Deep dives into the human character underlie Mark McCaig's
fast-read glimpses of what at first blush would seem momentary
absurdities. There's Pinkii, who became deeply obsessed with her little
toes and the fifth phalanges of all creatures. The stamp collector deeply
troubled by the busyness of the USPS modern-day art, preferring the
stately look that adorned envelopes decades in the past. The facial
recognition practitioner who dispensed immediate names, among
them Jellyfish, to a cousin, and Weasel, a lawyer on her elevator.
McCaig, a pioneering educator, presents appealing stories you can
knock out any time, perhaps when you're waiting for somebody,
or something. On hold with your doctor? His rapid-read takes,
steeped in technology, at times relate uncomfortable truths.
In Upgrade, a 200-word rapier treatment of the cell-phone
era, he contrasts the gleeful girl with her new prize at a cell
phone store with the Asian girl disassembling trade-ins at a
poisonous e-waste dump under the leering eyes of her oppressor.
In the best tradition of flash fiction, Jellyfish illuminates pains, excesses
and charming realities in the human condition-all in a flash.
About the Author :
Mark McCaig is a school founder, father, and lifelong follower of the birds and stars over the western shore of Chesapeake Bay. He teaches at the University of Maryland Global College and Notre Dame University of Maryland. has received multiple grants in poetry from the Maryland State Arts Council. His poems have appeared in many journals, occasionally winning prizes.
Review :
"Mark McCaig's tour de force, JELLYFISH, fixes its titular hero, tentacled and translucent, inside a cabinet of glass at the museum. And so much poignancy is held within that image, so much of the intelligence of myth, where the god-like circle often gets captured in the square. It's a theme he returns to over and over, and such gathering seems to always lead to gathering--the coming to understand--all the while suggesting that these exhibits and objects and stories we place under glass or within the craft of our poems are mere disguises for Medusae that would finish us, dazzle us to stone, if just once we saw them as they truly were. A beautiful collection by a prose poet of the highest order." -David Keplinger, Poet and translator.
Within each cameo, McCaig provides a detailed glimpse into the lives of others. Their thoughts, habits and desires are immediately recognizable as reflections of our own oddball, idiosyncratic humanity. A curious little book, and such a pleasure to read."
-Fiction writer Johnna Schmidt is director of the Jiménez-Porter Writers' House at the University of Maryland
