The first–and longest–story in this issue is Wilde in Omaha by Ron Hansen. Unfortunately, I only got a few pages into it because personally, I don’t like fiction based on reality. I know, all fiction is based on reality, but this was taking the actual historical figure of Oscar Wilde and presenting him in an interview situation with the narrator. So I didn’t finish it because of this weird feeling I get towards something that is just not true, even when presented as fiction.
The next story is Rapture, by Jane Barnes, and it is about a lesbian relationship between two women, and how it in particular, affects the older woman’s life and marriage. It’s rather sensitive and written well enough, but I’m not sure it got into the woman’s mind enough to give us a feel for her relationships other than what she thought of herself. And the ending was strange, focusing on decisions made after looking at a dead, eviscerated skunk.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology