Charles D'Ambrosio's short stories (The Dead Fish Museum) have been described as elliptical, skewered, melancholic. These adjectives could apply to his essays as well. Some of Loitering's 17 pieces come from an earlier collection, Orphans, which (because of the limited print run) was essentially lost. No longer. Readers can once again fully experience D'Ambrosio's unusual and idiosyncratic mind.
His preface lays out his own assessment of his "scrappy, incondite" essays. Writing one is a form of loitering--a "lingering, a skulking, a meandering" with intent. His works mix fact, autobiography, story and feelings. "Seattle, 1974" explores his hometown and the sense of isolation it imparted upon him. The title essay, also focused on Seattle, delves into a night's "dreamy drama" that leaves him all alone, "loitering." The "mythopoeia of my family" in "Whaling out West" is arrived at by way of the Makah Indians (who still hunt whales), a Coleman lantern and p*ssing in the ocean.
For something a little different, there's "Casting Stones," about his experience sitting in the courtroom during the Mary Kay Letourneau trial (the teacher was convicted of raping her 12-year-old former student). He includes assessments of the careers of Richard Brautigan, J.D. Salinger (he told us what it "feels like to feel too much") and Richard Hugo. One piece chronicles his visit to an orphanage in Russia and another a Pentecostal "haunted house" in Texas where one can visually experience "sins" and their consequences. These essays merge a supple, sensitive mind with personal prose that surprises like sparks from a Roman candle. --Tom Lavoie, former publisher