Beginnings of a Dream

by Zachariah Rapola

Plunging the reader into a phantasmagoric world where streets are paved with human remains and men are apocalyptically condemned to death by the fire of their loins, these short stories strike a fabulist and magical realism drawn from African traditions and present-day conditions. For all its contemporary relevance, this collection has at its core a dialogue between the living and their ancestors that creates a powerful resonance between the bones of the dead and the echoes of their survivors.

184 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dreams that Ride the Reader

(Across the Styx and Back with Ferryman Zack)

Dear Zachariah,

“No, I am not feeling very well” – those were the first words I ever heard you utter. Having read your book, I can well imagine that you suffer from chronic fatigue brought on by the nightmares that plague your waking and sleeping hours. Even out in the French countryside, with the sun shining bright upon its magnificent cover, your book remained a dark cavern, an underworld where dream and reality are inextricable, where the hope of salvation has dimmed to the slightest glimmer, where echoes moan a warning and ancient symbols etched by ancestors are reduced to wallpaper as you stumble blindly in search of the exit.

Your book rode me hard, Zachariah, but I stayed the course and was rewarded. My life suddenly seemed brighter, clearer, more privileged. I felt like a man who had bungee-jumped down a mineshaft, dangling for an instant in the gaping maw of hell, with a panoramic view of its inhabitants, begging for the backlash to kick in and drag me up. And I saw you, Zack, perched on a ledge above the flames, writing. You seemed to reach up to grasp my hand, but when I was catapulted back into the sunlight, I discovered you had given me your book.

I hope writing it has brought you some relief. If so, I suspect it is akin to that which concentration camp survivors get from giving guided tours of Auschwitz, bravely recounting tales of terrifying intimacy that deserve to be heard and retold for generations to come.

[Tiah]

Short stories which take the everyday into the surreal. The simple is turned into complex imagery, demanding careful and slow reading. Well worth the time and effort.