Books & Literature

Book Review: The Last Wilkie’s and Other Stories, by Jon Steiner

A varied collection of short fiction stories by author by Jon Steiner, ranging in style from comedy to dark and disturbing.

While there are some unifying themes in this initially disparate collection of stories such as how we connect with others, the ‘what ifs’ of life and what might have been had we chosen another path, many of the stories read like page fillers and overall I was disappointed in the collection.

Some stories are very short and one I did enjoy was Instructions, which is less than a page. It’s a parody of the spy genre: a call from a pay phone; a one-eyed tap dancer; a Russian accent; microfilms and an abducted wife. The situation is made more ludicrous when the kidnapper is drowned out by the sound of a passing bus and has hung up before the husband can get the instructions and we are left to wonder what happens next.

the-last-wilkies200In the story Tooth I have to admit I’m not exactly sure what Steiner is trying to convey. A dire series of events happens after a man’s tooth falls out while he is cleaning them before bed. After the sink falls off the wall and cuts his leg, he then walks into a rusty bear trap, through broken glass, falls down stairs and has a light-fitting fall on him. At the end of all this he drags himself back to bed and ‘the woman who hated him’ looks at him, rolls over and goes back to sleep. Are all these incidents and accidents metaphors for the difficulty of his life, not meant to be taken literally? Or has the ‘woman who hates him’ booby trapped the house? I really can’t see the point of this story.

I also have trouble grasping whatever point Steiner is trying to make in The Last Wilkie’s. Wilkie’s is a family restaurant chain that has gone out of business but when the liquidation company sends a representative, Erin, to a struggling small town to assess the remaining assets, she finds it is still operating. The restaurant is being run as if it were still a Wilkie’s but with hand drawn logos on cups and containers and using rabbits for meat. The town is struggling since a mine closed and Erin hears a customer asking for time to pay as he’s been off work with illness.

The franchisee, Corby, an ex minister, seems to have taken the Wilkie’s promotional material very much to heart and believes they are much more than a restaurant, telling Erin, ‘It’s a way of life. It transcends matters of money and corporate law’. I can see why Corby wants to keep the restaurant running as an important part of the community but why as an ersatz Wilkie’s? Are the customers so dim that they cannot tell the difference between genuine Wilkie’s cups and hand-drawn facsimiles? Is Steiner commenting on corporate greed, lack of concern for the community when businesses close? And/or how we are all sucked in by the advertising and promotional material of such food franchises and how this is supported by the establishment when Erin’s solution to Corby’s intransigence is to call the Sherriff’s office?

In spite of other glowing reviews ‘…brilliant and innovative’ (Ryan O’Neill, The Weight of a Human Heart), ‘…fluent and funny, as always’ (Tegan Bennet) I am not convinced this collection is any of those things.  It is amusing in parts, dark and disturbing in others but my overall feeling is why did Steiner bother?

Reviewed by: Jan Kershaw

Rating out of 10:  4

Publisher: Spineless Wonders
Release Date: August 2016
RRP: $24.99 paperback

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