“Charactered Pieces” by Caleb J. Ross, reviewed by Lynn Alexander. “Charactered Pieces” is the second publication of the new Outsider Writers Press. It follows David Blaine’s poetry chapbook “Antisocial” as their second release.
Ross delivers exactly what you have come to expect from him: smart layers of fiction with thematically related elements. We see attention to strange details…and we see sick things that on occasion seem nudged into the foreground from where they stood, poised in the periphery. Perhaps Ross does this to add depth to the characters, rendering them alongside their context.
“Charactered Pieces” refer to flawed diamonds, a marketing ploy developed by the character of Lori who is herself a “charactered piece” and as such, seems unable to win the approval of her mother.
Ross moves on to “My Family’s Rule”, where concealment is part of the game of pushing people to decipher what we want and judging them accordingly. Trying to please the father, the offspring involved want to purchase proper presents, as opposed to presents that signify something negative in his eyes as in the case of the shotglasses: “white trash” presents. Continue reading
