Order OUR BLOOD IN ITS BLIND CIRCUIT here
Detective Jack Martell couldn't remember if he killed Anthony Rodriguez or if he was just really happy that he was dead.
If cheap prices and the possibility of home cooking has made methamphetamine popular with addicts and lost souls, BREAKING BAD has made it popular with authors. What's also interesting about it is that it's a drug that also comes with its own socio-economic landscape and fiends that mildly resemble zombies. J. David Osborne is one of many authors that writes about meth, but unlike the majority he's not obsessed with it. It's only one factor in the complex, subtle and colliding universes he created in OUR BLOOD IN ITS BLIND CIRCUIT, his first short story collection. They are told in a strong and cohesive voice that'll draw and invisible and intangible line between the stories.
My favourite story in OUR BLOOD IN ITS BLIND CIRCUIT was THREE THEORIES ON THE MURDER OF JOHN WILY, which was the first example of J. David Osborne's warm and colloiquial storytelling that had a little breathing room. Think of it as if the character of Sam Elliot in THE BIG LEBOWSKI was narrating a grim story with a jagged edge of gallows humor, about the murder of a backwoods criminal. The folktale vibe of Osborne's narration contrasting with the stark nature of the story's content created something truly original and hilarious while not devoid of emotional depth. I would easily have read an entire novel about poor John Wily meeting his maker.
''Why are you gay? I could lick it better than any dyke, swear it.''
Had she chosen to hit him, or mace him, it would not have been John Wily's first time. He spent the better part of sixteen spraying himself with mace, every day, usually just after breakfast, with the intention of immunizing himself.
J. David Osborne is very apt at keeping the same themes rolling through his stories even if he doesn't obsess over them. They are often implied or suggested. One of main recurring subjects is the subterranean layer below our reality. I don't know if it has a name, but it's more directly drawn in the title story and in another favourite of mine called IMPRINTING, where a police detective has difficulties recollecting the memories of a drug dealer's murder. The events imply the supernatural and events that cannot be explained within the boundaries of our reality. I guess you could call J. David Osborne's stories a fascinating compromise between magic realism and southern gothic.
I always explain the conundrum of short story collections like this: there are two kinds of collections, flea markets and sample sales. Same are selling random objects in which you might have no interest at all, and the other are selling a cohesive range of objects in order get you interested. Not every story in OUR BLOOD IN ITS BLIND CIRCUIT is a success, but they all a reflect J. David Osborne's commanding authorial voice in one way or another. Even if the stories range from westerns to crime and speculative fiction, I like to believe they all happened within the same world which J. David Osborne has complete command over. OUR BLOOD IN ITS BLIND CIRCUIT is a gateway to a dark and wonderful world on the fringe of several genres.
