Queen of Terrors: Fictions

by Robert Kelly

In his fourth collection, Robert Kelly tracks the elusive subject of all narratives -- the self stripped bare, even -- into ever more personal territories. The stories (all but one composed in the past few years) share a common urge to break loose from the constraints of linear thought, employing cubist technique in the construction of experience. Gathered here are close to thirty works of varying style and length, but whether blazing a single page or sensuously occupying a novella's space, virtually every one tells of odd encounters with desire. The longest story, "The Red King," lies at the center of the book, a telling complement at twenty-five years' remove to the novella "Cities," collected in A Transparent Tree. Now, a man of gentle omnipotence, perhaps in the winter of life, reinherits his own body. A second long work, "In Irish America," explores the immigrant experience of displacement in thirty-two prose-poems meant to be read or sung aloud -- a species of image-filled music. As usual, this new collection will surprise even Kelly's most assiduous readers.

158 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1994

About the author

Kelly has published more than fifty books of poetry and prose, including Red Actions: Selected Poems 1960-1993 (1995) and a collection of short fictions, A Transparent Tree (1985). Many were published by the Black Sparrow Press. He also edited the anthology A Controversy of Poets (1965).Kelly was of great help to the Hungryalist group of poets of India during the trial of Malay Roychoudhury,with whom he had correspondence,now archived at Kolkata.

Kelly received the Los Angeles Times First Annual Book Award (1980) for Kill the Messenger Who Brings Bad News and the American Book Award, Before Columbus Foundation (1991) for In Time.

Reviews

[Keith Taylor]

As always with Kelly, it is interesting and provocative. Good to remind anyone who just stumbles across this that these are "fictions" that do not have regular stories with expected narrative arcs or character development. These are fictions that are much more interested in exploring the mythic connections through the personality and psychology of the author. Much more Jung than Freud.

I might have enjoyed some of Kelly's other books of fiction more, but this one became interesting just by reading it 25 years after its publication. It feels much less radical now than it would have in 1994. Fiction writers regularly use themselves in their fictions now. In those few pieces where Kelly is playing constantly with the sound and feel of language ... well, that just feels a bit rusty now, something we've seen too much of.

But Kelly was early in this kind of experimentation. He is probably seldom given credit for the work he did clearing new ground for a new approach to work. In fact, it is highly likely there are people working this way who have never heard of Robert Kelly and might not recognize his influence on them even when presented with it.

The shorter pieces in this collection are usually the most effective, and I felt some of the old excitement while reading them.

[Marc]

A slim collection of brief prose pieces handled with the amazing imagery, diction, and lyricism of a poet. It really felt like many of these pieces were infused with a sense of spirit you could almost touch. Whispers, shadows, and phantoms of the real. Even when I didn't understand what was going on, I always felt something akin to the sublime.