiencing chronic illness and pain. Healthcare in our country is expensive, not only in terms of money but also time and energy. The years Khakpour had to put in with numerous hospital visits, doctors, and specialists (including New Age alternatives) before receiving the correct diagnosis are harrowing. Much like Sinclair’s The Jungle or Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, Khakpour is reporting on the reality we all experience, but fail to acknowledge to our own detriment.

For this reason alone, Sick is must read. But it’s also an intensely personal narrative, one that isn’t afraid to be honest. The author is far from perfect, going so far to admit at one point that she makes herself sick with her choices and behavior, and I immediately wanted to thank her online for that passage. Each of us is guilty of taking poor care of ourselves, whether physically or emotionally or some elaborate combination that also damages our relationships or our futures. Our culture and communities (and complex systemic factors therein) enable these choices and this behavior, which is further complicated by our need to live fully. Experiencing the mistakes and recklessness of life often conflicts with our responsibility to be the best caretakers of our own health. In this respect, Khakpour is being more courageous than most authors I can name in terms of owning her own role in how she has suffered through a lifetime of illness. She herself says that she sets a bad example and shouldn’t be followed. Many people in my life and I would say the same, making this the kind of self accounting we all need.

There’s no happy ending to the book. She allows that the story is maybe in the middle of being told, and the ending may not be as pleasant as she intended in the original book proposal. But her memoir is also a triumph because it speaks a truth we must hear. Her book diagnoses the sickness of a country that is not providing proper healthcare to its women nor providing an environment of support and acceptance for people of color. And she wrote it with the unflinching examination at what a difficult and even sometimes ugly account it is of illness, addiction, and suffering.

Please contribute to Khakpour's crowdfund if you are able. She details in her book and online how immensely expensive it is to treat late stage Lyme Disease, so every contribution matters. As a reader who borrowed a copy from my public library, the least I could do was donate the full retail value of her book. If you're reading this, and you read her memoir, then this is a simple, significant good you can do.
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Sunday, February 10, 2019

The Unfinished World and Other Stories by Amber Sparks

In every review of short story collections I’ve read, there isn’t space to review each story. This is 
true even for shorter collections of 8-10 stories. But some are so remarkable that each story 
deserves to be highlighted, however briefly. The Unfinished World and Other Stories by 
Amber Sparks (@ambernoelle) is one such collection. Below I’ve listed the title of each story in 
the order it appears in print followed by a brief description meant to entice you into obtaining 
and reading this collection.


“The Janitor in Space” - a working class woman finds perspective cleaning up a space station 
orbiting earth.

“The Lizzie Borden Jazz Babies” - first of similarly themed stories about odd, precocious children 
with eccentric parents.

“The Cemetery for Lost Faces” - Louise and Clarence become a taxidermist and artist like their 
parents who are tragically killed, and end up living in a big old manor house that they keep up 
by doing taxidermy for a mob boss.

“The Logic of the Loaded Heart” - John’s painful, impoverished life (and his cycle of bad choices) 
told in the style of a college exam.

“Thirteen Ways of Destroying a Painting” - a women from the future encounters difficulty 
changing the past when she fails numerous attempts to prevent an artist from painting his 
masterpiece.

“Lancelot in the Lost Places of the World” - Lancelot is resurrected for corporate greed and 
surprisingly manages well on a modern day (con)quest into the jungle.

“And the World Was Crowded with Things That Meant Love” - poignant, long distance love affair 
between a sculptor and a wood carver. Think art-pals instead of pen-pals.

“Birds with Teeth” - enthralling story about warring paleontologists during the bone rush of the 
late 19th century.

“For These Humans Who Cannot Fly” - told from the point of view of the inventor of German 
waiting mortuaries whose wife killed herself after he institutionalized her.

“Take Your Daughter to the Slaughter” - coming of age story for girls who become werewolf 
hunters.

“We Were Holy Once” - a family of grifters travel from town to town to con people out of money, 
eventually murdering the wealthiest bachelor for his inheritance before moving on.

“La Belle de Nuit, La Belle de Jour” - in this fractured fairy tale a cursed princess--whose brothers 
are turned to swans--lives out in the wilderness weaving shirts to bring them back until she’s 
‘rescued.’ There are even more interesting details I won’t spoil for you.

“The Men and Women Like Him” - another time travel story, where a sort of janitor cleans up 
time travelers’ messes when they go back to save lives. He empathizes by way of a great aunt 
murdered during the Holocaust.

“Things You Should Know About Cassandra Dee” - a present day Cassandra ignores her own sight 
in order to look and feel beautiful, even though it leads to her own death.

“The Fires of Western Heaven” - tableaux of images connected with war and its inevitable 
devastation.

“The Process of Human Decay” - what it says on the tin, in sumptuous prose.

“The Fever Librarian” - a librarian of fevers succumbs to it in more ways than one.

“The Unfinished World” - novella chronicling the lives of Set and Inge, two post-WWI kids that 
grow up to be extraordinary people and eventually find one another. Their idiosyncratic families 
are central to the two main characters.

“The Sleepers” - story as Rorschach inkblot. I could tell you what I read, but you will read 
something completely different.


Each of these stories is founded in a narrative idea powerful enough to sustain a novel. The 
incredible merit of Sparks’s prose is that she realizes the full potential of these ideas in the short 
story form. One of my personal favorites, “Birds with Teeth,” constructs the rivalry meticulously 
through explorations of mentorship, ambition, competition, love, and betrayal. Each line is rich 
with historical details, characterizations, and insights into the limits of human knowledge and the 
breadth of human frailty. Likewise, I learned and ached so much from “For These Humans Who 
Cannot Fly” in less than a dozen pages that I was sure it must have been longer than it was. The 
lazy reviewer will often lament, “this should be a novel!” but overlooks that the short story form 
can do more justice to a narrative than a sprawling, engorged book. Like a poem, the care crafting 
each sentence and choice of word in a short story creates a singular experience that resonates 
profoundly in its immediacy. With her originality, her voice, and her craft, Sparks has managed a 
career in the short story to rival the greatest masters of the form: Katherine Anne Porter, 
Flannery O’Connor, Joy Williams, and Jorge Luis Borges. Read and rejoice.
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