Ed Park (Same Bed Different Dreams) writes books that are easy to love and hard to define. His writing is hilarious but also serious; chaotic while still cohesive; irreverent and earnest all at once. The short stories in An Oral History of Atlantis are not linked, not exactly, but characters do recur, and the whole thing hangs together like an ensemble cut from the same cloth. The stories maintain an odd kind of continuity, making the collection highly satisfying.
Park upholds a deadpan delivery even in the most absurd of situations. Not every story is openly funny, but they all create an unexpected alchemy of droll humor, detached irony, and serious reflection. A narrator of one story suggests to his father that they chat online, but his father ignores the invitation while continuing to post on Facebook. He asks, "Doesn't he know I can see them? Doesn't he know I'm his friend?" This sense of longing for something just out of reach is the thread that binds Park's stories--to each other and to the reader. --Sara Beth West, freelance reviewer and librarian