The Second Circle

Review

IN THE SLIPSTREAM: AN FC2 READER
by Various Authors
reviewed by Paul McRandle

HISTORY'S BUNK, but it's where I'm starting: in 1973 the Fiction Collective arose out Jonathan Baumbach's need for a publisher. He and Peter Spielberg joined with others in an effort to collectivize a small publishing house, naturally billing themselves as publishers of the best and most innovative fiction around. The house ran on enthusiasm through the Seventies, its authors paying half the printing costs and its books selected by seven other FC writers, making it something of a socialist vanity press. Best of all, the Collective promised to keep all of its authors permanently in print.

IN THE SLIPSTREAM
by
Various Authors

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Jonathan Baumbach claims that they allowed the writer "to become [. . .] his own father," by abandoning the traditional relationship between writer, editor and publisher. However, the Collective gradually lost drive until its reorganization in 1989, when Ronald Sukenick and Curtis White demanded the authority to manage things, taking on the mantle of editorship of what was to be known as FC2. In The Slipstream covers the entire 25 year span from the first print run in 1974 to the present.
What a disappointment, then, that it should read like a 400 page pledge drive. The book oozes a priggish sense of obligation for the reader, the sentiment that you have defeated Art by your refusal to contribute to FC these last 25 years, but now, at this moment of crisis, you can make good by purchasing everything on offer. Rather than bear the hegemonic editorial responsibility of writing an introduction to each of the 30 pieces, White and Sukenick asked the authors to recall anecdotes about the collective, with grating results. They either provide testimonials of the "How FC2 changed my life" variety, or try to ruin our responses to their work by anticipating them. The authors aren't cut out to act as special pleaders for their own causes; they have no idea why they were chosen and often sink into bravado. Jeffrey DeShell finally admits that a collective of writers is a contradiction in terms. The fiction itself is composed mostly of novel extracts too brief to get any sense of what the writer is up to. This isn't the writers' fault but the editors'; more self-contained pieces would have greatly enhanced the scraps and cuttings swept together here. And, unfortunately, many of the selections are trivially provocative and dully written. Even the erotica feels smug. Yet, in the absence of advertising or widespread distribution, In The Slipstream is the only way readers will hear of FC2's more intriguing authors. Rather than waste any money buying this rank potpourri, I'd suggest checking out the most striking books extracted in its pages: Marianne Hauser's The Talking Room, Peter Spielberg's Crash-Landing, Raymond Federman's Take It Or Leave It, and The Mexico Trilogy by D. N. Stuefloten. Ronald Sukenick's Mosaic Man and Curtis White's Memories of My Father Watching TV also look worth cracking open (and I'll be reviewing more of these titles later). Trapped between New Directions and Autonomedia, FC2's claim to the best list in town only suffers further with In The Slipstream.

Paul McRandle

Reviews by Paul McRandle at The Second Circle:

Fishing For Amber by Ciaran Carson
The Jade Cabinet by Rikki Ducornet
The Tunnel by William Gass
The Melancholy of Resistance by Laszlo Krasznahorkai
Lights out for the Territory by Iain Sinclair
An Interview with John Wray
Fiction Collective 2 by Various
Brief Reviews including Raymond Federman and Iain Sinclair