The Principle of Ultimate Indivisibility:
A Web of Stories

by Brent Robison
Artwork by Wendy Drolma
Bliss Plot Press
ISBN 978-0-578-02316-8
194 pages, paperback
$14.95

This poignant collection of interwoven short stories yearns for true interconnectedness even while expressing the intense loneliness inherent to human individuality.  In “The Handful of Pebbles,” psychologist and writer Gerald Bronson explains the central metaphor and theme of the collection: “Think of reality as a vast field of vibrating energy, a musical ocean, in which people and things and events — everything since before the dawn of history — each is a little flicker that springs up for a moment, a note or riff that gets our attention before it sinks back into the field.  It’s a giant symphony that like all things musical repeats itself, explore s variations on themes.” 

The musical metaphor relating life to a cohesive symphony contrasts with each character’s apparent aloneness.  A character named Harold always wanted to believe “in the big One, our ultimate indivisibility,” but then declares “What a putz.”  So, even as events such as a young man’s car crash are related from various characters’ points of view, the characters themselves remain unaware of the connections. Yet for readers, the events become richer through each rendition, as if there indeed might be an ever ungraspable meaning in everyday traumas and ordinary joys. 

This is a beautifully written, thoughtful collection well worth reading.— C.CRENSHAW • 10/10