The beloved novelist, journalist, short story writer, and editor Ed Park is continuing to put out excellent work at a startling clip. After having his recent novel Same Bed Different Dreams named a Pulitzer finalist (which, he explains in a lively interview, was largely written while sitting sentinel during his sons’ hockey practices), Park published the short story collection An Oral History of Atlantis and, this fall, The Repairer of Reputations—a “work of weird horror” according to the author. Three Tenses: A Transmission from the Nineties, is delightfully sandwiched between these two volumes. Three Tenses is born from a draft Park had written, saved on a floppy disc, then plum forgot about for a couple decades.Article continues after advertisement
Park adeptly took up the effort he began in his twenties and developed it into something remarkable, melding autobiography with fiction through 1,500 pithy dispatches. These describe everything from seeing a man carrying an aquarium filled with books to the experience of selecting the prettiest nail clipper from the shop. The starred review in Publishers Weekly for Three Tenses explains: “Park wisely downplays narrative arc in favor of stray ruminations and insights that coalesce to illuminate his endlessly curious, mordantly funny worldview. It adds up to an engrossing and beguiling trip through the consciousness of a budding wordsmith.” Park also generously annotated his to-read pile with the spirit of someone lovingly walking you through his eclectic art collection, so I’m going to get out of the way for you all to enjoy the tour.
