No apologies necessary for Joey Comeau's new book

By Kristin Nehls, Assistant Entertainment Editor

February 21, 2008 | 5 p.m.

Joey Comeau’s recently published compilation of short stories, “It’s Too Late to Say I’m Sorry,” has a range of story lines that vary between lesbian love affairs, bike tours gone bad, grandmothers turning into zombies and every imaginable scenario in between.

Following his debut novel “Lockpick Pornography,” Comeau's new publication duly exemplifies his incomparable and peculiar writing style. Comeau is the sole author of the 14 short stories within the book. With somberness gushing from one stroke of the pen and absurdity escaping from the next, it is the spontaneity of Comeau’s subject matter and the quirkiness of his writing style that keeps each story fresh and intriguing.

Taking on the voice of both males and females, of both the victims and victimizers, of straight people, homosexuals, and characters of all ages, Comeau proves effective in his ability to absorb and pervade the idiosyncrasies of each narrator that he has created. The convincingness of these narrators, however, is not always consistent.

For example, in the story “1E4,” the narrator is ineffective in revealing to the audience that Comeau is attempting to show how there is a loss of human reliance correlating with the development of technology. If the narrator were able to relate easier or was more deeply developed, Comeau would be much more successful in preaching his message.

This is quickly contrasted, however, in stories such as “Historians and Degenerates,” where the detached emotions of the narrator only contribute to the overall success of the story. This story is premised on the idea of a protagonist whose wife left him in order to publish a “no-names-have-been-changed” book accounting for each detail of their every sexual encounter. The nonchalance of the protagonist’s exploited personal life makes for a complex analysis of the role of sexuality in our present society, and shows how disregarding human vulnerability destroys societal privacy.

Such complex themes, combined with the ease of Comeau’s pragmatic language, make for a read that scratches far below the surface. Luckily, this level of intellect is not unique to “Historians and Degenerates,” and analytic themes and ideas are relevant throughout the compilation.

Comeau reaches a high point in “It’s Too Late to Say I’m Sorry” with the story “Red Delicious.” It is told through the voice of a blind girl who experiences the loss of a loved one. Opening with the lines “Apples aren’t red. Apples are cold and crisp,” Comeau uses delicate language and a compelling perspective to describe a world void of color and of compensating for such a world through other heightened senses.

Among topics such as blindness also come story lines that incorporate such oddities as talking ducks and an obsession with giraffes. Throughout the book, Comeau shows off the variety that is evident in his writing style, most prominently proven in his transition to science fiction midway through the book.

In the story “The Machine,” Comeau suggests a future in which people are able to travel in time for the purpose of criminal investigations. He incorporates subtle religious undertones and also begins his delve into the sci-fi side of his writing abilities.

It is within this exploration of sci-fi, however, that Comeau hits his lowest point in this book in the story “The Birthday Girl.” Comeau must be given credit for his attempt to break the standards of thought-provoking stories, but the transition from the story that precedes “The Birthday Girl” (a solemn, death-focused narrative that comments on human insanity, entitled “One Foot Underwater”) to a story about a grandmother who turns into a zombie on her 100th birthday is just rather drastic and off-putting. Given the hyperbolic circumstances of this zombie-grandma, such as scratching through doors with her fingernails and eating live babies, “The Birthday Girl’s” overall lack of realism is hard to overcome.

The stories seem to garner length as the page numbers increase, and, while Comeau’s shorter stories are still entirely effective in their social commentaries, they have a definite sense of incompletion. The first four stories in particular are especially short, a point that could be deemed moot were it not for the feeling that each respective piece is missing a conclusion.

The final story in the book serves as a gripping and suitable conclusion. This denouement proves that, while separated into 14 different short stories, “It’s Too Late To Say I’m Sorry” works as one piece of literature that functions holistically. Comeau’s attention to detail and altogether originality makes for a book that is truly a genre of its own. Each narrator is a foil of the previous narrator, and while each story is individually compelling. It is the compilation of these stories together that makes this book a piece of art.

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