The Hospital for Bad Poets

In the opening story to Hallman’s debut story collection, the average man is having a rough go of it. That’s a literal statement: The hero of the story is “the average man,” who can’t help but think, “I’m not what I used to be.” He goes to the doctor, who is pleased by his averageness but of no help. So in lieu of medical attention, he enters into a strange and byzantine maze of self-help, guided by a man calling himself The Maestro.

There’s something decidedly old-fashioned about Hallman’s stories. At times, he’s formally inventive, but the way he wrestles directly with ideas reminds us of authors like Kafka or Gogol. In “Ethan: A Love Story,” the narrator visits the gated community where his parents now live. The scene is fairly typical for treatment of this type of community in fiction: hyper-sterilized and falsely green, with an undercurrent of menace. Sexual, familial and international politics all naturally come to a head in one of the best video-game action sequences to appear in fiction.

With stories titled “Autopoiesis for the Common Man,” “Epiphenomenon,” and “The History of Riddles,” Hallman is clearly working in brainy territory. But even when he’s more interested in the concepts than the people, he’s having enough fun for all of us. “Double Entendre” is the best example, in which a racy short story is interrupted mid-paragraph by a scholar of erotic fiction. When the two characters finally have a chance to consummate their story, the scholar ponders, “Much in the same way orgasms can have different levels of intensity, so can erotic writing. But in writing, unlike orgasms, it’s not the intensity of the climax that changes.” It’s a bit of a buzzkill, sure, but Hallman’s trying to push some other buttons.—Jonathan Messinger

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