Crazy Me by James Patrick Kelly
My rating: 3/5 cats
Given that the country is in crisis, he argues, I’m the one who is maladjusted. He likes to call me Deluded Me.
speaking of crazy, observe my new behavior of reviewing these free tor shorts as i go (and eventually getting caught up on the tor short review backlog)! what a concept!
in this case, it is doubly helpful—not only does it get one tiny thing off my plate of self-imposed stress, but i have very little to say about this particular story, and i don’t see that becoming any easier once months have elapsed.
i thought this one would be fun, starting as it does with raccoons!
“Wake up.” When Crazy Me rests a hand on my forehead, it jolts me from sleep. “It’s raccoons.”
“What?” I shiver out of a very pleasant dream of licking frosting off Amisha’s nose. “Get!” I flail at him in the darkness and thump his shoulder.
“Raccoons! With their masks and their tiny black hands and their fleas. Rooting through our garbage.”
“What time is it?” I lift my head off the pillow to look at the clock. “Great, it’s four twenty-three.”
“Do you know how many raccoons there are?” he asks. As usual, my irritation bounces off him. “They’re everywhere, like furry cockroaches. I have no doubt whatsoever. The next pandemic will be huge—raccoon flu.”
and yet, raccoons are not at all the central theme. i don’t even know what the central theme is, to tell you the truth. a lot of the work here is done in the unsaid/inference zone, while the stuff that is written is scattered into many undeveloped directions so it feels like a part of something that will hopefully resolve at some point but it doesn’t really deliver much as a standalone piece. it’s also pretty familiar territory for anyone who’s ever read a clone/twin story. i’m not sure what it’s meant to leave a reader with, i don’t know what that ending is shooting for (although i am glad for a return to raccoons), and i’m more perplexed than anything.
three stars cats because of my own personal star cat-handling system, but it’s a low three, and i’m not sure who the reader for this one is. but i’m willing to listen to your reasons if you loved it. tell me what i’m missing
read it for yourself here:
http://www.tor.com/2011/05/11/crazy-me/
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