Down to a Sunless Sea contains some bits and pieces in the life of a boy named Adam. A boy with a lot of phobias, a boy afraid to grow up, a boy who one day deafened with no physical reason (and healed miraculously after a time). I liked the way the author showed the reader the path to Adam’s psyche, the connections from cause to effect. I have also liked the title very much, I see it as a symbol of the journey we take into Adam’s “sunless” corners of mind.

I’ll Make It, I Think is the touching story of a boy with some serious physical deformities and his way of coping with the situation. Among other things he gave names to the body parts that troubled him the most – I saw in this manner of personification a tentative of shunning them, of projecting them outside the self – somewhat like considering them some roommates someone is stuck with: not to be rid of but not defining for the personality either.

The Chatham Bear is a story about wilderness – the one outside a community, the one within and how differently people treat these two. The wilderness outside is illustrated by a bear – everyone considers it a menace to be gotten rid of, an alien, not belonging in any way to the life those people wanted for themselves. At the same time though there are some manifestations of “wilderness” in the very heart of society: a large dog mauls a smaller one, a man intentionally burns a woman’s skin. Not only these manifestations frighten no one though, but almost nobody sees anything notable in them – they’re taken as normal parts of a normal civilized life. A paradox and a sort of irony.

Herbie is about a boy (obviously named Herbie) whose family was bordering on the edge of dysfunctional. Son of an aggressive father, Herbie needs to feel appreciated and accepted. When his father teaches him to shine shoes in a particular manner, with lots of attention to detail, Herbie wants to set up a shoe shining business, so that his father will see what a brilliant pupil he is – and appreciate him. He fails miserably though – leaving the reader to feel really sorry for him.

Alabaster is the story of an old lady, survivor of the Holocaust. She was but a little girl, I’m thinking six or seven, when the Nazi came and shattered her life to pieces, suddenly putting and end to her childhood. Many years after, now a frail old woman, the lady still wonders about her missed experiences (how it’s like to go to school, how it’s like to be nine). I have found this an extremely sad story but an excellent idea to have written about.

Juan Peron’s Hands is an incursion in the mind of the Argentinian guy who has stolen Peron’s hands, both because he saw in them a symbol of what Peron had done to his people (“Like umbrellas to shield us, his hands enveloped us, placed us in shadow, anointed us fools.“) and because he saw cutting Peron’s hands off as the best way of neutering him. One would perhaps expect such story to be creepier, but it isn’t (or perhaps it is but I was too curious too see what happens next to actually notice). I sort of liked this story, I found it a bit amusing to see the meanings the thief attached to those… objects. Oh, and I have also found amusing the way he kept referring to Eva not by her name but as “the blonde one”. Not in the least I’d be really curious to know whether or not the reasons of the actual guy who had actually stolen real life Peron’s hands were alongside the ones Freese mentioned here. They do seem pretty plausible to me.

Little Errands is about a guy suffering perhaps from a mild form of OCD, always going lengths to make sure everything in his life is in order and worrying when things get out of his reach and he has to depend on others. He reminded me (had to) of the character played in As Good As It Gets by Jack Nicholson. Here’s a quote about his way of thinking, one I have found quite explanatory: “This extra expenditure of energy does deplete me mentally; but the added joy of knowing for certain that I have completed an action and ordered my life somewhat gives me pleasure“.

Arnold Schwartzenegger’s Father Was a Nazi is a short story written in ‘91 where the author pokes fun at the Arnie back then. He tries to explain Arnie’s rigidness by the fact that he was raised the tough way by a father who tried to build his character by some less than orthodox means. I really couldn’t stop smiling at the confidence the Arnie back then feels about his future (“I might even run for president”), which makes Freese a bit of a prophet, given that about 15 years later after the story was published Arnie actually run for a political office (and got it too, accent or no accent) :)

Echo is trying to explore the way our childhood experiences “echo” in our adult life. It is the story of Jon, who as a kid has gone through a separation both unimportant and very important to him (unimportant in terms of the person he was losing – a little girl he will soon forget almost all about; very important in terms of psychological effects, as it was his very first drama and for some reason it had very deep effects on him, leaving him forever with an inability to attach himself to others.

Young Man is a short incursion in the mind of a man passionated by philosophy, especially the Chinese one. I don’t know if my impression was a correct one, but I thought he sort of kept his thoughts in the completely wrong sphere, sort of losing contact with the realities surrounding him such as his wife and daughter.

Nicholas was an amusing story written by the title character (bad spelling and all), about how he doesn’t like English, how school’s not actually useful in real life, and his mixed feelings for his female teacher. He’s not a bad boy at all though, he’s just a little stubborn about things he does not like nor understand why he needs them for. Quote I liked: “I have yet to see a tombstone with a readin level on it. It all comes down to doin a good job.“

Billy’s Mirrored Wall tells us about the differences in how we relate to another one’s possessions as kids and as adults. Because that’s what Billy’s mirrored wall is in the narrator’s eyes, a most prized and impressive possession. As a kid he felt somehow enhanced by it, somehow sharing its glory even if it belonged to someone else (“I knew a boy who had a mirrored wall“). Everything is not felt the same in the adult world though: the kid’s mother thinks he’s envious and somehow shares this envy too. He himself will share this envy growing up (what does he have that I don’t, why does he deserve more). It’s a sad story about how we lose the innocence of youth and what twisted beings we became in time.

Unanswerable is yet another story about how the human psyche works and how affected in can be by childhood events. It’s about a boy whose father tried to teach him to swim by throwing him in deep water and leaving him there, scaring him and scarring him forever. “In this condensed point he shattered all trust I had garnered for my fellow human beings [...] We are all alone, the lesson taught. And trust does not exist.“. We then find the child years later, now a grown up, still trying to deal with it, still trying to understand why his father did this to him, what his reasons must have been. It’s a scary story in a way because I cannot help feeling his father’s intentions weren’t actually mean – he just made a mistake. If not this precise father, I imagine a lot others made it. Amazing to see how huge an effect can such a gesture have.

For a While, Here, In This Moment is a story both touching, a bit scary, and at the same time sort of explanatory (as in “oh, so this is what it feels like”) about a guy with (probably) a cerebral illness that affects his memories and the way he relates to his own self (“I am at the point that I can not remind me of me.[...] I wake up with a strange person in the bed with me. I never find out if it’s me before he leaves. I don’t imagine anymore. What is that, anyway? I have lost my ‘I’“). I have absolutely loved how Freese described the guy’s feelings, one can almost understand them and relate to them, seemingly illogical and unattainable for a normal human being as they are. I don’t wish to live them, of course, but I am happy to have seen a glimpse of how such man’s mind works. Loved the title too.

Mortise and Tenon tells us of the time Edward spent with her mother visiting museums and enjoying art… well, the type or art she liked. She did tend to impose her tasted to her little boy and, in the light of what I read so far, I couldn’t help wondering how this will affect his way of relating to things as a grown-up.

On the whole I have really enjoyed Freese’s way of writing, the way he manages to tell a meaningful story in only a few pages, the way he shares with us some of what he knows about how the human mind works. Also, I was thrilled to discover some fresh and interesting ideas (for example the one in Alabaster or the one in The Chatham Bear).

What I liked most: I know I have just mentioned it but the idea behind Alabaster is my absolute favorite :)

What I liked least: I have to say I was too caught up in it to like something less – I have enjoyed it as a whole.

Recommend it? Yes, it’s a fast and interesting read.

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