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Title: Sewing Shut My Eyes (Black Ice Book) by Lance Olsen, Andi Olsen ISBN: 1-57366-083-3 Publisher: Fiction Collective Two Pub. Date: 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $11.95

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Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (2 reviews)

Rating: 4
Summary: Good Stories, but collages fall a little short
Comment: This is a fun and fantastic romp through the recent short fiction by Olsen. Much more adventurous than his novels, these short works really seem to examine the ideas and techniques he pushes in his various criticisms and writing guide books.

The stories cover both character focused and idea focused stories, and all have a tighly wound wit and fun sense of language play. All reside in the realm of the fantastic in one form or another, but those familiar with his other works won't be surprised by this. What is surprising is the haunting, thoughtful quality that the stories seem imbued with. No matter how bizarre the situations or characters, they all sit deftly within their own logic and have much to say about how and why we live.

The collages created with his wife are fun and contain some interesting ideas, but in many ways seem to be a hipped up, hyped up derivation of Barthelme's own collage work from the '60's with a sense of almost trying too hard to be purposefully clever.

Rating: 5
Summary: An Illustrated Guide To The Fate Of Pop Culture
Comment: Olsen's stories are hilarious, frightening and a challenge to read. He constructs his sentences the same way 5000 sweating serfs and artisans constructed Notre Dame, slowly and painfully. He never loses control of his prose though, and his characters are both entirely alienated but still very warm. Pop culture mavens, freakish dwarven millionaires, trailer park trash and supermodels all have a role to play in these shorts. There are several collages of photos, clip arts and words as well, and these pieces by Olsen and Andi Olsen (his wife?)are, if anything, more disturbing and more heartwarming (yes, at the same time!) than the short stories. Unlike the postmodernists, Olsen knows that merely being human doesn't necessarily lead to alienation, despair and ignorance. Even the lowest of us have something to offer ourselves and the world.