synopsis
The macabre maestro of the modern age has arrived, and he takes the form of Michael Cisco: a man whose stories reek of the putrescent pulp of yesteryear, revitalized and tailored to suit our problematic times. They are not just observation pieces or expressions of nihilism for the sake of sulking. His warped Poe-esque tales are a literary Rubik’s Cube, where even beauty can be found in the disarray of colors. You can never really be sure of your place because you’re always on shaky ground. And it’s up to you to move the blocks to find your way out…if you’ve got the guts to persevere.
How much of what we perceive is real and how much is imagined? ‘Altar! Altar!’ and ‘All Aftermath’ give credence to the idea that what we see is not necessarily what exists. For much of it is simply perception, like a hypnotic dream we never wake from because the dream may just be our conscious life.
Signs of a haunted past factor into ‘Infestations,’ ‘Learn to Kill,’ and ‘Rock ’n’ Roll Death Squad.’ The characters in these stories find no comfort in a past they cannot outrun. Not because they don’t have the strength or because they’ve given up, but because they’re resigned to a future that already exhibits the scars of reprisal.
Feel the claustrophobic miasma of commuter life in ‘Modern Cities Exist Only to be Destroyed.’ You’ll find it to be a straphanger’s delight! And you’ll feel every bit as trapped in ‘Rot Ark’ where the voices pile up in your head like garbage bags, blocking all rational thought or any attempt to flee a body that never obliges.
Love can be a labyrinth with many pathways and many wrong turns. Enter the title story’s ‘Visiting Maze’ and bear the albatross that may bring you closer to your partner but further from love. And if closeness is still what you’re missing, ‘The Tumor is Speaking’ will burden you with that internal ‘friend’ to kick you up the back side. Though, for all the perspective it offers, you may also be bound to its every whim.
Highly interpretative and deeply unsettling, the stories in Michael Cisco’s Visiting Maze and Other Quandaries will make you feel like you’re floating through the banks of a murky river, winding through dense fog where there’s no shoreline to dock. Venture far enough and you won’t be able to look back and see around the bend. For Cisco has managed to thwart all efforts, pushing far into a void where escape is futile unless you’re prepared to go all the way.
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