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Disease
Bodily life is an uneasy business. The terror of disease is a ubiquitous one. New diseases are being discovered all the time. This book collects twenty contemporary diseases — *privacy*, for example, or *innovation*, or *involuntary compassion* — and presents their primary symptoms and etiologies. It presents sufferers’ anecdotes: Owen wakes up one day made of glass. Deirdre is allergic to tourists. A middle-aged diabetic is haunted by the feet of a Kurdish refugee child. Apples develop a persistent tremor, and peanuts plot underground. Human resilience is tested in dramatic new ways in *Disease*.
102 pages, Paperback
First published August 14, 2020
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About the author
Sarah Tolmie
13 books78 followersSarah Tolmie is the author of the 120-sonnet sequence Trio, published by McGill-Queen’s University Press (release date 1 April 2015) and the chapbook Sonnet in a Blue Dress and Other Poems (Baseline Press, 2014). She has also published a novel, The Stone Boatmen, and a short fiction collection, NoFood, with Aqueduct Press (both 2014).
She is a medievalist trained at the University of Toronto and Cambridge and is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Waterloo.
She is a medievalist trained at the University of Toronto and Cambridge and is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Waterloo.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 19, 2021
This is a sly, witty collection of short stories -- speculative (science fiction) all based loosely on the theme of disease, but really on 'disorder' of the human spirit or preoccupation. I even looked up the meaning of 'disease' -- and use the secondary one here -- "particular quality, habit, or disposition regarded as adversely affecting a person or group of people."
Why? Because the stories in here are so specific. The Preface asserts that the purpose of this book is "primarily diagnostic." Many are written as 'case histories,' using the form of medical diagnoses or explorations of conditions. My favorites are Steven P. who suffers from "terminal innovation;" Deidre F. who is "tourist sensitive" and lives in Dublin amid a torrent of tourists and breaks out into Irish gig and must refrain from Riverdance at all costs; and Joan A. a woman of a certain age who learns that her weight issue is connected with her cookbook reading craze.
There is so much sly, witty, slipped in social commentary in these stories that I loved. I only wish, wish, wish that this talented author had named this collection differently -- or given us a hint with the cover of the wit and style in these stories.
All I know is this: I devour every book from Aqueduct Press, a gem of a press. I would put DISEASE by Sarah Tolmie on a must-read list for any lover of speculative literary fiction.
--Caroline
Why? Because the stories in here are so specific. The Preface asserts that the purpose of this book is "primarily diagnostic." Many are written as 'case histories,' using the form of medical diagnoses or explorations of conditions. My favorites are Steven P. who suffers from "terminal innovation;" Deidre F. who is "tourist sensitive" and lives in Dublin amid a torrent of tourists and breaks out into Irish gig and must refrain from Riverdance at all costs; and Joan A. a woman of a certain age who learns that her weight issue is connected with her cookbook reading craze.
There is so much sly, witty, slipped in social commentary in these stories that I loved. I only wish, wish, wish that this talented author had named this collection differently -- or given us a hint with the cover of the wit and style in these stories.
All I know is this: I devour every book from Aqueduct Press, a gem of a press. I would put DISEASE by Sarah Tolmie on a must-read list for any lover of speculative literary fiction.
--Caroline
September 30, 2020
Genre: literary fiction
Pairings: f/f (in one of the shorts)
Queer Representation: cis lesbian
Warnings: none
Review
A very pandemic-appropriate collection of short works exploring the human condition, wherein said conditions are looked at like diseases. For instance, the disease of 'estrangement,' wherein conjoined siblings (all humans are joined to their twin via an umbilical cord throughout their whole lives) grow apart enough that their cord dries up, leaving them unable to stand one another (it is here that we meet the one lesbian pairing of the book, Constance of the broken twin set, and her doting wife Martha).
Another example is the disease of Involuntary Compassion, as described in the case study of Aliyah, a young teen, who:
(read the full review here)
Pairings: f/f (in one of the shorts)
Queer Representation: cis lesbian
Warnings: none
Review
A very pandemic-appropriate collection of short works exploring the human condition, wherein said conditions are looked at like diseases. For instance, the disease of 'estrangement,' wherein conjoined siblings (all humans are joined to their twin via an umbilical cord throughout their whole lives) grow apart enough that their cord dries up, leaving them unable to stand one another (it is here that we meet the one lesbian pairing of the book, Constance of the broken twin set, and her doting wife Martha).
Another example is the disease of Involuntary Compassion, as described in the case study of Aliyah, a young teen, who:
(read the full review here)
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews