CURTIS SMITH is the author of the novel An Unadorned Life and two collections of short-short stories from March Street Press, Placing Ourselves Among the Living and In the Jukebox Light. His stories and essays have appeared in over fifty literary journals and anthologies including American Literary Review, Mid-American Review, Cutbank, Bellingham Review, Passages North, Hobart, Lake Effect, South Dakota Review, Greensboro Review, North Dakota Quarterly, and West Branch. His work has been cited by The Best American Short Stories, The Best American Mystery Stories and The Best American Spiritual Writing. He received a MFA in Fiction from Vermont College in 1996. He lives and works in Pennsylvania with his wife, Michele, and son, Evan.
The Species Crown: A novella and stories
by Curtis Smith
ISBN 978-0-9793049-0-3
252 pages at $18.00 soft cover
Whenever an advance review copy arrives from Press 53, I know to expect an excellent reading experience. The Species Crown by award winning writer, Curtis Smith, is the latest literary gem from this exceptional small press. Smith delivers each of the eleven short stories and the title novella in this book with a stylish flair. His characters are sometimes shocking and flawed but always sympathetically human.
Life and death, hope and despair, human foibles and mysteries are realistic themes throughout. Smith writes of the beautiful and profane, ghosts, dreams, and family dysfunctions with a shattering grace. This excerpt from "Beneath the Net" is one small example of how Smith reveals his characters and their lives. A lonely ex-boxer contemplates a mostly failed, loveless life while working in a camouflaged airplane factory during World War Two:
"You smoke your morning cigarette until the lit nub warms your fingers, nod a hello or two, but no one knows a thing about you, your boxer's past, the home you left long ago. A sleepwalkers' parade files past, faces obscured by the net's ever-shifting play of shadow and light, and you think of the deeper camouflage of a man's life, his heart wrapped in actions and stances meant to mask the sorrows that were his alone."
Smith chose his novella to end the book. "The Species Crown" is both poignant and disturbing, but I can't recall a more satisfying read recently. Stanley Watson's aunt and uncle ask him to house sit and "baby sit" their mentally impaired son so they can go on vacation. Only Stanley knows how and why his cousin Bobby's brain became mangled. Bobby is a damaged butterfly, a twenty-something man with the mind of an eight year old. In a moment of enlightenment, Stanley realizes, "If man is the king of all species, then surely the brain is his crown." Bobby's brain may be damaged, but the lessons Stanley learns from him through summer transform their lives.
Curtis Smith sees the fragile and broken people walking among us, the public crumbling of human lives, and memorializes each scenario through stunning prose. The Species Crown contains mature themes and adult language, but is highly recommended to adults and mature readers.
Review by Laurel Johnson for Midwest Book Review
April 1, 2007
