I encounter some strange and engaging short stories

The Fat Man in History ****
By Peter Carey

"The Fat Man in History" contains 10 dystopian/sci fi/fantasy short stories connected loosely by theme and recurring images, especially the color blue--blue sheets, blue birds, blue fingernails, blue hands, blue bucket. (Coincidentally, Fernando Botero, one of my favorite artists, painted a fat man in a blue suit; click on the pic to go to Botero's home page.)

Some stories pick up on some aspect of modern life (or life as it was in 1970s when the stories were written) and follow its trajectory to a worst-case scenario. Thus in the title story, fat people are scapegoated in a post-revolutionary society as symbols of the selfishness, sloth, and greed of the old materialistic regime. A group of fat men plot to rebel by living down to societal expectations and eating their tormentors. They are egged on by a lissome rent collector, with secret purposes of her own.

Other stories examine the tensions between social order and chaos. In "The Puzzling Nature of Blue," a bureaucrat suggests that some dangerous amphetamines--one of its milder side effects is turning the extremities blue--be stored in a heavily guarded warehouse on an isolated island populated by natives nobody cares about (think Bikini Atoll). When the bureaucrat finds himself on the island, he discovers that the island's indigenous leaders all have blue hands, and that the warehouse has affected the island’s power structure in unexpected ways.

In "The Chance," the alien Fastalogians come to Earth and set up a lottery (whence the title) wherein Earthlings can change their appearance and physical capabilities, but without any guarantee that that change will make them better. Great for the Fastas, since nobody is ever satisfied with the transformation, and that means they buy more Chances (sorta like people hooked on plastic surgery). Enter the Hups, a group of rich and beautiful people out to use the Chance to turn themselves into physical grotesques, thus extolling the ugly and changing prevailing aesthetics about beauty.

A few of the stories seem designed to be more evocative than comprehensible, like a dream or a nightmare you can't shake. In "Peeling,” a man on the dole fantasizes about his eccentric female neighbor, who buys dolls, pokes out their eyes, shaves their heads and covers them in white paint. (I briefly thought it would be kind of cool to buy up rummage sale dolls and try this, a yen I found both compelling and creepy.) The woman also wears many layers of clothing, which, when peeled away, hide unexpected hidden layers. Clearly, the story is meant to explore the nature of fantasy and sexual idealism. But there are darker tones of sexual predation and death.

Generally a refreshing and challenging read.