Unthology 8

Compiled by Ashley Stokes and Robin Jones, the Unthology series reflects the growing popularity of short stories among readers and writers alike. Freed from the constraints of house style and overarching themes, the Unthologists create a diverse collection, ranging from Scandinavian artists to Arab dictators, and from automaton butlers to fast food workers. If there is a unifying factor, it is the authors’ willingness to look beyond the middle class middle age crisis narrative, into corners of life which don't get a voice in contemporary mainstream literature.

As ever, there is a focus on less established names; Unthology has identified a number of rising stars in the past, including Angela Readman and Carys Bray, and there are more candidates here. Influx Press founder Kit Caless contributes Not Drowning But Saving, an enjoyably dark and corrupt account of disaster junkies, humanitarian volunteers who struggle to cope with the downtime between tsunamis and earthquakes, and share the secrets of their motivation on a telephone helpline; Lara Williams’ As Understood by the Women is a sharp and cynical depiction of a marriage between two people from different social circles, who fail utterly to understand one another.

The opening stories of Unthology 8 both draw on real life events: the first, Beneath the Melting Snow by David Frankel is a fictionalised account of Edvard Munch’s later years, showing the artist as an old man, haunted by old loves and rivals, and his mentors, an anarchist prophet and his conservative father. Attempting to make sense of his past through his paintings, Munch is a moving, poignant figure. Rodge Glass’s Bye Bye Ben Ali builds on the author’s internationalist, politically engaged collection LoveSexTravelMusik, dramatizing the final days of a dictator’s reign. There is an urgency to the writing, as the patrician ruler finds he can no longer mould reality to his will. The seismic rift in his country is likened to an earthquake, with himself and his staff stranded on one side, the people on the other.

Elsewhere, Martin Monahan and Dan Malakin blend science and surrealism in their contributions. Monahan’s The Toasted Cheese Sandwich of Babel explores the relationships between science, government, religion and capital, the difference between those who push at boundaries, and those that work within them. The protagonist, Kee Zeltman, is a fast food impresario - the first self-made female billionaire from Missouri. At a social function, Zeltman meets a Hungarian physicist who hopes to use the large hadron collider to discover the human soul. Fascinated by his ambition, she attempts to bypass the gatekeepers of the scientific world to support him, eventually using the proceeds of a new toasted sandwich recipe to create a bespoke research facility for him.

In I, Crasbo, Malakin imagines a world in which humans are served by highly advanced automaton staff. Crasbo has a traditional butler’s contempt for his master, paying lip service to his orders while devoting the majority of his memory to distilling the concept of intelligent life into a single unified formula. However, his master’s financial crisis reveals an unlikely symbiosis between the two, as Malakin explores the interplay between intelligence, social conditioning and class.  

Nora and Anthony by Armel Dagorn has a heightened sensory feel. Set in a theatre, the story begins with 'an apparition, in a locked box' - a sprite of the theatre, who appears to a stagehand one night. At first, the stagehand assumes that the vision is a manifestation of artifice and romance, a supernatural product of years of dramatic productions. In reality, the apparition is a drama student squatting in the theatre to save money and watch the Shakespeare season. The relationship between the student and stagehand plays out against a backdrop of battle scenes, and is contrasted between the exploitative affair between a director and actress which the stagehand discovers. The setting lends everything which happens an artificial tone: the student has a face like a 'clay mask', borrowing the stylised mannerisms of the actors he watches.

Victoria Briggs’ A Beautiful Noise is another highlight, combining a comedy of manners and a nostalgic look at a vanishing world, as a dwindling band of record company executives descend on Cannes for a showcase. There are hints of Geoff Dyer’s Jeff in Venice in Briggs’s portrayal of freeloaders, would-be lotharios and drunks playing out their personal dramas against the backdrop of a corporate conference.

Unthology 8 sees the quality level of the series rise once again, with each of the stories giving the reader something to reflect on, or pause to admire. Eight volumes in, Unthology is still going from strength to strength.