Oliver by Kevin Maloney, 2018
The magic trick:
Loud extremes
This is the short story equivalent to playing a song way too loud in your AirPods. Everything here is turned up to 11. Our narrator’s writing voice is aggressive, to say the least. Everything is extreme. We get reference to two different kinds of “all or nothing” lifestyles. And we get his extremely odd need to give a stranger’s child a haircut in the playspace of an Indiana McDonald’s.
Like that song ringing in your ears, it’s not entirely pleasant. But it’s also kind of cathartic.
And that’s quite a trick on Maloney’s part.
The selection:
The manager came for his scissors and wanted to know why there was a bunch of hair in the play structure.
I started feeling uncomfortable. The world has always been harsh on its geniuses, and I was one of them. It was time for my punishment. I was going to burn like Joan of Arc or be crucified like Jesus, or more likely die alone from complications of alcoholism like all of my heroes.
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