Transmutation

April 19, 2021
DiFrancesco’s sharp and sometimes fantastical collection (after the novel All City) depicts a series of challenges faced by outsiders. Junie, the young trans protagonist of “Inside My Saffron Cave” suffers the tyranny of her mother’s abusive boyfriend Chad, whose house they’ve just moved into. “The Ledger of the Deep” portrays a warmer familial relationship, but not one without problems. The complexity of Dad’s feelings is represented by his resistance to renaming Sara, his beloved boat, now that daughter Sara has become Sawyer. The collection’s title signals DiFrancesco’s often whimsical exploration of various types of change. In “The Disappearance,” an aging academic’s public screed against minority poets leads to his literal progressive vanishing. The boundless love of a vampire lies at the center of “The Pure,” while gypsies and a monster inhabit the eerie folkloric “The Wind, the Wind.” “The Chuck Berry Tape Massacre” is the longest and most ambitious story, with parallel woven narratives. One thread follows the descent into lunacy of single mother Kay and the abandonment of her two daughters; the other fancifully charts the obsessive quest of a music lover named Jack Tran. How these narratives connect is left to the reader to decide. Whether striking chords that are playful, poignant, or both at once, this collection consistently charms.

May 15, 2021
Ten stories of transformation--both real and magical. On the one hand, transmutation means transformation; on the other, it may suggest change of a specific sort--produced by alchemy or even radioactive decay. The stories in DiFrancesco's book flirt with both, moving between realistic situations and gothic plots to show us characters in the midst of becoming their real selves, changing into something new, or even being altered. In "Inside my Saffron Cave," Junie is an angry trans teenager who is waiting to escape her mother and her mother's abusive boyfriend so she can transition and become who she wants to be. In "The Ledger of the Deep," a more hopeful piece, Sawyer's dad embraces his son's new identity as a trans man by changing the name of their boat from Sara to Sawyer. Both stories feel a little simple--the boyfriend too cruel, the father too quick to understand. Instead, DiFrancesco's gothic tales, which are wonderfully creepy, are the real winners here. In "A Little Procedure," based on Rosemary Kennedy's life, Lily receives a lobotomy when her promiscuity threatens her family's reputation. But unlike Kennedy, who was disabled by the operation, Lily's altered intellect doesn't stop her from getting revenge. A hired girl goes missing in "Hinkypunk" after she gets too close to her boss's granddaughter. That night, mysterious lights begin appearing in the marsh that the grandmother dismisses as nothing more than marsh gas. The mother in "The Chuck Berry Tape Massacre" loses her grasp on reality and drags her young daughters into her madness until the girls are forever damaged. Another narrative strand about a musician finding a tape made by the oldest daughter and its impact on his career feels like a distraction from the real pathos of the family's story. A mixed bag with a few standouts.

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