A June Night in the Late Cenozoic

Robert Allen's new book of stories, A June Night in the Late Cenozoic (Oolichan) is full of near-worlds with dimensions that intersect the three (or is it four) that we navigate by in this world. A man wakes up to find the Gaza Strip being relocated in his back yard; Bluto ponders the significance of his life with Popeye and Olive Oyl; a young man rebuilds butterflies on the kitchen table. These stories are constructed like prisms: they bend the light. Allen writes in the near-tradition of the 17th century metaphysicals by way of Jorge Luis Borges and Donald Barthelme. Great titles too, like "Retsina on Venus"; "The Indigo Hotel"; "Thoume Kene Kimte Cacounche."